Hello, my name is yoshihamkorori. I have been working as an IT engineer for over 25 years. Have you ever accidentally deleted a file on your computer and later thought, “Hmm… where did that file go?” In this article, I would like to share my impressions of using the data recovery software WonderFox Soft’s “RecoveryFox AI.” Please note that these are purely my personal opinions.
To summarize, in my environment, I was able to recover text files, but Excel files and image files could not be restored, so it seems that recovery may be difficult unless various conditions are met.
However, I found the software easy to use due to its simple menu and button layout and appreciated that it supports multiple languages.
Links to the RecoveryFox AI download site are also included, so if you are interested, please feel free to try it. Please download and install at your own responsibility.
* The images included are from the Japanese version. Please keep that in mind.
Official RecoveryFox AI Site
Testing Environment
The testing environment is shown below.
- DELL Inspiron 13 5310 (Laptop)
- CPU: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11390H @ 3.40GHz
- Memory: 16GB
- VRAM: 2GB
- HDD: 500GB SSD
- OS: Windows 11 Home
- RecoveryFox AI: Version 1.0
Installing RecoveryFox AI
The installation process was straightforward.
Downloading RecoveryFox AI
Access the official RecoveryFox AI website and download the installer to any folder of your choice.
Official RecoveryFox AI Site
Launching the RecoveryFox AI Installer
Launch the downloaded installer (recoveryfoxai.exe).
Selecting the Language
Select your preferred language and click the “OK” button.
Starting Setup
Click the “Next” button.
Reviewing the License Agreement
After reading the license agreement, click “Agree” to continue the installation.
Selecting Installation Location
Choose the installation location and click the “Install” button. If there are no issues, the default location suggested by the installer should be fine.
Completing Setup
Click the “Finish” button.
Test 1: Can a file deleted without going to the Recycle Bin be restored?
I tried to see if a file deleted without leaving it in the Recycle Bin could be restored.
Creating the File to Recover
For testing, I created a file named “FileToRecover.xlsx” (Microsoft Excel 365 file) and saved it on the desktop.
Completely Deleting the File
The “FileToRecover.xlsx” was deleted permanently using [Shift] + [Delete], bypassing the Recycle Bin.
Launching RecoveryFox AI
Opened RecoveryFox AI and displayed the menu. The interface is very simple. I clicked the drive button to start scanning. Although not measured precisely, the scan took approximately 2–3 hours for a 500GB SSD.
Scan Completion and Checking Recovery Candidates
Once the scan finished, a list of candidate files was created. There is a search box in the top-right corner, so I searched for “.xlsx”. However, the deleted test file did not appear as a candidate.
Test 2: Can a file listed as a recovery candidate be restored?
Next, I tried to restore files that appeared as recovery candidates.
Selecting Files to Recover
By selecting the category tab, files are classified by type such as documents or images, making it easier to find files. To try restoring Excel files, I selected the file and clicked the “Recover Data” button.
Selecting the Destination Folder
Selected a destination folder and clicked “OK.”
Completion of Recovery
A completion message appeared, so I clicked “OK.”
Checking Restored Files
The files were restored, but an error occurred when opening them. However, since I do not know the original content, the file may have been corrupted from the start.
Other files such as PNG images and PowerPoint files (pptx) were also tested, but their contents could not be displayed. It seems that restoring binary files is more difficult.
Text Files Were Successfully Recovered
Some text files were successfully recovered. However, as I do not know their original content, I did not check the differences before and after recovery.
Pros and Cons of RecoveryFox AI
Based on my testing experience, here are the pros and cons of RecoveryFox AI.
Pros
- Easy installation
- Simple and intuitive interface
- Lists possible recoverable files, giving hope even when files seem lost
- Supports multiple languages
- Comprehensive help, support, and manuals
Cons
- The scan starts immediately after clicking a button. Since scanning can take a long time, a confirmation message beforehand would be helpful. Cancelling is only possible via the top-right × button, which is not obvious. A dedicated cancel button would be better.
- It would be better to allow selecting arbitrary folders for scanning.
- Scan results are only available during the current session. Being able to save or reload results would be useful.
- Files cannot be recovered to the scanned drive. This may be difficult in environments with only one drive.
- Although minor, sometimes a “no file selected” message appears even when a file is selected.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading to the end.
RecoveryFox AI could be a savior if important documents or photos are accidentally deleted. Using it as a last resort or on a “hope for the best” basis is a valid approach (although it may be a bit expensive for personal use). Since recovery involves unstable deleted data, it was somewhat disappointing that many cases could not be restored during this testing. This reinforces the importance of regular backups to prevent such situations.
If you are interested, please consider trying RecoveryFox AI. Feel free to leave comments or inquiries. Lastly, donations are also welcome if you found this article helpful.
Official RecoveryFox AI Site
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