What to do right now
- Files that appeared in a Recoverit scan are usually still recoverable. Stop writing to that drive now.
- Run FileFix Ultimate from a USB stick, scan the same drive and save without any size limit.
- Save everything to a different physical disk, never back to the drive you are recovering from.
- If the drive clicks, disconnects or is very slow, create a drive image first and scan the image.
How to move from Recoverit to a free tool
Leave the source drive untouched
Close Recoverit and do not save, install or download anything to the drive that held the lost files. If it is drive C:, keep browsing and updates to a minimum until you are done.
Get the portable version
On another computer or disk, download the FileFix Ultimate portable ZIP from the download page of filefixapp.com, extract it to a USB stick and run it from there. Installing onto the affected drive could overwrite what remains.
Scan the same drive
Open Deleted file recovery, select the drive or memory card and start the scan. When file system records survive, files come back with their original names and folders; signature search then looks for photos, documents and videos by content.
Check results while the scan runs
You can pause, resume and look at results before the scan ends. Filter by type, name, size or date and preview photos, PDFs and text to confirm you have the right files.
Read the status labels
Each file carries a confidence level and a status such as verified, partially recovered or extracted but unverified. Prefer verified copies when the same file appears more than once.
Save to another physical disk
Choose an external drive or a second internal disk as the destination. The same volume is blocked, and a different partition on the same disk asks for confirmation. There is no size limit, so you can save everything in one pass.
What Recoverit and FileFix Ultimate each focus on
Based on public information in October 2026, Wondershare Recoverit is a polished commercial tool with broad file format coverage and video-focused features, and Wondershare also sells a separate repair product. Its free edition lets you scan and preview, but saving is limited and larger recoveries need a paid plan. The exact free allowance and prices change, so check the current terms on the maker's page rather than relying on numbers quoted in reviews.
FileFix Ultimate has no feature-limited edition. Deleted file recovery, signature search across 68 file types, lost partition search, damaged file repair, the unsaved file finder and disk health checks are all included, with no recovery limit, no account and no ads, and free for personal use. Business use needs a one-year licence per PC, with the same features. It runs fully offline on Windows 10 and 11 and never uploads your files.
Why a second scan usually finds the same files
Recovery tools do not create data; they read what is still on the disk. If Recoverit showed a file with a sensible preview, its contents were readable at that moment, and another careful tool reading the same sectors will usually see them too. The lists will not be identical, because each program interprets file system records differently and recognises a different set of signatures.
What changes the outcome is what happened between the two scans. Saving recovered files back to the same drive, installing software on it or letting Windows run updates can overwrite clusters that held your files. On an SSD with TRIM enabled, deleted blocks may already have been erased even before the first scan, which no tool can reverse.
Video files and damaged results
Large videos are often stored in fragments, so any recovery tool may return them incomplete. FileFix Ultimate marks such files as partially recovered instead of presenting them as fine. If a recovered MP4 or MOV will not play because the recording was cut off, Damaged file repair can rebuild it from a healthy reference clip recorded on the same camera with the same settings, and it always saves the repair as a new file.
Wondershare and Recoverit are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with FileFix Ultimate.
When switching tools will not help
- Data that has been overwritten since deletion cannot be recovered by any tool.
- Files deleted long ago from an SSD with TRIM are usually empty in every program.
- A full format writes zeros over the volume on modern Windows, so earlier contents are gone.
- Clicking, grinding or a drive that is not detected points to physical damage; a recovery lab is the safer choice for important data.
- FileFix Ultimate does not read APFS, ReFS, Btrfs or ZFS volumes.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Free for personal use, with no trial period and no recovery size limit.
- Portable ZIP that runs from a USB stick, so nothing is installed on the affected drive.
- Read-only scanning and a save destination that must be another disk.
- Honest status labels and confidence levels for every recovered file.
- Repair of damaged JPEG, PDF, Office, MP4 and MOV files into new copies.
FileFix Ultimate is free for personal use, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Business use needs a one-year licence per PC. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
Recoverit shows my files but will not save them for free. Are they lost?
No. If they appear in the scan with a working preview, the data is still on the disk. Stop using the drive and scan it again with a free tool that has no recovery limit.
Can FileFix Ultimate open a Recoverit scan result?
No. Each tool keeps its own scan format, so you start a fresh scan of the same drive. A fresh scan is read-only and does not harm the data.
Is FileFix Ultimate slower than Recoverit?
Speed depends mostly on the drive size, its health and the scan type. You can look at results and save files while the scan is still running, which often matters more than total time.
Does FileFix Ultimate work on a Mac?
It is a Windows 10 and 11 app. It can read Mac HFS+ drives connected to a Windows PC, but not APFS volumes.