Could you please add more information about the drive? File system + what exactly happened? The answer can make a big difference. If this is just a case of recently deleted files on an NTFS external HDD, both tools have a decent chance of finding them. If the drive was formatted, became RAW, has bad sectors, or suffered some kind of file system corruption, that's an entirely different situation.

Ah, Recuva vs Disk Drill... the old data recovery dilemma 😄 Personally, I see Recuva as more of a quick first-pass tool for simple deletion cases. Disk Drill tends to be stronger when the situation is more complicated.  Disk Drill is the tool I reach for when I actually care about the results. In my experience, it tends to find more files, does a better job with file names and folder structure, and handles things like formatted drives or file system issues much better.

Hi, @infinity65 ! Welcome to our forum.

The answer depends a lot on what happened to the drive, but I can give you a quick overview of both tools.

Recuva is a lightweight recovery utility that has been around for many years. It's easy to use, offers a free version, and works reasonably well when you're dealing with recently deleted files on a healthy drive. If your data loss is straightforward, Recuva is often worth a try.

Disk Drill is a more feature-rich recovery tool. It supports a wider range of file systems, includes multiple scanning methods, can create byte-to-byte backups of unstable drives, and generally performs better in situations involving formatting, partition issues, RAW drives, or file system corruption. It also provides file previews before recovery, which can be very useful when evaluating scan results.

If you'd like a more detailed breakdown, we've reviewed both tools:

• Disk Drill review: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/disk-drill-review/ 
• Recuva review: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/recuva-review/ 

To give a more accurate recommendation, could you tell us what exactly happened to the files? Were they deleted, lost after formatting, or did the drive develop some kind of file system issue? It would also help to know which file system the drive uses (NTFS, exFAT, etc.) and whether you've written any new data to it since the data loss occurred.

@chris_89 @datarecoverexpert

Thanks for all the replies!

To answer the questions, the drive is a 500 GB WD My Passport formatted as NTFS. As for what exactly happened... that's part of the problem. I'm not entirely sure.

I first noticed that several folders were missing when I connected the drive a few days ago. I don't remember deleting them, and nobody else should have had access to the drive. Windows still detects it normally, but some files and folders that I know were there before seem to have disappeared.

The files I'm trying to recover are mostly photos, videos, and a few documents. Probably around 2–3 GB altogether.

@infinity65

Sounds like some form of profile or file system corruption to me. Not exactly the same situation, but I had a good experience with Disk Drill.

After a Windows update, my PC logged me into what turned out to be a temporary profile. A lot of my files seemed to be missing, even though most of my programs were still installed and working normally. I spent quite a bit of time checking user folders and trying different fixes before moving on to data recovery software.

Disk Drill ended up recovering around 50 important files, including documents, photos, and other personal data that no longer appeared where they should have been. Many of them still had their original names and folder structure, which made sorting through everything much easier. It didn't recover absolutely everything, but it recovered enough data to make a real difference.

Your case may be different, but if there's any chance the update damaged the file system or user profile, I'd recover the important data first and only then start attempting repairs.

@infinity65

I know Recuva gets recommended a lot, because it’s free. And I won't say it's a bad tool or anything like that. But for some reason, I've never had particularly exceptional results with it. 😅 Sure, it usually finds some files after a deep scan, but in my experience the recovery quality is often poor. I've had cases where it recovered only part of what I wanted, while another scan with different file recovery software found more data from the same drive.

Maybe I've just been unlucky, but after a few experiences like that, I stopped relying on it for anything important. Yeah… Take my opinion with a grain of salt. At this point I'm probably biased, lol. I actually came across a pretty interesting comparison a while back, I think it will be useful for you:  https://www.handyrecovery.com/recuva-vs-disk-drill/

Quote from phillyjohn on June 30, 2026, 8:28 am

@infinity65

I know Recuva gets recommended a lot, because it’s free. And I won't say it's a bad tool or anything like that. But for some reason, I've never had particularly exceptional results with it. 😅 Sure, it usually finds some files after a deep scan, but in my experience the recovery quality is often poor. I've had cases where it recovered only part of what I wanted, while another scan with different file recovery software found more data from the same drive.

Maybe I've just been unlucky, but after a few experiences like that, I stopped relying on it for anything important. Yeah… Take my opinion with a grain of salt. At this point I'm probably biased, lol. I actually came across a pretty interesting comparison a while back, I think it will be useful for you:  https://www.handyrecovery.com/recuva-vs-disk-drill/

Lmao, what did you do to your files? 😆 Recuva has worked pretty well for me in the past. For a free tool, it's hard to complain. I used it a couple of times for simple deletion cases and managed to get most of my files back without much trouble. That said, I've also used Disk Drill more recently and had a great experience with it. I wouldn't write Recuva off completely, but I can definitely see why so many people prefer Disk Drill nowadays.

@infinity65 Based on the additional details, I agree that this doesn't sound like a straightforward deleted-file scenario.

Since the drive remains accessible and only certain folders appear to be missing, I'd be concerned about logical corruption or damage to the NTFS file system. The good news is that a 500 GB external HDD with only 2–3 GB of missing data is generally a favorable recovery situation.

Before you do anything else, consider creating a byte-to-byte backup of the drive if you have enough free space on another disk. That gives you a safety net and allows you to work from a copy rather than the original drive.

As for Recuva vs Disk Drill, both are capable tools, but they have different strengths. Price clearly favors Recuva since the free version has no recovery limit. On the other hand, Disk Drill has the advantage when it comes to file system support, recovery from corrupted or RAW drives, RAID recovery, folder structure preservation, and additional safety features such as byte-to-byte backups.

Given the possibility of file system corruption rather than a simple deletion, I'd personally choose Disk Drill in this case, here is a guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ1aQPFxTag&t=179s. Recuva works best when you're dealing with recently deleted files on a healthy drive, while Disk Drill is generally better equipped to handle more complex situations. Recuva also doesn't support APFS, which can be a limitation for some users.

Most importantly, avoid repair attempts until you've recovered or backed up the missing data.

@infinity65

I have nothing to add, except for the fact that you can also try the tools yourself and select the one you prefer. It doesn’t have to be Disk Drill or Recuva, actually. I found a great list of recovery software on Reddit, in case you will need other options for hard drive recovery - https://www.reddit.com/r/DataRecoveryHelp/wiki/data-recovery-software/

@infinity65 Welcome! I'm a little late to the conversation.

As for Recuva vs Disk Drill, I'd generally recommend Disk Drill for a case like this. Recuva can work well for simple accidental deletions, but once file system corruption, missing partitions, RAW volumes, or formatting enter the picture, Disk Drill tends to offer more thorough scan results and better recovery options.

At this point, I agree with the advice you've already received. Your description sounds more like a logical file system problem than a straightforward deletion. We often see missing folders combined with an otherwise accessible NTFS drive when file system metadata becomes damaged.

The most important thing is to recover the missing data first. Don't run CHKDSK, Windows Error Checking, or any other repair utilities until you've copied the important files somewhere safe.

Once recovery is complete, you can try a few things to address the corruption:

• Run Windows Error Checking or CHKDSK to repair NTFS errors.
• Check the drive's S.M.A.R.T. health information to make sure the problem wasn't caused by a developing hardware issue.
• Copy any remaining important files off the drive and monitor it for a while.
• If errors continue to appear, back up the drive and reformat it. If problems return even after a format, consider replacing the drive. Let us know how it goes.

Just wanted to post an update in case anyone finds this thread later.

After reading through everyone's replies, I decided to go with Disk Drill. Since a few people mentioned the possibility of file system corruption, I followed the advice from @DataRecoverExpert and created a byte-to-byte backup of the drive first. It took some extra time, but in hindsight I'm glad I did it because it gave me a safety net before I started scanning.

I scanned the backup rather than the original drive. The scan took around an hour or so, and it found a lot more data than I expected. More importantly, it found the missing folders I was actually looking for, not just a giant list of random files.

In the end, I recovered almost all of the missing photos, videos, and documents. Most files still had their original names, and the folder structure was largely preserved, which made sorting everything much easier. A couple of video files wouldn't open properly after recovery, and a handful of photos appear to be damaged, but I'd estimate that well over 90% of the missing data was recovered successfully.

Once I had copied everything to another drive, I finally ran a file system check on the original WD My Passport. Windows reported some NTFS errors and fixed them. I still don't know exactly what caused the problem, but it does seem like some sort of file system corruption was involved rather than accidental deletion.

Thank you so much!