Data recovery today has become very common due to the increasing number of people and organizations mining and using data. In the same measure, many data recovery software have been made and are now available for use. These tools are however built with different capabilities and will return different results for every data recovery job.

Disk Drill and Recuva are some of the available data recovery software. You may be wondering which is the best software to use between Recuva and Disk Drill. In this comprehensive guide, we explore the differences and similarities between the two to help you make an informed decision.

Pricing 

Disk Drill is widely accepted as a freemium data recovery software for Windows. With a free version offering data recovery of up to 500 MB and unlimited file previews, users rank it among the top-notch data recovery software options today. The premium version however gives you a lifetime license at just $89.00. Additionally, the software is:

• Distributed as freemium 
• Comes with a trial version with a limited recovery of up to 500 MB
• Pro license supports one device, while enterprise license supports ten devices
• License mode is lifetime
• Requires credit card to try
• There’s money back guarantee

On the other hand, Recuva is an unlimited free data recovery software for Windows. It has been in the market for a long time and many Windows users have either heard of it or tried it before. Additionally, the software is:

• Distributed as a freeware
• Has a trial version with no limitation 
• Supports one professional device
• No fee, freeware
• Has a lifetime subscription
• No credit required to try

Data Recovery Performance

1. Based on the Clever In-depth Scanner

Largely, users want to know how smart the application they are picking is with regards to data recovery. Based on the tests we’ve done surrounding the clever in-depth scanner of the two apps; the apps perform as below. 

Disk Drill effectively supports recovery of FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and EXT4 partitions. Only HTS+ and APFS+ partitions were not supported.

On the other hand, Recuva only partially supports the recovery of Fat32 partitions. All the other partitions were not supported. 

2. Based on the Quick Scan of File Systems

Based on this algorithm, Disk Drill was able to recover deleted files from Fat32, exFAT, NTFS, and EXT4 partitions. Again, HFS+ and APFS+ partitions were not supported. 

On the other hand, Recuva only partially supported FAT32, exFAt, and NTFS partitions, with no support for the other partitions. 

3. Based on Other Scan Types 

Based on other scan types, Disk Drill recognizes much more file formats than Recuva. It fully supports BitLocker drives and can handle complete partition loss to deliver excellent results, something both Recuva for Windows and Recuva for Mac keep struggling with. See below; 

Disk drill:

• Supports about 400 formats by deep scan
• Supports BitLocker
• Does not support Windows shadow copies scanning
• Supports lost partition recovery
• Supports recovered files’ labeling 
• Supports partial file recovery
• Supports scan and recovery of disk images

Recuva:

• Supports only about 100 formats by deep scan
• Only partially supports BitLocker
• Supports Windows shadow copies scanning 
• Does not support scans for lost partitions
• Partially supports recovered files’ labeling 
• Supports partial file recovery
• Supports disk image scan and recovery 

4. Based on Real-Life Recovery Challenge 

Real-life recovery challenges confirmed Disk Drill by CleverFiles is still superior to Recuva especially due to its extra recovery features including the convenient scan session management. It delivers up to 100% success with raw photo recovery, 99% with video recovery, and 84% with document recovery.  On the other hand, Recuva is more disappointing especially when recovering lost video and image files. It delivers a mere 24% recovery with raw photo recovery, 23% with video recovery, and 57% with document recovery.

Comparing Features 

Users agree that having the right combination of features makes it much easier even for beginners to recover files without requiring skills or support. Below are what both Disk Drill and Recuva offer per category.

Karma category: Reputation, popularity, and support 

Disk Drill

• Frequent updates including most recent one
• Changelog is available
• Latest Windows release supported
• Help desk support available 
• An extensive knowledge base
• Live chat support

Recuva 

• Most recent update available
• Changelog available
• High brand name popularity
• Extensive knowledge base 

Usability Category 

Disk Drill

• Modern user-friendly interface
• Dark mode
• Easy-to-locate features
• Multiple scanning methods
• Auto-resume scanning of failing drives
• Convenient source selection on start
• Convenient file-by-file preview of recoverable items
• Convenient thumbnail preview of recoverable items
• Mount recoverable items as disk
• Built-in updater 
• Multiple view modes in scan results 
• Hex view for recoverable items
• Filter recoverable items by type
• Search recoverable items by name
• Sort results 
• Multilingual UI
• Simple deployment 

Recuva 

• Easy-to-locate features
• Convenient file-by-file preview of recoverable items
• Built-in updater 
• Filter recoverable items by type
• Search recoverable items by file names
• Sort results
• Multilingual UI
• Simple deployment 

Device Support 

Disk Drill supports recovery from a wide range of storage devices. These include internal and external HDD & SSD, USB thumb drives, memory cards, RAID arrays, and unmountable partitions. 

On the other hand, Recuva supports recovery from internal and external HDD & SSD, USB thumb drives, and memory cards only. 

Other Notable Recovery Features 

Disk Drill has an overall non-intrusive read-only algorithm, supports byte-to-byte device backup, convenient scan session management, recovery chance prediction, data protection, high scan speed, can scan free space only support, can start file recovery without interrupting the scan, preview for recoverable items without interrupting the scan, forensic features, and links to in-lab recovery service for physically damaged devices. 

On the other hand, Recuva only supports byte-by-byte device backups. This puts Disk Drill at about 74% in terms of notable features against Recuva’s 29%.

Extras

Both Disk Drill and Recuva offer only one extra feature. Disk Drill can read S.M.A.R.T. hard drive diagnostics data and alert users when their hard drives are just about to fail. Recuva on the other hand can securely delete sensitive files making it a leading secure data shredding tool.

Pros 

Some of the top advantages of using Disk Drill include:

• Two for one, which means acquiring Disk Drill for Windows also unlocks Disk Drill for Mac for you.
• RAID Array Recovery support by the latest Disk Drill for Windows. Support includes 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 1E and JBOD.
• All Windows storage Spaces recovery supported including Simple, Two-way mirror, Three-Way mirror, and Parity. 

Some of the top advantages of using Recuva include:

• It is completely free to use
• An estimate of recovery is provided
• Supports two operating modes which as simple and advanced

Cons 

Some of the top cons of Disk Drill include:

• Phone support is not offered
• No option to create custom boot disks
• It is not possible to recover files remotely over a network

Some of the top cons of Recuva include:

• No enterprise license which means it cannot be used commercially
• Scanning and creation of images only available in paid version
• Recovering structure highly erroneous 

Verdict 

All-in-all, Disk Drill comes top as a leader in all cadres be it performance, features, usability or support. As much as free data recovery software such as Recuva appear very attractive, they are really not up to the task. Unless you are looking for a completely free data recovery for PC with no limits, you better stick with Disk Drill.