PhotoRec vs Windows File Recovery
PhotoRec
cgsecurity.orgWindows File Recovery
support.microsoft.comSide by side
| Figure | PhotoRec | Windows File Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Data recovery software | 8.7 (#11) | 8.0 (#41) |
| Spec score · Photo Recovery Software | 8.3 (#12) | 7.2 (#38) |
| Spec score · SD Card Recovery Software | 8.2 (#16) | 7.2 (#44) |
| File systems | The page lists FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4, and HFS+ among file systems from which PhotoRec can recover files. | The article describes support for NTFS, FAT, and exFAT file systems, with non-NTFS recovery supported only in Extensive mode. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Memory card recovery | Yes | Yes |
| Operating systems | Windows; Linux; macOS; DOS; FreeBSD; NetBSD; OpenBSD; Solaris; other Unix systems | Windows 10,Windows 11 |
| Recovery sources | hard disks; CD-ROMs; memory cards; USB memory drives; DD raw images; EnCase E01 images | internal drives,external drives,USB devices,SD cards,flash drives |
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.
Windows File Recovery
Windows File Recovery has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.