With File Recovery, Microsot delivers a file recoverer for Windows 10

Everyone has at least once in their life deleted a file by mistake, without having made a backup. For the more expert and if the file was important, there are file recovery tools. In general, these solutions come from third-party publishers and are paid for.

In a tweet, WalkingCat, a Microsoft specialist, unearthed an application created by the Redmond firm called “Windows Recovery Tool”. This free tool is now available on the publisher’s store and is intended for Windows 10 users (at least with the 1904 update). In its title, the publisher boasts of its product, “Did you accidentally delete an important file? Cleaned your hard drive? Don’t know what to do with corrupted data? Windows File Recovery can help you recover your personal data”. The solution offers to recover files from a hard drive, a USB drive and even an SD card. In terms of formats, the tool is able to restore files: JPEG, PDF, PNG, MPEG, Office, MP3 & MP4, ZIP,…

3 modes available and a command line interface

In detail, Recovery File supports three modes:

– Default: This mode uses MFT (Master File Table) to locate lost files. It works correctly when the MFT and file segments, also called FRS (File Record Segments,) are managed.

-Segment mode: It does not require MFT, but segments. These are summaries of file information such as name, date, size, type, and cluster index. They are stored by NTFS in an MFT.

– Signature mode: It is perfectly suited for finding specific files on external storage devices like a USB drive.

On the other hand, to use it, Microsoft does not offer a graphical interface accessible to ordinary people. Once installed, the application starts in command line mode with all the options available.

Windows Recovery File user interface. (Photo credit: Microsoft)