Glarysoft File Recovery is a Windows program for retrieving deleted documents, photos, videos, audio and other files from local drives and removable storage. It scans a selected disk or partition, lets you inspect the files it finds, and saves the items you choose to a recovery destination. The Free and Pro editions share this workflow but differ in how much data they can restore and which recovery functions are available.
Partition scans
The recovery location is the starting point of a scan. Glarysoft File Recovery can search hard disks, SSDs, USB drives and SD cards, including files deleted from the Recycle Bin. An external device must be connected and detected by the computer before the program can scan it. Selecting its partition gives the search a defined storage area even when you no longer know the file's folder.
Supported file systems include FAT and NTFS, including NTFS with EFS encryption. The program also supports recovery of compressed, fragmented and user-encrypted NTFS files. During a scan, a progress bar reports progress and remaining time, with controls to pause or stop the search. You can return to the location screen to select another partition.
File selection
Glarysoft File Recovery separates finding files from deciding which ones to recover. Its results can be browsed by file path or file type, then narrowed using details such as name, size and modification date. The search box accepts keywords to locate a particular item within the results. These controls let you combine the details you remember rather than inspect every detected file individually.
Selecting a result opens its preview, where you can inspect the file before restoring it. View controls switch between preview formats and allow zooming. This is useful when filenames alone do not identify the image or document you need. Recovery file-format options can be added or edited in the Category settings, allowing the format categories used by the program to be adjusted.
The selected files are saved to a destination you choose. The View Recovery command then opens the location containing the recovered output. Saving to a different location matters because writing new data to the affected storage can overwrite deleted content that the scan is trying to retrieve. Recovery therefore depends on the data that remains on the device, as well as which files the search finds.
Recovery editions
Both editions provide file scanning, previews and quick-scan recovery of permanently deleted files. The Free edition limits recovery to three files with a maximum size of 2 GB. Its advanced scan can show files in preview mode, but recovering those results requires Pro.
Glarysoft File Recovery Pro removes the limit on the number of files that can be recovered. It also supports recovery from formatted drives and recovery of corrupted or virus-damaged files and data. These functions, along with online support, are available in the paid edition rather than the Free edition.
