A free Disk Drill alternative with no recovery cap
If you want a free alternative to Disk Drill, the realistic choices are PhotoRec, TestDisk, DMDE’s free edition and Retrova. Disk Drill lets you scan for free but, when we checked in October 2026, limited free recovery to 100 MB on Windows and offered none on Mac.
Disk Drill is a capable, signed, polished app, but its free tier is a scan preview. Free alternatives exist; each trades something away. PhotoRec is free and deep but has no interface to speak of. Retrova is free with no cap and keeps file names on drives it can read, including deleted files on NTFS, FAT and exFAT, but not on other file systems.
What Disk Drill’s free version gives you
Disk Drill, by CleverFiles, scans a drive for free and shows what it found. Saving files is where the limit starts. As of our October 2026 check, the free Windows edition recovered up to 100 MB, and the Mac edition let you scan and preview but not save. A paid Pro licence (roughly $90 for a one-time purchase at the time we looked, with yearly and higher tiers too) removes the cap. Pricing and regional variants are on CleverFiles’ site, and they change often.
That is not unreasonable for a commercial product, and Disk Drill does things the free tools do not: it can undelete files with their original names on more file systems than Retrova, it handles a wider range of encrypted volumes, and it ships signed and notarised, so there is no first-launch warning. If a single important folder was deleted from a Windows disk and you do not mind paying, it is a sensible choice.
The frustration reviewers describe is the order of events: you scan, see a promising list, and only then learn that saving it costs money. That is why people search for an alternative.
Free alternatives, compared
| Tool | Cost and limit | Interface | Keeps file names? | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retrova 1.1.1 | Free, AGPL open source. No cap, no account. | Graphical, Mac and Windows | Yes when it can read the file system (APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), NTFS, FAT, exFAT, ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs), including deleted files on NTFS, FAT and exFAT. No after deep scan. | Undeletes with names only on NTFS, FAT, exFAT; encrypted drives need your key; no RAID; not signed yet. |
| PhotoRec | Free, open source (GPL). No cap. | Terminal menu; QPhotoRec is a basic GUI on some platforms | No. Files get numbered names in recup_dir folders. | Hard for newcomers; no folder structure. |
| TestDisk | Free, open source (GPL). | Terminal menu | Can undelete on FAT, NTFS and ext2/3/4 with names. | Writes to the disk if you tell it to; easy to misuse. |
| DMDE free edition | Free, with a per-folder file limit (we saw 4,000 files per directory). | Graphical, mainly Windows | Yes, from file-system records. | Limits and a dated interface; paid licence for more. |
| Disk Drill (for reference) | Free scan; 100 MB free recovery on Windows, none on Mac (Oct 2026). | Graphical | Yes on supported file systems. | The cap is the point. |
Each of these tools’ own sites explain the current limits: PhotoRec, TestDisk and DMDE. For the long comparison of PhotoRec, TestDisk and Retrova, see TestDisk vs PhotoRec vs Retrova.
Where Retrova fits
Retrova’s pitch is narrow. It is free without a cap, it only reads the drive, and it can prove the copy matches. On a drive whose file system it can read, you browse the original folders and names and copy them off. On a formatted card or a wiped partition, Deep scan carves 72 file types, and the results have generic names. If you only deleted files on an NTFS, FAT or exFAT drive, Retrova can list them with their original names first.
It also verifies what it copied. After a copy, Verify compares each file against the original byte for byte and writes SHA-256 manifests, and a one-click repair re-copies anything that did not match. Disk Drill does not offer this. Read more in how to verify copied files byte for byte.
What Retrova cannot do
If any of these describe your situation, Disk Drill (or another paid tool) is the better fit today:
- Undelete with names outside NTFS, FAT and exFAT. Retrova lists deleted files with their names and folders on NTFS, FAT12/16/32 and exFAT only. On APFS, ext and other file systems it falls back to deep scan, so names and folders are lost and fragmented files may come back damaged. On NTFS, compressed or encrypted deleted files, and ones whose details span several records, are not listed.
- Encrypted drives without the key. Retrova opens BitLocker (password or 48-digit recovery key), LUKS 1/2 (passphrase) and FileVault or encrypted APFS volumes (password) only when you have the key. It cannot open BitLocker startup-key (.bek) or TPM-only drives, or the startup disk of a T2 or Apple silicon Mac away from that Mac. Decryption runs at about 100 MB/s.
- RAID and NAS volumes, APFS snapshots, bootable media and phones. Not supported.
- Code signing. Builds are not signed or notarised yet, hence the first-launch warning.
- Fragmented file carving. Deep scan finds contiguous files of 72 types, which is fewer than the 400 to 1,000 types some paid tools claim. Names are lost, and files stored in pieces may come back damaged or not at all.
Which one should you pick?
- Deleted a file recently on Windows and want its name back: try Disk Drill’s free 100 MB for a small file, or TestDisk or DMDE. Retrova will find the content but not the name.
- A drive that will not mount or shows as unreadable: Retrova reads it read-only and copies your files with names. See external drive not mounting on a Mac.
- A formatted camera card with a few gigabytes of photos: PhotoRec or Retrova, since neither caps the amount.
- A RAID volume, or an encrypted drive you have no key for: a paid tool, or a professional.
The first-launch warning
Retrova’s builds are not signed or notarised with a paid Apple or Microsoft certificate yet, so the first time you open it you will see a warning. On a Mac, open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway and confirm (on macOS 14 or earlier, right-click the app and choose Open). On Windows, when SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”, click More info, then Run anyway. You only do this once. The source code is public if you would rather build it yourself or read what it does.
How we checked
We read each vendor’s published pricing and free-tier terms and the open-source projects’ documentation. We did not benchmark recovery rates, so this page compares limits and features only. Retrova details come from version 1.1.1. Competitor details were checked in October 2026 and are dated in the text. Vendor prices and free limits change often and many run permanent sales, so treat every figure here as approximate and confirm on the vendor’s own page before you buy.
Get Retrova
Free and open source for macOS 11+ and Windows 10/11. No account, no recovery limit, and it never writes to the drive you’re rescuing.
Download RetrovaFree for Mac and WindowsQuestions
Is there a completely free version of Disk Drill?
Disk Drill is free to scan. When we checked in October 2026 the free Windows edition recovered up to 100 MB and the Mac edition did not save files without a licence. Check CleverFiles’ site for current terms.
Does Retrova recover deleted files with their names?
On NTFS, FAT12/16/32 and exFAT, yes: Retrova lists deleted files with their original names and folders, each marked Good, Possibly overwritten or May be incomplete. On APFS, ext and other file systems, no: Deep scan finds files by their contents, so names and folders are lost. On a drive that is damaged but not wiped, Retrova reads the file system directly and does keep names.
Is a free alternative as good as a paid tool?
It depends on the job. Paid tools have more file types, undelete with names on more file systems, wider encrypted-volume support and signed installers. Free tools win on cost and, in the case of Retrova and PhotoRec, on having no cap.
Is it safe to run these on the drive I am rescuing?
Choose tools that only read from the source and save to a different drive. Retrova and PhotoRec do this. TestDisk can write if you ask it to, so be careful with its repair options.