How to work with recuva program. How to use Recuva to restore and permanently delete files

Lost files. Accidentally deleted (got excited with Unlocker) or crashed operating system... it doesn't matter - they are not there and it's terrible. Hands shaking and don't know what to do? Calmly! You will be helped by severe free data recovery software called Recuva.

Recovering deleted files with the powerful but simple Recuva utility is a pleasure (a child can handle it). A few mouse clicks and even randomly formatted data will be returned. Main condition successful work data recovery software return them to the wrong disk from which they were lost, but on a flash drive, for example.

The manufacturer of this masterpiece needs no introduction - its products are such wonderful software as a computer cleaner from digital garbage CCleaner, as well as a powerful utility (collection / display detailed information computer components and operating system). This says it all - reliability and quality, in one bottle.

How to download and install Recuva

Size - 5.6 Mb. There are no viruses. Supported by all operating system versions Windows systems without exception.

As in the case of the Speccy utility (this morning I updated its review) - the installation process has changed a bit (compared to 2011 🙂). I had to almost completely rewrite the article here with the replacement of screenshots.

We downloaded the installer and started installing the data recovery program, in detail, step by step and in pictures ...

We are not in a hurry - we rearrange the dot if parallel installation"Vacuum cleaner" CCleaner is not included in your plans and look into the advanced installation settings (under the orange link button) ...

... drop by the "Sea" too - it's summer after all ...

Now the sincere "Install" and run the restorer ...

By the way, we got a desktop shortcut if we ordered it during installation…

Recovering deleted files

Everything is clear, logical and in Russian...

Put a tick on the desired file and click "Restore" or click the button on the arrow ...

I repeat - do not restore data to where they were lost!

Try Recuva - I personally returned 160 GB of data accidentally deleted with it! True, I ran with flash drives between computers all day.

Here she is - useful program Recuva. Recovering deleted files with its help is a pleasure. Patience to you.

There were questions left - an uncle unfamiliar to me in a full detailed video review of the program answered all possible ones. 🙂

USEFUL VIDEO

I only review programs! Any claims - to their manufacturers!

Every user personal computer at least once in my life I performed manipulations with the movement of various files in memory. They can be transferred, copied or deleted, but it also happens that such operations are performed by accident. You can mistakenly delete a useful file and then grieve about its loss, or you can use specialized utility to recover deleted objects and correct your oversight.

Important Features

Despite the fact that the program is available to everyone for free, its capabilities are quite wide. With Recuva, you can not only restore objects deleted on your computer, but also return files on damaged media to use. Flash drives often fail at the most inopportune moment, when there is a lot left on them. useful documents or photographs, and it becomes impossible to remove them from there. Just in such a situation, the application in question can help. Improves usability by being able to restore only specific content without extra effort. Recuva is also capable of the reverse action of recovery, or rather complete removal unnecessary files, which then can not be returned. It will easily restore files, provided that the sector in which they were stored was not overwritten. This is due to the fact that when you delete objects in the trash, they actually remain in place, they are simply now defined as invisible to the system. This is done by adding a dollar sign to the file name at the beginning, that's the whole secret.

Program installation

To start using the application, you need to install it on your computer device using the installation wizard. All steps are quite clear and simple for most users and do not cause unnecessary questions. The program "weighs" a little, so it will not interfere with the operation of other applications even when installed in the system partition. In order not to carry out the installation, you can use portable application, which is also called Recuva. It, like the installation one, is completely Russified and intuitive to operate.

Features of the stationary program

When you install file recovery software on your computer, an additional line will appear in the Recycle Bin drop-down menu, with which you can immediately open the application and start working with it. You can activate it and in a standard way through a shortcut or the Start menu, here everyone chooses the most convenient option for themselves. It is important to understand that the program is able to recover only those files that have been placed in the "Recycle Bin" and nothing else. In case of permanent deletion of objects by changing system settings or a combination of Shift keys+ Del will not work.

Using the Recovery Program

To get started, you need to activate the program in any convenient way from those described above. This will open the welcome window and the main workspace. Here you should select the types of files that you want to recover. To obtain full list of all objects, you can select all types, but then you have to wait a long time for the scan to finish. If you immediately know which files you need to return, then it is better to select them, for example, text documents, music or archives. When the choice is made, it is necessary to continue working by pressing the appropriate key. Now the user needs to specify the primary location desired file on disk. If this is not possible, then there is an option to use the scan of all sections. After selection, the process starts and it remains only to wait for its completion. The opened list of objects will be marked with green, yellow and red colors. They determine the possibility of recovery. Complete, partial or impossible at all, respectively.

File Recovery

In the list that appears, select the necessary objects by marking them with checkboxes and start the recovery process with the button in the lower right corner of the program's working window. Here you should also determine the place where the recovered files will be saved and, after activating the process, wait for it to finish. Depending on the complexity and number of selected documents, a lot of time may be required.

Reverse possibility

After scanning for the possibility of returning certain objects, the user can also select those that he no longer needs and delete them permanently. Not everyone may know about this, but the process is as simple as the previous one. Selecting all junk files you should call the drop-down menu with the right mouse button and select secure removal in it. Now these files cannot be restored and found. You can use it to cross out from the list of found red positions that cannot be returned anyway.

conclusions

Most users speak of the Recuva file recovery program rather warmly, but in fact it also has a number of disadvantages. The main one is that almost all deleted video files, especially large ones, cannot be recovered at all. That is, the program always marks them in red, which means that the mistakenly deleted movie can no longer be watched, except to download it again. Videos with a short duration can still be restored, but also not always, so do not be too hopeful. Musical compositions are also not particularly liked by the application and it restores them reluctantly. All other formats often do not have problems with return, provided that they are in the list of supported ones. The fact is that if the program does not define some format, then it will not see it at all and it will not appear in the list at all. So we can conclude that Recuva is fully consistent with its freeware and works in a similar way. If the user needs to return an important object with high quality and with a guarantee, then it is better to opt for a more professional package. This is especially true when working with removable media.

Probably, many have encountered a situation where the necessary files were deleted randomly or during system failures. Nobody is immune from this. But what to use for quick recovery files? In this regard, the free Recuva program, which has unique algorithms and capabilities, is perfect. Let's consider its use in as much detail as possible.

Program for Recuva: main features

The most important thing is that this is not just an application allowing from the "Recycle Bin". This program to recover files, it can search for them and perform operations even if it scans problematic or damaged media (hard drives, flash drives, MP3 players, cameras, etc.).

At the same time, not to mention the possibility of restoring some specific content, the application also allows you to perform the so-called reliable deletion of unnecessary objects. The technologies used in it are based on the fact that when a file is deleted from the same "Recycle Bin", in fact, it does not go anywhere. The first character in its name is changed, replaced by a dollar sign ($), as a result of which standard means the operating system does not see such an object. If the sector in which the file was located was not overwritten, the recovery process will be elementary.

Recuva: how to use the installer?

First you need to install (integrate) the application into the system. The installer uses the standard "Master", which you need to follow the instructions. The program itself is small and does not take up much disk space.

If you do not perform a standard installation, you can use a portable utility with the same name. Both versions have a Russified interface, and do not cause any particular difficulties in use.

Integration into the Windows Recycle Bin menu

If the user has a stationary version of Recuva installed, how to use it will be clear if you look at the "Recycle Bin" menu, called by the right click.

Naturally, you can run the application through the main executable file EXE format or click on the program shortcut. However, the call through the "Recycle Bin" looks simpler (of course, provided that the deletion of objects was carried out through it, and not using special keyboard shortcuts like Shift + Del or changing the global settings of the "Recycle Bin" so that the object would not initially fit into it ).

Application Launch Options and File Type Selection

Let's move on to the practical application of the Recuva program. How to use this utility? Easy peasy. We launch the application in any of the above ways. After that, a welcome window of the "Recovery Wizard" is displayed. In it, press the continue button and proceed to the selection desired types objects.

The convenience is that you can select all files (scanning, however, will take longer), but you can apply only one type (music, video, email messages, archives, office documents, etc.).

After making your choice, press the continue button again, after which Recuva app for Windows prompts you to specify the original location of the deleted files. Here the trick is that the user can use the corresponding string if he does not remember exactly where the necessary objects were originally stored. Again, the scan will be performed on all available media, hard drives and logical partitions.

• green - full recovery is possible;
• yellow - there is a possibility of partial recovery;
• red - recovery is not possible.

Data recovery process

This process can take quite a long time, especially if too many objects are selected.

Deleting files with Recuva

Finally, one more feature of the application, which few people know about. In the scan results, you can mark unnecessary files that must be physically deleted from the hard drive or any other media.

Let's take a closer look at the Recuva utility. How to use this feature? It's also simple. We tick off the necessary objects, and then right-click to call an additional context menu, in which we use the secure deletion string. All marked objects will be deleted without the possibility of subsequent recovery.

Conclusion

Although many people believe that Recuva data recovery is better than other programs, one can disagree with this. For example, when scanning video files, the application often marks most of the found objects in red, which indicates the impossibility of recovery. No matter what anyone says, a full-length 1.5 GB movie cannot be restored. But there are no problems with short videos.

With other formats, the application works pretty well, except that music files can also not always be restored, and some objects that are not included in the list of supported formats are not displayed at all. In general, you can use the program as a free and fast tool. But if you need a professional approach to these processes, it's better to use packages like R-Studio (at least for removable memory cards used in mobile devices).

Probably, each user at least once had a situation when it was necessary to restore deleted files or vice versa, to reliably remove any information from "extra" eyes. If such information is contained in the Recycle Bin, then restoring it is a very simple process. Go to the Recycle Bin, find the desired file, select it, click “Restore” (the file will be moved from the Recycle Bin to the area of ​​the disk from where it was deleted), or “Cut” (you yourself determine where you paste it after removing it from the Recycle Bin).

Remember! Deleting files from removable USB drives bypasses the Recycle Bin, unlike the process of deleting data from hard drives and solid state drives.

With reliable deletion of files, things are a little more complicated. Here you can use instead standard deletion to the Recycle Bin, deleting a file using the Shift + Delete keys, but this method does not give a 100% guarantee. What can we say about the sad case when you need files that are no longer in the Recycle Bin.

What, are they lost forever??? Not at all. They can be restored with free program Recuva.

On the Internet, you can find many programs that allow you to recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin and securely delete files, and much more. Let's talk about one of these very useful programs.

You can download Recuva for free from the official website of the developer at this link.

This is a free utility from the British IT company Piriform Limited called Recuva. The program is a fairly powerful, but easy-to-manage tool for recovering data lost as a result of a crash or self-deleted by the user.

In addition to the free version of the program (the latest build has modification 1.52.186, size 4322 KB), you can also find other paid versions of the program on the developer's website http://www.piriform.com/recuva:

1. basic, standard, free version is intended for private use and offers an “advanced way to recover deleted files”.
2. Paid version Recuva Professional, costing 24.95 USD for professionals, boasts, in addition to an advanced method of recovering deleted files, the following features:
   • Support for the recovery of lost/damaged files recorded on the virtual disk,
   • Automatic update of the program version to the most advanced,
   • Support for work on recovering lost/damaged files at the Premium level (deep work).
3. Paid program ccleaner professional Plus, costing 39.95USD, is a package of 4 utilities: Recuva Professional, Ccleaner Professional, Defragler Professional, Speecy Professional, which, in addition to recovering lost / damaged data, allows you to defragment the disk to speed up the operating system, clean the system of unnecessary and unused files, organize registry cleaning , fine tuning and optimization of the system, etc.

It is also possible to download for free on the developer's website at this link portable version programs for using it on removable media - Recuva Portable.

How Recuva works

This program, after starting and selecting the analysis parameters, undertakes a scan hard drive in order to search for data about the files remaining in the system that are not visible to the system. The fact is that when deleting a file, the system removes its name from the user's eyes and the file becomes “invisible”, although it still takes some amount of memory for some time. The file cannot be restored by any means if the operating system writes a new file that is already visible to the user in place of this “invisibility”. That is, Recuva accesses the memory of the operating system and looks for invisible files.

System requirements for installing Recuva

The free utility Recuva is not demanding on system resources and can be installed on hard drives computers and laptops that meet the following system requirements: any operating system of the Windows family from 2000 onwards (XP, version 7, version 8 and 8.1, Vista on 32-bit and 64-bit platforms), about 15 MB of free disk space. By default, the program may prompt you to install additional options to improve convenience in work, such as Yahoo Toolbar. But, you can refuse it if you do not need it.

How to use the Recuva utility

Let's get acquainted with the work of the Recuva program using the free Russian version 1.38.54 in Windows 7 as an example.

Let's skip the simple process called "Installation" and move on to describing the operation of the program itself.

So, we launch the program by double-clicking the left mouse button on the program shortcut. At the same time, you allow the program to perform actions on this computer if the Windows security system asks you about it. The following window will appear.

As you can see, in this window you can set the ability to load the program every time you start the operating system. If you don't need it, don't check the box. Click Next.

In the dialog box that opens, Recuva prompts you to choose which type of files you want to recover. These can be: pictures (jpg, jpeg, etc.), sound files named “Music” for convenience (such as wav, mp3, mp4, etc.), Word documents and Excel (doc, docx, xls), video files (avi, mpg, etc.), compressed (data archive files (zip, rar, etc.)), files emails and other files (or files whose exact belonging to a certain format you do not know).

Let's choose, for example, “Documents”, by setting a dot opposite this inscription. We press the button " Next".

Here we need to decide where these files could be located.

This can be removable media (flash card, SD card, etc.), that is, “On a memory card” (without support for floppy disks and removable disks). Or the place where the deleted or corrupted files were kept could be the Recycle Bin or the My Documents folder. Also, you can specify here the path to a specific folder on a specific disk (this will significantly reduce the search and recovery time) or show the program that you do not know where the file was located (in this case, it will search in all disks and packs available to it on the computer ).

Set, for example, the condition - look for " At the specified location", setting the point in the appropriate place, click" Browse"and select our flash drive.

After selecting the desired option, go to the next window by clicking the “Next” button. The program will prompt the user to conduct an in-depth analysis. It will take ten times more time, but the result will be much better. After launching and using in-depth analysis, Recuva finds files completely deleted from the computer more than a year ago!!!

Let's try for now without in-depth analysis (it is performed according to the same algorithm as the simple one). We press the “Start” button. In the next dialog box, the program shows the progress of data analysis on each disk as a percentage. The program searched for deleted files from a flash drive in less than a second.

The files are indicated in the lines of the program report. Opposite each of them is the level of “health” of the file, namely:

• Red (unfortunately, the file is lost, and it will not be possible to restore it using the program),
• Yellow (the file is of low or medium quality, that is, the file will not be restored either);
• Green (excellent condition, the file will be restored with high quality).

In the same window, it is possible to switch to the advanced mode, which allows you to quickly view the contents of each file found by the program (button in the upper right part of the window).

• There is a Restore button in the lower right corner of the window. By checking the box next to the desired file, press this button, which has now become active.
• In the window that appears, the program gives the user the opportunity to choose where to place the recovered file.

• Select the folder where the selected file will be restored. By the way, if you need a separate new folder for recovered files, on the selected drive in the "Browse for folders" dialog box there is a "Create Folder" button. When you press it, the same " new folder", where the file will be moved.
• We press OK. Sometimes the program offers to restore to another disk, since restoring a file to the disk from which it was deleted reduces the chances of a correct and successful recovery. If you are recovering data from a flash drive, then be sure to choose a path for recovering files not on the flash drive itself.
• We are looking for a file in the specified folder, we check it. The file is healthy and is in the specified location.

The "Settings" button takes us to a dialog box where you can set more fine tuning to search and restore certain types of files, namely:

• On the "General" tab, you can set the interface language, as well as the file display mode, the ability to set the rule to automatic update and very IMPORTANT parameter for those who use the program for secure removal files - establishing the degree of reliability of deletion;

• On the “Actions” tab, there is an option to show files from hidden or system folders, files with zero size, securely deleted files, searching for damaged files, as well as restoring the folder structure;

• The “About” tab contains general information about the version of the program being used.

In the same dialog box, you can select the disk on which you want to search for files and analyze this disk.

Key Features

Briefly summarizing the above information about the operation of the program, we can single out the following main features:

• Recovery of deleted files;
• Work on data recovery, both with removable media and hard drives;
• Recovery of files of all major types (texts, music, video, archives, etc.);
• Recovery of damaged files;
• Restoring system files;
• Carrying out a simple or in-depth analysis of media for the presence of files (at the user's choice);
• Ability to preview some found files.

Advantages and disadvantages of Recuva

The advantages of the considered version of the Recuva program are:

• Free distribution of the program;
• Friendly, simple interface;
• Recovery of damaged, lost, deleted files;
• Possibility to choose the location for searching and restoring the file;
• Search and recovery of files of most common types and formats (texts, spreadsheets, pictures, audio, video, archives, folders, etc.);
• Ability to search for hidden, securely deleted, system files;
• Ability to select the level of depth of data analysis;
• Ability to restore the folder structure;
• Ability to select the degree of reliability of removal.

No product is without flaws. Recuva includes the following:

• A very long (several hours) process of conducting in-depth data analysis when searching and restoring files, even if simplified search conditions are set (by file type and location);
• Restoring only files whose condition was identified by the program as Excellent at the time they were found (files in average and poor condition will not be restored).

After checking the operation of the Recuva program in various conditions, we can make an unambiguous conclusion about the great benefits of this program, its high-quality work and ease of maintenance.

In general, to recover damaged, deleted files of any type from any media, as well as to permanently delete files from your computer or flash drive, Recuva is perfect!

Recuva - very useful application, with which you can restore files and folders that have been permanently deleted.

If you accidentally formatted your flash drive, or if you need deleted files after emptying the trash, do not despair - Recuva will help you return everything to its place. The program has high functionality and convenience in finding missing data. Let's see how to use this program.

1. The first step is to go to the developer's website and download the program. You can choose between free and commercial versions. To recover data from a flash drive, it will be enough free.

2. Install the program, following the prompts of the installer.

3. Open the program and start using it.

How to recover deleted files with Recuva

When launched, Recuva gives the user the opportunity to configure the search parameters for the desired data.

1. In the first window, select the type of data, it is also the format - images, video, music, archives, Email, Word and Excel documents or files of all types at once. Click on "Next"

2. In the next window, the choice of the location of the files is set - on a memory card or other removable media, in documents, recycle bin, or a specific location on the disk. If you don't know where to look for the file, select "I'm not sure" ("I don't know").

3. Now Recuva is ready to search. Before starting it, you can activate the advanced search function, but this will take longer. It is recommended to use this function in cases where the search did not return any results. We press "Start".

4. Before us is a list of found data. A green circle next to the name means that the file is ready for recovery, yellow - that the file is damaged, red - the file cannot be restored. Put a checkmark next to the desired file and click "Recover".

5. Select a folder on your hard drive where you want to save the data.