With storage prices plummeting and users adopting flash storage over traditional mechanical drives, it has never been a better time to save your precious memories locally and drop cloud storage services.

However, despite all the advancements and improvements to storage mediums, these devices could be better. They're still prone to corruption, crashes, and errors, raising questions about what can be done when that leads to data loss.

Kickass Undelete answers those questions. This open-source tool, created by passionate file recovery developers, can recover your deleted files quickly. Today, we'll explore this tremendous app and examine one of its alternatives.

In this article
    1. Overview: Wondershare Recoverithot
    2. Wondershare Recoverit VS Kickass Undelete
    3. How to Use Wondershare Recoverit to Recover Deleted Files

What Is Kickass Undelete?

Developed by Joey Scarr, Josh Oosterman, and Liz Korsika, Kickass Undelete is an open-source, free, and fully-fledged file recovery application for Windows machines. With an effortlessly simple interface and, as developers themselves have said, an unreasonably large scan button, using Kickass Undelete is incredibly straightforward.

Still, the tool's features make it an even better file recovery option:

  • It doesn't require an installation, and the .EXE file can be used from a USB;
  • Ability to recover files from internal and external disk drives;
  • Filename and extension filters when searching for lost data;
  • Support for FAT and NTFS file systems and drives;
  • Effortless one-click scanning process.

As an open-source tool, Kickass Undelete has many advantages over the competition, with a few disadvantages here and there, so let's dive right into these.

Pros
  • Kickass Undelete is open-source and entirely free to use;
  • It's a highly portable tool that doesn't require installation;
  • Using the application is immensely simple and requires only a few clicks.
Cons
  • The tool lacks any options for setting up the scan;
  • It doesn't support exFAT or any other file system except NTFS and FAT;
  • The project hasn't been updated since 2018.

All in all, while having a free and portable file recovery app is fantastic when you need quick and straightforward file recovery, many users will be unhappy with the application’s lack of features and control over the scan and recovery process.

How to Recover Deleted Files With Kickass Undelete

As mentioned, Kickass Undelete has a remarkably straightforward interface with "an unreasonably large scan button." Using the app is a piece of cake, and the warnings are enough to steer you in the right direction and tell you what to click on next. Nonetheless, we've included a guide with pictures, so here's what you'll need to do:

  1. Download Kickass Undelete from the official webpage and launch the app on your PC.
  2. Tap the Yes button to confirm you want to use an administrator account (accounts without administrator privileges can't scan and recover files from internal disk drives).
    run kickass undelete as admin<
  3. Select an NTFS or a FAT file system drive on the left, and hit the big Scan button.
    scan for lost files<
  4. Select the files you want to recover when the scan process finishes, tap the Restore Files button in the bottom right corner, and select a safe location to save the discovered data.
    restore the discovered files<

It's worth noting that Kickass Undelete displays a tab called "Chance of Recovery," where you can see the state of your deleted files and whether they can be recovered, but this only works on NTFS drives.

A Better Alternative: Wondershare Recoverit

While losing data is unfortunate every time it happens, users in 2024 are also incredibly fortunate to have so many choices regarding data recovery apps, which are only a few clicks away. That's also how Kickass Undelete has a fantastic alternative – Wondershare Recoverit.

Overview: Wondershare Recoverit

Wondershare Recoverit was created by a team with over 20 years of experience in the industry. With 35 advanced patents and a 98% recovery rate, it's a prime example of a professional, dedicated, and reliable data recovery application. The application's features set it apart from the competition, and they include the following:

  • Supports over 1,000 file formats and recovers photos, videos, music, documents, etc.;
  • It works in 500+ data loss situations like accidental deletion, failed transfer, system crashes, etc.;
  • The app runs on 2,000+ storage devices, like internal drives, external devices, USBs, NAS, etc.

With these in mind, it's clear why Wondershare Recoverit is the primary choice of millions of users looking for a professional data recovery tool.

Free Download
Free Download

Wondershare Recoverit VS Kickass Undelete

On the one hand, you have Kickass Undelete, an open-source project developed by three people. This free application gets straight to the point, with an overly simplified user interface and a single button to start scanning.

On the other hand, there's Wondershare Recoverit, a paid, professional tool created by people with over 20 years of experience in the data recovery industry. The differences between these two applications are noticeable, but let's dive deeper and compare every aspect of such different approaches to file recovery.

File Recovery ApplicationKickass UndeleteWondershare Recoverit
PricingFreePaid ($59.99 per month)
Operating System SupportWindows XP – 11🚀 Windows Vista – 11;
Windows Server 2003 – 2022;
Mac OS X 10.10 – mac OS 13.
File System SupportNTFS and FAT🚀 NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS, APFS, encrypted APFS, HFS+, encrypted HFS, HFSX, EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, RAID, RAW, JFS, BTRFS, and more
Storage Device SupportHDD, SSD, USB, and SD card🚀 2,000+ storage devices (HDD, SSD, external drives, USB, SD cards, CF cards, Linux devices, NAS servers, digital and action cameras, camcorders, drones, music players, audio recorders, etc.)
File Recovery SituationsAccidental deletion🚀 500+ data loss situations (accidentally deleted files, formatted drives, interrupted file transfers, virus infections, system crashes, unexpected shutdowns, fragmentation, etc.)
Additional FeaturesChance of Recovery for NTFS drives🚀 File preview with support for hundreds of file types;
Ability to repair corrupt, broken, or damaged videos before recovery;
Data recovery from NAS through remote connections;
Ability to recover data from disk images;
Highly customizable scan.

How to Use Wondershare Recoverit to Recover Deleted Files

Now that we know how to use Kickass Undelete and the difference between Kickass Undelete and Wondershare Recoverit, we'll also examine the steps to doing so.

Free Download
Free Download

While the app's interface is highly intuitive, and its data recovery process requires only a few simple steps, we've still included a detailed step-by-step guide for your convenience, which you'll find below.

  1. Launch the app and select Hard Drives and Locations in the top left.
    select hard drives and locations<
  2. Select a drive whose data you want to recover, and the app will automatically launch a thorough scan on it.
    scan the drive for lost files<
  3. Add keywords and adjust multiple file filters to pinpoint the scan.
    add file filters and keywords<
  4. 4. Preview the discovered files to verify their integrity and confirm whether those are the files you want to recover. Before you move to the next step, you can look into Wondershare's enhanced video recovery feature.
    preview the discovered data<
  5. When ready, tap the Recover button to save the files. You can also pause or stop the scan at any point if the app has already found the correct files.
    save the discovered files<

That's it, and you're done. With support for over 1,000 file types, 2,000+ storage devices, and 500+ data loss situations, Wondershare Recoverit will make your data loss issues disappear in a few steps, and you'll safely retrieve your data in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Kickass Undelete is a terrific, free, open-source file recovery application for Windows. Three passionate developers created it to combat NTFS and FAT disk drive data loss. Using it is remarkably simple, as only one big scan button exists.

However, the lack of features, customization, and support has led many users to seek an alternative solution. Here, Wondershare Recoverit represents a prime example of alternatives to Kickass Undelete.

While a paid option, it supports many more file types and systems, storage devices, and data loss situations. It offers scan customization, multiple advanced features, and the ability to preview files before recovering while remaining effortless and only requiring a few simple steps. This makes the app a reasonable alternative to Kickass Undelete.

Free Download
Free Download
Theo Lucia
Theo Lucia Nov 26, 24
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