Portable data recovery without installing anything on the affected drive

Step by step

1. Download to a different drive

   On another PC, or on the same PC if the lost files were not on its system drive, open the download page at filefixapp.com and choose the portable ZIP. Save it straight to a USB stick or an external disk. A browser saves to the Downloads folder on C: by default, which matters if C: is the drive you want to recover.

2. Check the hash

   Open PowerShell in the folder that holds the ZIP and run Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 followed by the file name. Compare the long value with the SHA-256 published for that release. If they differ, delete the file and download it again from the official page.

3. Extract on the USB stick

   Right-click the ZIP, choose Extract All and pick a folder on the same USB stick. Do not run the program from inside the ZIP window, because Windows then unpacks it to a temporary folder on C:.

4. Check the signature and start it

   Right-click the program file, open Properties and look at the Digital Signatures tab; the signer should be PROJECTTEAMFORYOU. On first start Windows SmartScreen may show a warning because the app is new. Select More info, confirm the publisher, then Run anyway. Windows may also ask for administrator permission, which is needed to read a drive directly.

5. Scan and save elsewhere

   Plug the stick into the affected PC if it is not already there, open Deleted file recovery and select the drive you lost files on. Save the results to the USB stick, if it has room, or to another external disk. The app refuses to save onto the scanned volume.

6. Remove it when you are done

   Close the app and unplug the stick. Nothing was installed, so there is nothing to uninstall. You can keep the folder on the stick as a recovery kit for next time.

Why installing on the affected drive is a risk

Deleted files are not wiped at once. Windows only marks their space as free, and the next files written to the drive may be placed there. An installer is exactly that kind of write: it unpacks the program, its libraries and shortcuts, often around a hundred megabytes, into free space on C:. The download itself goes to C: first. If the files you want back were on C:, each of those steps is a chance to overwrite part of them.

That risk is highest right after the loss, on a hard drive or memory card where the data is still intact. On an internal SSD with TRIM, deleted data is often cleared soon after deletion anyway, so a portable tool cannot help with what TRIM has already erased. It still keeps further writes to a minimum.

What a portable version does not prevent

Running from USB keeps the app's own files off the affected drive, but Windows keeps working in the background: it writes logs, updates, browser caches and the page file to C:, and the app may keep its settings and a small working cache in your user profile. When the lost files were on the system drive and matter a lot, the safest option is to shut the PC down, connect its disk to another computer as a second drive and scan it there, or start the PC from a rescue USB.

If the lost files were on an external disk, USB stick or memory card, the situation is simpler: run the app from the PC's internal drive or another stick, and only read the affected device.

How to tell a genuine download from a fake

Recovery tools are popular targets for look-alike download sites that bundle adware or worse, and people searching in a hurry are easy to mislead. Download only from filefixapp.com. The SHA-256 hash proves that the file is byte for byte the one that was published, and the digital signature shows who published it. Both checks take less than a minute.

A SmartScreen warning on its own does not mean the file is dangerous; it appears for new apps that have not yet built a reputation with Microsoft. A missing or different signer, or a hash that does not match, is a real reason to stop.

When it won't help

• Files already overwritten before you started cannot be brought back by any tool, portable or not.
• On SSDs with TRIM, deleted data is often erased within moments, regardless of how the tool is started.
• Windows itself keeps writing to the system drive while it runs, so for important system-drive losses, scanning from another PC is safer.
• If the files were on the USB stick itself, do not run the app from that stick; use a different one.

How FileFix Ultimate helps

• Offers the same app as a portable ZIP that runs from a USB stick, next to the regular installer.
• Publishes SHA-256 hashes for every release and signs its files as PROJECTTEAMFORYOU.
• Opens the scanned drive read-only and refuses to save results onto the same volume.
• Is free for personal use, without a trial, account, upload or recovery limit, and works completely offline.
• Can also prepare a rescue USB for a PC that no longer starts Windows.

Frequently asked questions