Wise Data Recovery is a Windows program for getting back files that were deleted, emptied from the Recycle Bin or lost when a drive was formatted. It reads the free space of a drive, where Windows marks deleted files as available for reuse. It rebuilds files whose data has not yet been overwritten. The free edition handles the full process up to a cumulative 2 GB of recovered data; a Pro license removes that limit.
Drives and file systems it reads
Wise Data Recovery works with internal hard disks and SSDs as well as external drives, USB flash drives, SD and other memory cards, digital cameras, MP3 players and phones that appear as storage devices. It reads FAT, exFAT and NTFS volumes used by Windows, and also HFS, HFS+, HFSX, Ext2 and Ext3. This lets you scan a disk or card formatted on a Mac or a Linux system from a Windows PC.
An external device should be connected before the program starts so that it appears in the drive list.
Scanning a lost-file drive
Recovery begins with a single choice: the drive where the files were lost. Selecting it starts the scan immediately, with no separate mode to configure. A progress graph shows results in real time with the estimated time remaining, and the scan can be paused or stopped. You can also point Wise Data Recovery at particular file types or give it a keyword in advance. This narrows the search to the files that matter.
The recognized formats run to more than a thousand, from Office documents and PDFs to camera RAW images, video, audio, Outlook PST mailboxes and ZIP or RAR archives.
Narrowing and checking results
During or after the scan, you can filter the results by file type, file size and date modified. The list reloads to match. A search box takes a file name or keyword and finds related entries.
Double-clicking a result, or choosing Preview from its context menu, opens it without writing anything to disk. Pictures, Office documents and text files can be checked this way before anything is restored.
Restoring files safely
To restore files, tick one or more entries and click Recover, then choose a destination folder. That folder should be on a different drive from the one being recovered. Writing restored files back to the source drive can overwrite the very data still waiting to be recovered.
The same caution applies to the program itself. A portable edition runs without installation. You can copy it to a USB stick on another computer and start it from there, leaving the affected drive untouched.
Saved scans and exported lists
A completed scan does not have to be repeated. Wise Data Recovery stores the last scan of a drive and offers it when you select that drive again. You can load earlier results through the Import command. This works only while no new data has been written to the disk since the scan. The list of found files can also be exported as text.
Free and Pro licenses
Scanning, filtering, preview and recovery are the same in both editions. The free edition stops recovering once the total restored data reaches 2 GB, and the Pro license lifts the cap. Pro keys come in a single-PC version and a family version for three PCs. Each key is valid for a year. You enter it through the Register item in the main menu.
