It works with all major Windows and Apple file systems, too, and even popular Linux file systems. It works with hard disks, SSDs, storage cards, flash drives and optical media, and works with lots of popular digital cameras. That’s a solid start, and PhotoRec impresses elsewhere.

If you’re unsure whether PhotoRec can find your lost photography, there’s an online analysis tool that will tell you if this app can find the media – head here to upload another file with the same format and give it a try (opens in new tab). If you drill down towards photography, you’ll find recovery capability for every mainstream imaging file, RAW files, and files from big imaging businesses like Adobe, Olympus, Apple, Nikon and Canon. This app can recover files from nearly 500 different formats, which is a broader range of support than some paid products offer. Almost every free and paid photo recovery app looks sleeker and more sophisticated.ĭon’t judge PhotoRec by its interface, though – and concentrate on the features instead. Load this tool and you’ll be greeted by an interface that looks like it should be at home on an older version of Windows. There’s no getting around a particular elephant in the room when it comes to PhotoRec: this is not a good-looking or modern application.

A very basic range of features, albeit with decent file format support.

Photorec free download