I accidentally deleted a bunch of important files from an external drive and I’m trying to decide between using Disk Drill (paid) or PhotoRec (free). I care more about getting the best possible recovery than saving a few dollars, but I also don’t want to waste money if the free option works just as well. For real-world use, which tool actually recovers more data reliably, and what should I watch out for during the recovery process?
Short answer from someone who has messed up a lot of drives: use Disk Drill first if the data matters. Keep PhotoRec as a second pass.
Here is the practical breakdown.
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Stop using the drive
• Unplug it.
• Do not copy new stuff to it.
• If you can, clone the drive to an image with ddrescue or similar, then work on the clone. -
Disk Drill vs PhotoRec, real world
Disk Drill
• Paid, easier UI, good for non tech users.
• Does both quick scan from file system and deep scan from raw data.
• Better for recovering original file names and folder structure when the file system is damaged but not totally destroyed.
• Lets you preview many file types before recovery.
• Handles formatted partitions and deleted partitions in a more guided way.
• Works well on external HDDs and SSDs, but success on SSDs depends on TRIM being active or not.
PhotoRec
• Free, open source, text UI.
• Ignores the file system, scans raw data by signatures.
• Strong at pulling out photos, documents, videos from badly damaged or corrupted partitions.
• Files come out as generic names like f1234567.jpg in big folders.
• Recovery of original paths and names is rare.
• Needs more cleanup work afterward.
- What to pick for “best possible” recovery
If you deleted files and did not format the drive
• Start with Disk Drill.
- Higher chance to restore tree structure and names.
- Faster to sort through if you have lots of mixed file types.
• If Disk Drill fails to find what you need, run PhotoRec on a disk image to see if it pulls raw files.
If you formatted or the partition table is damaged
• Disk Drill still first. It often detects old partitions and lets you scan them as if they still exist.
• Run a deep scan.
• Again, if results are weak, follow up with PhotoRec.
If the drive is dying or clicking
• First priority is cloning with ddrescue.
• Then run Disk Drill on the clone.
• If it chokes or finds little data, try PhotoRec on the clone for a signature-based sweep.
- SSD vs HDD
HDD
• Both tools have a decent shot if you stopped writing to the drive fast.
• Deleted data often survives until overwritten.
SSD
• If TRIM kicked in after deletion, no software tool will restore wiped blocks.
• If TRIM was off or the external enclosure blocks it, Disk Drill is still your best first attempt.
• PhotoRec will not help if the cells are already cleared by TRIM.
- Workflow I usually suggest
- Clone the disk if possible.
- Run Disk Drill quick scan.
- If needed, run Disk Drill deep scan.
- Recover to a different physical drive.
- If some types of files are missing, run PhotoRec on the image and filter by specific extensions.
- About Disk Drill “worth it” question
You said data is important and price is less important. In that case the license is cheap compared to lost work, legal docs, or personal photos. The time you save on sorting and the extra chance of getting folders and names back makes Disk Drill a better first choice.
If you want to see what other users ran into, this detailed user experience on Reddit is helpful:
Real-world Disk Drill data recovery results from an external drive
That post goes through speed, what file types came back, some issues, and how it compared to other tools, which is useful when you try to judge if Disk Drill will match your situation.
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If the data really matters, treat this as “one serious attempt” rather than “let me try 5 tools and see what happens.”
I mostly agree with @shizuka, but I’d tweak the priority a bit:
1. First decision: how structured is the data you lost?
- If you need original folder structure, timestamps, and filenames (project dirs, doc trees, Lightroom catalogs, code, etc.):
→ Disk Drill first. - If you mostly care about raw content (photos, videos, PDFs) and don’t mind a huge mess to sort later:
→ PhotoRec can be a strong second pass, not usually the first.
Where I slightly disagree with @shizuka: if the file system is clearly trashed (drive shows as RAW, Windows wants to format, or some “oops I quick‑formatted the wrong disk” situation), I’ve seen PhotoRec pull out a lot of usable stuff even when Disk Drill’s deep scan gets confused or spends ages stitching phantom trees. In that niche case, I’d sometimes run PhotoRec earlier, especially for photo/video heavy drives.
2. What Disk Drill actually buys you (beyond UI)
Disk Drill is not just “prettier PhotoRec”:
- It often recovers:
- original folder tree
- filenames
- timestamps
- It lets you:
- filter by type and size
- preview a ton of formats
- pick only what you care about
That matters when you have tens or hundreds of GB and you’re not in the mood to sort through 50k files named f0001234.docx.
If the choice is between losing work or paying, Disk Drill is the one I’d put money on first in a real “I’ll lose my job / my thesis / my photos of the last 5 years” scenario.
3. Where PhotoRec shines vs Disk Drill
PhotoRec wins in a couple of specific situations:
- File system is completely wrecked or overwritten
- You don’t care about original names
- You want a raw, signature-based sweep that ignores partition weirdness
- You suspect the drive had old leftover data from before the last format
In those cases, Disk Drill may try too hard to be clever about the file system, while PhotoRec just goes “0s and 1s, let’s go,” which can surface files that live in sectors outside what Disk Drill thinks is relevant.
4. Practical combo without repeating all the how-tos
So, if this was my external drive:
- I’d immediately stop writing to it and avoid “multi-tool roulette” directly on the disk.
- If the drive is physically healthy, I’d consider imaging it and working on the image.
- Run Disk Drill on that image:
- Try the “find lost partitions” or equivalent first if you formatted or the partition table changed.
- Use its filters and previews to verify if the most critical stuff is there.
- If:
- Disk Drill finds your important stuff with filenames/folders → recover and be done.
- Disk Drill finds only partial data or misses key file types → then I’d run PhotoRec on the same image, targeting specific file types (jpg, mov, docx, etc.) to see what extra it can pull.
The important part: don’t keep bouncing between tools and letting each write temporary data back to the same sick drive. That’s how people quietly overwrite what they’re trying to save.
5. HDD vs SSD nuance
One thing I’ll be harsher on than @shizuka: if this external is an SSD and TRIM was active, and you deleted the files a while ago or kept using the disk… your chances are often closer to “lottery ticket” than “software choice.” In that case, Disk Drill vs PhotoRec is less important than how soon you stopped using it.
If it’s a spinning HDD though, both tools can do great work as long as you stopped writing quickly.
6. About “free unlimited data recovery software”
Since you mentioned money is less important but you might still be curious about free tools: genuinely free utilities that let you recover unlimited data without sneaky caps are pretty rare. Most “free” options either:
- cap how many GB you can restore
- throttle features
- or nag you into upgrading once you see your files
If you want to look into no‑limit options and their tradeoffs, this discussion on
truly free data recovery tools without hidden size limits breaks down what’s actually free vs “marketing free.”
For your specific situation though, where the files are “important and I don’t care about a few bucks,” I’d bite the bullet and start with Disk Drill for the structured recovery, then let PhotoRec be your messy, last-chance dumpster dive if needed.
If the priority is “best possible” recovery, I’d treat Disk Drill and PhotoRec as different tools for different layers of the job instead of substitutes.
Where I slightly diverge from @viajeroceleste / @shizuka
They lean Disk Drill first almost universally. I mostly agree, but:
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If the drive has gone through multiple formats or OS installs, or you suspect there is very old data you care about, I would sometimes start with a targeted PhotoRec scan on the image for specific file types (e.g., only RAW photos, only .docx/.pdf). That avoids Disk Drill spending ages reconstructing a tree that you might not actually need.
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For extremely fragmented file types (large VMs, databases), neither Disk Drill nor PhotoRec is consistently great. In that niche, I would not put Disk Drill “on a pedestal”; professional tools or a lab are more realistic.
Pros of Disk Drill
- Much better at:
- Recreating folder structure and filenames
- Preserving timestamps and some metadata
- UI that keeps you from shooting yourself in the foot so easily
- Previews for many formats, which matters when you have thousands of similar photos or versions of the same doc
- Good “find lost partitions” workflow on external drives that were quick formatted or had the partition table nuked
In a real-world “I just trashed my external drive with work + personal stuff” situation, those points alone are often worth the cost.
Cons of Disk Drill
- Paid, obviously; also license terms can be confusing if you routinely use different machines
- On very badly damaged file systems, it can:
- Spend a lot of time building a tree of ghost folders
- Give you a GUI that looks encouraging while the actual file content rate of success is not dramatically better than raw carving
- It does not magically defeat SSD TRIM. If TRIM has wiped the cells, Disk Drill and PhotoRec are equally powerless.
- Some users expect it to be “forensics grade”; it is good consumer-level software, but not a replacement for a pro lab when the drive is physically failing hard.
Where PhotoRec still earns its place
- Ugly interface, but it does one thing well: carve data by signatures and ignore the file system.
- Fantastic second pass once Disk Drill has given you:
- As much structure as it can
- A clear idea of which file types are still missing
- On drives with multiple history layers (old formats, reused disks), PhotoRec can sometimes surface stuff that Disk Drill ignores as “outside” the current logical layout.
How I’d actually choose in your case
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If you care about:
- Keeping project folders intact
- Remembering which version of which doc is which
- Not spending a weekend renaming 10k files
→ Go with Disk Drill first. That is its real advantage and why it is worth paying for when the data matters.
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After that first recovery:
- If you notice specific file types or time ranges missing, then run PhotoRec on the same disk image, limited to those extensions. Treat that as your chaotic “deep dumpster dive” for leftovers.
Both @viajeroceleste and @shizuka already gave solid process advice. The only extra angle I’d add is to think less in terms of “which tool is best overall” and more in terms of “Disk Drill for structured salvage, PhotoRec for unstructured leftovers,” and to be realistic that neither will conquer a heavily TRIMed SSD or a mechanically dying HDD where sectors are rapidly disappearing.