Recuva vs. Disk Drill: An In-Depth Comparison

There’s no shortage of data recovery programs in today’s market, making it difficult to decide which one to choose for your file retrieval needs. It’s all the more difficult when pitting two exceedingly popular options like Disk Drill and Recuva against one another.

Disk Drill

Disk Drill has managed to make quite a name for itself as one of the best data recovery apps around on account of its superb recovery prowess, quick scan times, and intuitive user interface. It also boasts high compatibility with the majority of storage devices and file formats, and it comes with a few security features to keep your files safe.

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Recuva

Recuva is a serviceable data recovery program that promises to recover a variety of different file types from any form of rewritable media, including hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, and USB sticks. Its stand-out features are the fact that its entry-level tier is completely free, and it supports more languages than any alternative on the market.

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Recuva vs. Disk Drill: Pricing Comparison

Recuva sells itself as a totally free data recovery solution, drawing users in with the ability to retrieve an unlimited number of files even with its base version. Disk Drill, on the other hand, offers a free trial version that comes with all the bells and whistles of the purchased variant except that it’s capped at a 500 MB recovery limit.

Disk Drill vs. Recuva: Data Recovery Performance Comparison

The effectiveness of a data recovery program is directly related to the number of file types and file systems it supports, how good it is at recovering them, and the additional recovery features that come with the application. Let’s take a closer look at both Recuva and Disk Drill to see which one outdoes the other.

Conversely, Disk Drill has shown great aptitude in retrieving files from all the aforementioned partitions. On top of that, it’s proven itself capable of rescuing most document, video, and image file types – including raw ones like NRW, CR2, PEF, SR2, X3F, etc., whereas Recuva struggles with more uncommon formats.

On the plus side, Recuva supports scanning and recovering shadow copies of system drives which is a feature that Disk Drill doesn’t have. However, Disk Drill is compatible with Bitlocker drives, while Recuva is not.

Recuva vs. Disk Drill: Feature Comparison

Performance is definitely a prime factor in determining a data recovery program’s worth, but so is the list of features and additional tools that it’s packed with. After all, even an app with mediocre performance can be well-loved on account of its nifty extras. That said, let’s see how well Recuva and Disk Drill hold up in that department.

Despite Recuva being developed by the minds behind the popular CCleaner utility app, it’s sorely lacking from a features standpoint unless you purchase the bundle that comes with some of the brand’s other offerings. Data recovery is pretty much all you get. Version updates have all but ceased since mid-2022, support is limited to just emails which usually have the slowest turnaround time, and online resources are disappointingly scarce.

Disk Drill is pretty consistent with its software updates, and although it doesn’t offer phone support, it has both email and chat. It also features a comprehensive help section in case you’re looking for assistance. Both options have their fair share of sorting options when it comes to the scan results, while Disk Drill pulls ahead when dealing with video, document, and raw photo file formats. Unfortunately, for both programs, neither of them offers image or video repair capabilities.

Verdict

All-in-all, Disk Drill comes out as the clear winner in this matchup, whether it’s in terms of performance, usability, features, or support. The only reasons to consider Recuva are if you’re looking for a completely free data recovery solution with no limits or if you’re eyeing an option with Windows shadow copy support. Otherwise, you’re better off sticking with Disk Drill.