The accepted wisdom is that paid data recovery software is more reliable than free alternatives. Organizations and businesses are more likely to use a premium licensed product than a free product. WiseCleaner might question this wisdom. Although you have the option to upgrade to the premium version for enhanced functionality, Wise Data Recovery Free can recover lost files on as many computers as you want without any data or file size limits.
You can upgrade from Wide Data Recovery Free to Pro version to get premium support and additional features (Image credit: WiseCleaner)
Completely free recovery
Free utilities for doing serious tasks are usually available with some kind of premium element. For example, a free trial or a refund period of 30 or 60 days. Alternatively, the product can be free for home users, but premium for use in an organization, small business, or more. Of course, there are some exceptions, like TestDisk and PhotoRec, but they are rare. Wise Data Recovery Free is not as feature-rich as the open source competitor, but it is free. That being said, in most cases, you won't need these extra features.
This is the user interface for Wise Data Recovery Free (Image credit: WiseCleaner)
Key recovery features
With WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery Free installed, you should be able to recover deleted data from digital media and storage devices. It has a quick file scan to recover deleted files quickly and easily, ideal for those who are new to file recovery. More than 1000 types of files can be recovered from typical document and graphic formats to videos, audio files, email client mailboxes, ZIP and other files, executables (EXE), HTML files, even text files and video game backup data. Meanwhile, WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery applications can find lost data on internal SSD and HDD devices, not to mention floppy disks, memory cards, USB drives, and file systems like FAT, NTFS, HFS+, Ext2, and Ext3. The software also provides a live tool to boot PC from USB stick and recover data from faulty hard drive. Advanced features are best suited for specific recovery scenarios, such as full disk recovery or situations that require premium technical support. Wise Data Recovery Pro (€59.95 / €49.05 for a month, €89.95 / €73.58 per year), expands the search and restore function to include RAW files and scans lost data much deeper. It also offers automatic updates. While there is a Mac version of Wise Data Recovery, the Windows version works on any iteration from Windows XP to Windows 10.
Find files with Wise Data Recovery for free
To test this free data recovery tool, we used it on a non-removable 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB stick connected to a Dell 5505 running Windows 10.
You can perform a quick scan and a deep scan of your drives using Wise Data Recovery Free (Image credit: WiseCleaner) The software is easy to use. Select the device, click Scan > Quick Scan or Scan > Deep Scan and wait. Once the lost files are displayed, you can sort them by file name, file size, date modified, and file path. A search tool allows you to quickly find files by name or by file extension. In particular, there is no option to recover the entire device, or even restore data by directory. There is also no status or other indication of the "recovery" of the data. To recover files, check the appropriate boxes and then click Recover. After selecting a destination, the data will be saved in a replica of the original file structure.
You will have to manually check the files you want to recover from your drives (Image credit: WiseCleaner)
Exceptionally compared to other disk recovery tools, WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery does not detect the removable disk by name. Instead, apply the heading "Lost Volume". While it may look like an app, there is no indication in the device dropdown of the details of the unmountable device, not even a reference to the size of the volume. As such, it was difficult to determine until after the recovery was complete if the recovered device was the correct one and not, for example, a missing recovery partition deleted in a Windows or Dell update. The Deep Scan option takes approximately 10 minutes. Although it is supposed to be a key feature of the Pro version, it seems to work in WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery Free. That is, until you get to the point of selecting a file and clicking Recover, at which point you'll need to sign up with an activation key. It's nasty bait and trades right there. Unfortunately, the deep scan option seems to work on unmountable drives, while the quick scan does not. In terms of data recovered, WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery didn't seem to restore anything to a usable form.
You can contact WiseCleaner directly from support and receive a response within 72 hours (Image credit: WiseCleaner)
Support
It's always good to know what support options are available for your software. When it comes to recovery tools, things have a very real chance of going wrong, or worse, so it's reassuring to have something to fall back on. WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery provides a user guide on the website and opens the page automatically after installation. For more detailed support issues, a FAQ is provided, along with a contact form to raise issues.
You can also try to find answers to common problems on the WiseCleaner Community Forum (Image credit: WiseCleaner) A service to transfer the WiseCleaner product license to a new computer is also available. Locking the software on the devices is not a favorable development, but at least the option for easy transfer is provided. For users of its free software, WiseCleaner offers a yearly 24x7 Ultimate email support service for €9,99.
Final verdict
It is always difficult to resist the temptation of free software. WiseCleaner Wise Data Recovery Free is ostensibly useful for accidental deletions, but for deeper scans and unmountable USB sticks, you'll need the Pro version. The price here is somewhat staggering, with a potentially explosive monthly option. Ultimately, whether it's free or not, recovery software that doesn't provide an overview or hint on how some lost data can be recovered is pretty useless.