PhotoRec vs RecoverHelper
PhotoRec
cgsecurity.org
RecoverHelper
recoverhelper.comSide by side
| Figure | PhotoRec | RecoverHelper |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Data recovery software | 8.7 (#11) | 8.5 (#18) |
| Spec score · Photo recovery software | 8.6 (#8) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Photo Recovery Software | 8.3 (#12) | 8.4 (#10) |
| File systems | The page lists FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4, and HFS+ among file systems from which PhotoRec can recover files. | The site lists NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, exFAT, APFS and HFS+ support, with MBR and GPT partition tables. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | The maker lists Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Sun Solaris, and Mac OS X, and says PhotoRec can be compiled on almost every Unix system. | The download page lists Windows 10/11 and macOS 64-bit desktop versions, plus an Android app for Android 8.0 or newer. |
| Privacy | CGSecurity says TestDisk and PhotoRec do not connect to the Internet or send information about the user, computer, or data. | The maker says the desktop app sends no scan results, file contents, filenames, or metadata to its servers; pairing sends a token and hashed machine ID. |
| Safety | PhotoRec uses read-only access to the drive or memory card being recovered, and the maker says recovered files must not be written to the same partition. | The source drive is opened read-only, and the app requires recovered files to be saved to a different drive. |
| Support | Users can seek help on the PhotoRec forum, send suggestions to the developer, or submit a bug report. | Support is provided by email and the site publishes numerous step-by-step recovery guides. |
| Supported formats | It searches for known file headers and recognizes more than 480 file extensions across about 300 file families. | The site lists support for more than 30 formats, including photos, camera RAW, video, audio, documents, and archives. |
Plans
In their own words
PhotoRec
PhotoRec is a free file recovery program for retrieving lost videos, documents, archives, and pictures from storage media and disk images. It searches the underlying data instead of relying on the file system, which can help after file-system damage or reformatting. It recognizes more than 480 file extensions across about 300 file families, and listed file systems include FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4, and HFS+.
Supported sources include hard disks, CD-ROMs, memory cards, USB drives, raw disk images, and EnCase E01 images. PhotoRec runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, DOS, several BSD systems, Solaris, and other Unix systems. It accesses the recovery drive or card in read-only mode; recovered files should go to a different partition. The portable download runs after extracting its archive, without an installer. QPhotoRec provides a graphical interface, while PhotoRec can also run from scripts or batch files with command-line options. The maker says it usually cannot recover original filenames and does not work well with ReiserFS.
RecoverHelper
RecoverHelper restores deleted photos, videos and other files from computer drives and removable storage. It offers Quick Scan, Deep Scan and Carving Only modes, and lists support for more than 30 formats across photos, camera RAW, video, audio, documents and archives. Supported sources include internal and external disks, SD and microSD cards, USB drives and digital cameras. On NTFS, it rebuilds original filenames and folders; on APFS, HFS+ and raw volumes, recovery is by signature without original names. The desktop app opens the source drive read-only and requires recovered files to be saved to another drive. Each scan produces a SHA-256 manifest, an HTML report with per-format statistics and a live hex visualizer. The maker says scan results, file contents, filenames and metadata are not sent to its servers; pairing sends a token and hashed machine ID. The software is free, with no paid tiers, subscriptions or license fees. JPG and PNG recover immediately; pairing the free mobile app unlocks other formats.