Best Free File Recovery Software for 2024: G2 Picks Top 8

You’ve just finished a project, only for your computer to crash and wipe out all your files. Or, you accidentally deleted important client data, paralyzing business operations. Whether you're an IT professional or a student stressing over a final, lost file, erased documents, or missing financial records will turn your world upside down.

Free file recovery software serves as a digital safety net when you want affordable tools to retrieve or repair lost information. This article compares the best free file recovery platforms and explains their features, strengths, and weaknesses to help you find the best one. 

How did we select and evaluate the best file recovery software?

At G2, we rank software solutions using a proprietary algorithm that considers customer satisfaction and market presence according to authentic user reviews. Our market research analysts and writers spend weeks testing solutions against multiple criteria set for a software category. We give you unbiased software evaluations – that's the G2 difference! We don’t accept payment or exchange links for product placements in this list. Please read our G2 Research Scoring Methodology for more details.

8 best free file recovery software in 2024

File recovery or file repair software helps you retrieve or repair lost or damaged information by reconnecting the components of deleted files to restore them. Individuals, IT professionals, and business owners rely on these file recovery systems to retrieve data they may have accidentally deleted. 

The list below has genuine user reviews from the best file recovery software category page on G2. Please note that within the context of this list, software that requires payment after a free trial is considered free. 

To be included in this category, a solution must:

• Provide tools to repair files or recover deleted files
• Offer an interface to help navigate and select files for recovery
• Rebuild or reconstruct desired files

This data was pulled from G2 in 2024. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity.

1. Veeam Data Platform

Veeam Data Platform helps businesses safeguard data across cloud, physical, and hybrid environments. This platform delivers secure data backup, which minimizes downtime in case of loss or disaster. Besides detecting harmful backup activities, it also automates data recovery with low-impact testing and tailored orchestration. 

What users like best:

"Veeam Data Platform is simple and effective for backups and restoring stuff. As someone super into building mobile apps, I've gotten a lot of good use out of it. Setting up backups is easy, and scheduling them to run automatically is clutch since I don't have to babysit constantly. The portal makes checking on stuff smooth, too."

- Veeam Data Platform Review, Jatindra D.

What users dislike:

"While basic functions are straightforward, mastering some more advanced features can require significant time and effort. This learning curve might be a hurdle for less experienced IT staff."

- Veeam Data Platform Review, Renaldo B.

2. Veeam Backup for AWS

Veeam Backup for AWS offers native, policy-based protection services to help companies recover data in case of accidental deletion, data loss, and ransomware. The platform leads with application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow businesses to create immutable backups and file-level restores. Users can also use powerful options to meet near-zero recovery time objectives and service level agreements. 

What users like best:

"I have been using Veeam Backup for AWS for several months now, and I am thoroughly impressed with its performance and ease of use. The solution provides comprehensive backup and recovery capabilities for our AWS workloads, enabling us to protect our critical data and applications confidently.

I particularly appreciate the solution's flexibility and scalability, allowing us to customize our backup policies and scale our backup infrastructure as needed. Overall, I highly recommend Veeam Backup for AWS to any organization looking for a reliable and efficient cloud-native backup and disaster recovery solution."

- Veeam Backup for AWS Review, Shagun B.

What users dislike:

"While Veeam Backup for AWS provides comprehensive backup and recovery capabilities for AWS workloads, I found its usability to be quite challenging. The interface can be complex and not very intuitive, which made it difficult for me to perform basic tasks such as configuring backup policies."

- Veeam Backup for AWS Review, Shagun B.

3. Arcserve UDP

Arcserve UDP’s all-in-one data protection solution integrates backup, disaster recovery, and data management capabilities. Mid-market and enterprise businesses rely on it to protect data and minimize downtime over cloud, virtual, and physical environments. Other features include global deduplication, advanced encryption, and automatic disaster recovery testing. 

What users like best:

"Immutable backups and granular restores are among its most helpful modules. Overall, Arcserve UDP is a good choice for businesses that need a comprehensive data protection solution. It is easy to use, reliable, and provides good ransomware protection."

- Arcserve UDP Review, Felipe R.

What users dislike:

"Arcserve UDP may not be fully compatible with all hardware and software platforms, and some organizations may need to take additional steps to ensure compatibility with their existing IT infrastructure. "

- Arcserve UDP Review, Prasanth V.

4. Cove Data Protection

Cove Data Protection is a cloud-first backup and disaster recovery platform that protects servers, workstations, and Microsoft 365 data. It lets organizations guard critical data across multiple environments from one multi-tenant dashboard. Cove Data Protection uses data centers worldwide to isolate information from local networks and keep backups in the region. 

What users like best:

"The user interface is very nice and easy to use. No reboots are needed when installing the agents, and they are not limited to the storage size of a local appliance. Customer service is good as there are different options and good response times."

- Cove Data Protection Review, Darius L.

What users dislike:

"The passphrase and security key have different names in different places. When selecting a point-in-time restore, the selection screens change (just be careful to double check before you start). I'm not a huge fan of the restore-to creating the directory structure starting with the source drive letter."

- Cove Data Protection Review, Kevin M.

5. CrashPlan

Enterprises use CrashPlan’s automatic endpoint backup solution to ensure data resilience and protection. The platform provides unlimited backup capacity so users can store sensitive information without worrying about running out of space. It also keeps data in transit and at rest safe with encryption. Other features include dashboards for monitoring backup status, custom deployment, automatic provisioning, self-service, and admin restores.  

What users like best:

“Numerous times, our users have had a device completely blue screen or crash, and even the most unusual event – a laptop falling out of a suitcase on a runway and being run over by an airplane! If CrashPlan had not been installed on those devices, we would not have been able to easily and seamlessly restore the data for lost, damaged, or stolen devices.

CrashPlan also makes it easy for our institution to do device life cycling, allowing our computer tech team to select specific data and transfer it to the new device in the same location. Before CrashPlan, lifecycles were complicated, and data transfer was painful."

- CrashPlan Review, Rebekah D.

What users dislike:

"The documentation hub can be centralized and cleaned up, making items easier to find and better organized."

- CrashPlan Review, Adrien B.

6. Acronis Cyber Protect 

Acronis Cyber Protect offers solid backup and file recovery solutions for cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Features like continuous data protection, backup notarization, and secure file sync and sharing do their part to keep user data safe. The platform’s advanced disaster recovery capabilities help companies bounce back fast from catastrophic events so operations continue uninterrupted. 

What users like best:

"We have been using Acronis Cyber Protect for multiple clients, and managing all the endpoints and servers of different clients under a single dashboard is convenient. The interface is very user friendly, and the connectivity with the agent deployed on endpoints is pretty good regarding real-time monitoring."

- Acronis Cyber Protect Review, Raj B.

What users dislike:

"The costing didn't make sense. If you have 500 GB of data, you need around 1.2 TB of backup storage. Otherwise, it would get stuck, and your backups would fail. The full backups would take very long."

- Acronis Cyber Protect Review, Warren S.

7. HYCU

HYCU’s advanced software discovery and visualization capabilities empower businesses to design tailored backup solutions. This platform features application-consistent backup, simplifies hybrid and multi-cloud data management, and offers agentless disaster recovery. Other highlights include cross-platform data mobility, ransomware protection, and data privacy. 

What users like best:

"The HYCU support team knows their product and can help and resolve issues quickly. The onboarding was easy to follow and guided us through the implementation of the product to back up our Atlassian instances. The features are also interesting compared to other products on the market. Overall, it is a very easy-to-use solution that works efficiently and does what we ask."

- HYCU Review, Jonathan B.

What users dislike:

"HYCU sometimes can encounter bugs and failed backups. HYCU support has been responsive, but sometimes, if there is a service, API, or Azure error, it is difficult to pinpoint the reason for a failure."

- HYCU Review, Will F.

8. AvePoint Multi-SaaS Cloud Backup

AvePoint Multi-SaaS Cloud Backup is a comprehensive backup and restore solution that supports platforms like Office 365, Exchange, Azure Virtual Machines, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and AWS Virtual Machines. It uses industry-standard encryption protocols to keep backups secure. Other features include efficient restore options, a user-friendly interface, and consistent data protection. 

What users like best:

"Once a schedule is set up for backup, it continues backing up Microsoft 365 documents on its own, based on certain rules (if we want to), and that is the best thing about AvePoint Multi-SaaS Cloud Backup. I could even set up multiple backups in a day at different intervals to ensure that the frequency matched the updated file schedules by different remotely located teams within our organization. If there was any failure, an email alert was automatically received, along with a solution."

- AvePoint Multi-SaaS Cloud Backup Review, Anirban S.

What users dislike:

"The built-in reporting capabilities seem to lack depth and comprehensive insights. That is not to say it is ineffective, but improvements could definitely be made to the upgrades. More integration options would also be highly appreciated."

- AvePoint Multi-SaaS Cloud Backup Review, Sankhadeep D.

Comparison of the best free file recovery software 

Still unsure which free file recovery software is best for your data backup needs? Consider comparing their free plans and pricing options before getting started.

Frequently asked questions on best free file recovery software

Q. What is the best free file recovery software?

A. Veeam Data Platform is the best free file recovery solution based on G2 data. 

Q. How does file recovery software work?

A. When a file is deleted, the operating system marks the space occupied by the file as available for new data, but does not immediately erase the file's contents. The actual data remains on the disk until new data overwrites it. File recovery software searches for these marked spaces to recover the data.

Q. Is free file recovery software safe to use?

A. Free file recovery software can be safe to use if you choose a reputable and well-reviewed tool. Before using it, evaluate the platform’s reputation, encryption features, and security update frequency.

Prevent setbacks before they occur

File recovery platforms help you recover data from hardware failures, software glitches, and human errors. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses allows you to test different options before deciding on one that meets your specific needs. Also, evaluate the availability of regular updates and community support to prevent setbacks before they occur. Regular product updates ensure your system stays stable by fixing bugs and patching security vulnerabilities. And when official support isn't available, community support is there to guide you through any issues. 

Looking to secure sensitive business information? Check out the top data loss prevention software for data protection and data leak prevention.