Active File Recovery Software

Efficient & easy to use recovery utility for deleted, damaged or lost files, even if your PC doesn't boot

Active File Recovery for Windows provides the ability to effectively detect and recover files and disks lost due to accidental deletion, disk formatting, virus and other reasons.

The Professional package also includes integrated Disk Editor (HexViewer; a utility for low-level data inspection), Active Partition Recovery (a tool used to recover deleted or damaged volumes), and Active@ File Organizer (a utility to organize/rename files after a catastrophic data loss).

The Enterprise extends the Professional package with Active@ Boot Disk Lite: an ISO image that you can use to create a bootable CD/DVD or USB with a lightweight version of Windows 7™ running in RAM (WinPE 3.1). It is the only way to recover your data when your system is not bootable and you cannot attach the corrupted Hard Disk Drive to another machine.


News! Jan 10, 2014: Active File Recovery 12 released: Added 64-bit executable which scans disks much faster and optimizes memory usage on x64 platforms; Files detected by Signatures can be organized by attributes before recovery; Increased memory limits for 32-bit executable to process larger data arrays on x86 platforms.

Active@ File Recovery Video Guide

How to recover files on severely damaged disks?

 This video shows how to recover files on severely damaged disks by detecting their signatures and using advanced file organizing features of Active@ File Recovery software

Recovering a lost or deleted file

 QuickScan is a fast and basic scan. Most deleted files and folders can be found using this method. To run QuickScan, open Active@ File Recovery and do the following:

In the Local System Devices list, select the drive you want to inspect for deleted files and folders.

Click QuickScan button on the toolbar

After you complete the drive scan, you can tell what state your deleted files and folders are in by the color of the icons:

Blue or yellow icons show existing file or folder

Grey icons show deleted file or folder

Select a file or folder you want to recover and click Recover toolbar button

Recovering from a lost partition

 Use SuperScan when trying to recover a partition or volume that you know has been deleted or damaged. SuperScan is a much slower and thorough scan. It processes the whole hard drive surface detecting all possible deleted data. If, after running QuickScan you did not find your deleted files, try SuperScan.

To run SuperScan

In the Local System Devices list, select a physical device, or a volume that contains your data.

To open the SuperScan Options dialog, click SuperScan toolbar button

Specify SuperScan parameters, like scanning area and file systems to search for, and click Scan

Analyse found volumes: filter them, scan and inspect data

Select the files or folders on a proper volume you want to recover and click the Recover toolbar button.

Recovering unbootable systems

 When your system is not bootable (crashed) and you need to recover lost data, you have a choice: either to disassemble the PC, take out the Hard Disk Drive and attach it the another system to be able to access the data, or to use a bootable disk to boot the dead PC and try to recover the data in-place without PC disassembling. To use Active@ Boot Disk Lite (included in File Recovery) check the steps below:

Create a Windows-based Bootable Media: CD/DVD or USB (video)

Check BIOS for boot sequence to boot from selected media (video)

Boot Active@ Boot Disk Lite from the selected media (video below)

Launch Active@ File Recovery and recover your data in-place