What Is the best photo recovery software for Windows 10?

Do not save recovered files back to the same drive. Always save them to a separate USB drive or another internal drive.

Honestly, if you're up for a bit of a challenge, Test Disk is a total powerhouse and probably the best photo recovery software for Windows if you're on a budget of zero dollars. It's completely free and open-source, and it can dig up files that other tools can't even see by scanning the raw data on your drive.

Here’s the breakdown of why it stands out, even with its quirks:

1. Completely Free & Open-Source

No licenses, subscriptions, or hidden costs. It’s genuinely free to use without any file limits.

2. Unmatched Recovery Depth

It digs into raw disk data, so it can recover photos even if your drive is corrupted, formatted, or the partition is totally gone.

3. Partition Recovery Specialist

Beyond just files, Test Disk can fix damaged partition tables and make non-booting drives work again, which is a feature most simple photo tools don't have.

4. Works on Almost Everything

It’s cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux) and supports tons of file systems (NTFS, FAT, exFAT, etc.), so it’s incredibly versatile.

5. Portable & Safe

As a best photo recovery software, it’s a tiny program you can run from a USB stick. It also operates in read-only mode, so it won't accidentally overwrite the data you're trying to save.

Windows includes a built-in feature called ShadowCopy (Volume Shadow Copy Service), but without a pre-generated snapshot, it cannot directly recover recently deleted photos because it relies on historical file backups to function as best photo recovery software.It captures volume snapshots at specific points in time to recover overwritten image files, providing a native system solution for recovering photos when you need reliable, top-tier best photo recovery software without installing third-party tools.

It allows you to recover all previous versions of stored photos by mounting a single snapshot, but using this recovery feature requires command-line operations, and the Shadow Copy service must be enabled beforehand.

First, right-click and select Run as administrator to launch the Command Prompt.

Enter the command

vssadmin list shadows

and press Enter to check if there are any valid Shadow Copy snapshots on the disk.

Locate the target Shadow Copy volume ID from the query results, mount the snapshot folder to an unused drive letter, and then open the mounted directory to browse all saved photo files. Select the photos you want to recover and copy them to another storage partition.

Once the files have been copied, you can unmount the shadow copy volume to free up the occupied disk space.

This method can only recover photos saved in a previously created system snapshot, so it is only suitable for users who always have the Shadow Copy Service enabled and need to recover photo files that were accidentally overwritten.

If you don’t want to download extra photo recovery applications, you can try this built-in Windows function. It requires basic command line operations, so you should confirm shadow copies are available before starting the photo recovery process.

You can use Windows' built-in backup and restore feature as reliable photo recovery software for windows to retrieve lost photos and various local files. It relies on pre-generated backup archives to restore data, providing an official, built-in option without the need to install additional third-party programs.

How to Use Photo Recovery Software for Windows

1. Open the Control Panel on your computer.
2. Find and open the Backup and Restore section.
3. On the main screen, click the Restore My Files button.
4. Follow the step-by-step instructions in the Restore Wizard that appears.
5. Select the photos or folders you want to restore, and confirm the save location to complete the restoration.

Disadvantages

• It works properly only if a full backup was created before the data loss occurred.
• It cannot scan the disk to find recently deleted photos that have no backup records.
• It has poor compatibility with newer NVMe solid-state drives and exFAT storage partitions.
• Restoring large photo backup packages takes a long time.

The official Windows tool can only recover data from previously created backups. It is suitable for Windows users who regularly back up their systems and want to easily restore their local photo archives in bulk from backup files. However, if there is no corresponding backup record, it cannot scan for and recover recently deleted files.

ps

• If you plan to use the software to recover lost photos in the future, you should manually create regular file backups in advance.
• Do not save the recovered photo files back to the original partition, to avoid overwriting data.
• Without the appropriate backup archive, the tool cannot recover photos that have been formatted or permanently deleted.
• If the recovery wizard fails to load properly, run the Control Panel as an administrator.

What’s the deal with "Previous Versions"? Honestly, it’s one of the most underrated built-in Windows tricks when you are finding a photo recovery software for Windows. Here’s the gist:

• Right-click the folder where your photos used to be (like Pictures or a subfolder).
• Select "Restore previous versions".
• Windows will show you a list of older snapshots of that folder — if any exist — saved automatically by System Restore or File History.

If you see a version from before you deleted the photos, just select it and click Restore. That’s it. No downloading, no sketchy installers, no command-line headaches.

This method only works if:

• You had File History turned on before the deletion happened, or
• System Restore was actively creating restore points that included your user folders (which isn’t always the case by default).
• If neither was enabled, the list will just be empty, and you’re out of luck. So it’s not a guaranteed fix — more like a "hope you were already backed up" kind of move.

Use this first, before trying any other tool, because:

• It’s 100% free (no hidden paywalls).
• It’s built into Windows — no third-party apps at all.
• It takes like 30 seconds to check.

If it works, great — you just saved yourself from hunting down a real photo recovery software for Windows. If it doesn’t, then you know you’ll need to look into something more powerful.

Try it — it’s free, fast, and requires zero installation. But don't bank on it unless you're sure File History or System Restore was already running on your PC. If not, you'll have to move on to one of those more obscure command-line tools (which I know you're not thrilled about, but hey — they're still free).

Glary Undelete is a data recovery tool that you can use as photo recovery software for windows to recover deleted photos and files from Windows storage drives, as well as other files on the disk.

Instructions: Open the program, select the target disk, run a full-disk scan, check the files you want to recover, and finally complete the recovery by saving the data to another disk.

Its advantages include: the ability to filter lost files by file format for quick location, support for previewing recoverable photos, and the ability to easily recover deleted items individually or in batches. As a lightweight photo recovery software for windows, it is ideal for everyday data recovery.

Its disadvantages include: its recovery performance is not as good as other software when dealing with deeply deleted data; it lacks advanced deep scan features; it does not fully support newer NVMe SSDs; and scan speeds are occasionally slow on high-capacity storage devices.

Notes

• Do not save the recovered photos back to the original disk, or the lost photo data will be permanently overwritten.
• During installation, uncheck the bundled add-ons to avoid installing unwanted additional software.
• If the disk scan feature fails to start properly, run the program with administrator privileges.

This allows you to quickly retrieve lost photos and files on Windows systems. It is suitable for everyday, simple file recovery tasks on Windows devices, as well as for quickly performing local photo recovery operations.

Photo Rec is a solid, totally free option if you're willing to trade a fancy interface for some serious recovery power, and many folks consider it one of the best photo recovery software options out there because it can dig up files even from badly corrupted drives. It's not the most beginner-friendly, but for anyone on a budget, it's easily among the best photo recovery software choices you can find for Windows.

Here's how to use it, broken down into simple steps:

1. Download and Prep: Grab the Test Disk and Photo Rec package from the official CG Security website, and unzip it somewhere easy to find, like your Downloads folder . Also, make sure to stop using the drive you want to recover from right now—any new files you save could overwrite the very photos you're trying to get back.
2. Run as Admin: Go into the unzipped folder, find the file named photo rec_win. exe, right-click it, and choose "Run as administrator" . This ensures it has all the permissions it needs to scan your drives.
3. Select Your Drive: A command-line window will pop up. Use the arrow keys to select the drive (like your SD card or USB stick) where your photos were lost, and press Enter.
4. Choose File System: Next, you'll be asked about the file system. Unless your drive is Linux formatted, choose [Other] for systems like FAT or NTFS, and hit Enter.
5. Pick Scan Mode: You'll then see options for [Free] or [Whole]. Picking [Whole] makes it scan the entire drive, which is better if the file system is messed up.
6. Set Save Location: This is crucial—you must save the recovered photos to a different drive than the one you're scanning to avoid overwriting anything. Use the arrow keys to navigate to a folder on your main hard drive (like your Pictures folder), and press C to start the recovery.

After it's done, you'll find your photos in new folders named recup dir.1, recup dir .2, etc. . Just keep in mind that Photo Rec doesn't keep the original filenames or folder structure, so you'll have to sort through the recovered files yourself.

PC Inspector File Recovery is a data recovery tool that scans storage disks to locate deleted multimedia files. As the best photo recovery software, it meets users’ basic and reliable needs for photo recovery.

How to Use the Best Photo Recovery Software

Step 1: Download the installation package from the official website and complete the software installation.

Step 2: Launch the program and select the target storage drive you want to scan.

Step 3: Start the disk scan to search for all deleted or lost files on that drive.

Step 4: Check the photos or files you want to recover, and perform the recovery operation.

Finally, select another disk partition as the save location to complete the recovery.

The software can recover deleted photos from hard drives, USB drives, and memory cards, but the program is no longer being maintained, its features are outdated, and the interface looks dated.

Pros

• Supports recovery of multiple image formats, including JPG, PNG, and RAW camera photos.
• Can detect damaged or lost partitions from which photos may still be recoverable.

Cons

• Official updates have been discontinued; it does not support newer storage standards such as exFAT and NVMe SSDs.
• Scanning large-capacity disks is slow, and the program frequently crashes on Windows 10/11 systems.
• Recovery results are poor for overwritten or severely damaged photo files.

Here are the step-by-step instructions for using Windows File Recovery as photo recovery software for Windows 10:

Step 1: Install the tool

Open the Microsoft Store on your PC, search for "Windows File Recovery," and click the Get or Install button to download it for free.

Step 2: Launch it

Open the app from your Start menu—it'll pop up as a Command Prompt window.

Step 3: Know your modes before writing the command

You'll pick between two main modes:

• Regular mode (/regular) – Use this if your photos were deleted recently from an NTFS drive (like your main C: drive). It's faster.
• Extensive mode (/extensive) – Use this for older deletions, formatted drives, USB sticks, or SD cards. It's slower but digs deeper.

Step 4: Write the recovery command

The basic command structure is:

text

winfr source-drive: destination-drive: /mode /n filters

For example, to recover all JPEG photos from your D: drive and save them to an E: drive, you'd type:

text

winfr D: E: /regular /n *.jpg

Or if you want to be thorough:

text

winfr D: E: /extensive /n *.jpg /n *.jpeg /n *.png

Step 5: Run it and confirm

Press Enter, then type Y when it asks for confirmation to start the scan. Wait for the process to finish—it can take a while in Extensive mode.

Step 6: Find your recovered files

Once done, Windows File Recovery creates a folder on your destination drive called Recovery_<date and time>—open it up and your photos should be inside.

A couple of golden rules when you using photo recovery software for Windows: never recover files to the same drive you're scanning from (that can overwrite what you're trying to save), and the sooner you run this after deletion, the better your chances.