Best File Recovery Software With Preview Feature [2025 Guide]

Accidentally deleting those nostalgic photos, work files, or experiencing data loss due to corruption, crashes, and formatting can be devastating. You might think they’re lost forever, but they’re still present on your drive and can be recovered using a file recovery software.

The thing with data recovery software is that it can take quite some time, and no such software comes cheap. So you’d want to know which files are recoverable before you commit to a purchase. And that’s where the preview feature becomes handy. File recovery software with preview lets you see exactly which files are recoverable before you buy the license and begin restoring them.

In this guide, we’ll skip the noise and highlight the top file recovery software downloads of 2025 with preview functionality.

Why Preview Matters in File Recovery

Previewing files before recovery is important for these reasons.

1. 🎯 Improves Accuracy: Previews help identify the correct files and can help you avoid recovering junk or corrupted data.
2. ⏱️ Saves Time: They speed up the process by narrowing recovery to only needed items.
3. 📁 File Integrity Checks: Previews ensure that your files are readable and not corrupted beyond repair.
4. 💵 Price Transparency: Some software charge the user per GB of data recovered; thus, a preview option prevents unnecessary recovery costs.

Best File Recovery Software With Preview Feature

Stellar Windows Data Recovery is a comprehensive and user-friendly data recovery software designed for Windows and macOS. It offers two robust scanning modes—Quick Scan and Deep Scan—that allow you to recover files lost due to accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, or malware attacks.

Stellar Data Recovery Software has a powerful file preview feature that shows recoverable documents, photos, videos in high resolution before recovery. It also has an intuitive interface, making it easy to use for both beginners and professionals.

The software supports recovery from hard disk drives, SSDs, USB drives, and SD cards. Its ability to recover from encrypted drives and lost partitions makes it ideal in scenarios where most other software fail.

⭐Our Rating: 5/5

✅Pros	❌Cons
High-resolution file preview	Free version limited to 1 GB
Supports a wide range of file types	Deep scan can be time-consuming
Easy-to-navigate interface	No Linux version
Can recover from encrypted and formatted drives

Stellar’s file recovery tool with deep scan supports these file types in the preview feature.

• 🖼️ Images: JPG, PNG, RAW, BMP, TIFF
• 📄 Documents: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, TXT, PDF
• 📽️ Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, M4V
• 🎵 Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC
• 📧 Emails: PST, DBX, EML
• 💼 Others: ZIP, RAR, and various database/archive files

The preview feature works with both existing and deleted files, and helps give you a proper visual confirmation before you hit “Recover.”

Furthermore, Stellar Windows Data Recovery supports the following devices.

• 💽 Hard Drives (HDDs): Internal/external drives from Seagate, WD, Toshiba, etc.
• ⚡ Solid State Drives (SSDs): SATA and NVMe SSDs
• 🪪 USB Flash Drives: Formatted, deleted, or unreadable USB pen drives
• 💾 SD Cards & Memory Cards: Camera cards, microSD, CF cards
• 📀 Optical Media: CD/DVD recovery
• 🔐 Encrypted Drives: Recover data after decryption

All of this comes in a Windows- and macOS-compatible version with support for NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, and other file systems!

Why Stellar’s Preview Feature Stands Out

Though a few other data recovery software offer file preview, Stellar’s Preview Feature is miles ahead.

• 🖥️ Real-Time, Pixel-Perfect Previews: You shouldn’t have to settle for file names; Stellar renders a complete view of image, video, and doc contents before you restore your files.
• 🔎 Deep Scanning With Preview: Unlike other tools that preview only basic files, Stellar’s file recovery tool can scan deep layers of your drive for fragmented data and still allow preview before purchase.
• 🧠 Intelligent Filtering: You can group recoverable files by type, size, or date and preview only the important ones.
• 🔄 Formatted/Corrupted Drive Support: You can preview even from formatted partitions or RAW drives.
• 🧰 Multiple Device Support in One Tool: No need to download separate tools for USB, SD card, SSD, or HDD—Stellar handles all of them, with preview support included.

Step-by-Step File Recovery With Preview Using Stellar Data Recovery

1. Download and install Stellar Windows Data Recovery Professional from the official website.
2. Run the tool, and in the What To Recover section, you can select the different file types that you want to recover. Selecting All Data gives the most comprehensive results, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can individually select and search for only photos, videos, audios, etc.
   
3. Click on Next, which takes you to the Recover From Now select the drive, partition, or even folder from which you want to recover your lost data.
4. Next, click on Scan (you can also click on the Deep Scan button first to perform a more in-depth search). The scanning time depends on the size of your drive, but in our experience, the software takes a few minutes to finish the scan.
   
5. Right after the scan, you can preview all your recoverable files that the software has located. Stellar gives you a completely free preview of all files so that you can find exactly what you’re looking for. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can use a product key to purchase the software.
6. Click on the Recover button and retrieve the files you need to your desired location.

[Note: Make sure your recovered files are saved to a different location from where they were recovered. This prevents unnecessary data loss in case the original drive or partition was corrupted.]

How to Choose the Right Data Recovery Tool

When selecting a file recovery tool with preview feature, you should keep these factors in mind.

• 🖱️ Ease of Use: Choose a tool with a simple, intuitive interface to avoid confusion during recovery.
• 🧾 Supported File Types: Ensure that it supports the file formats you want to recover (e.g., DOCX, MP4, JPG).
• 🖼️ Preview Quality: Not all tools offer high-resolution previews, so look for one that lets you clearly inspect your files before restoring.
• 💽 Device Support: Confirm that it works with your specific storage medium, like HDDs, SSDs, USB drives, and memory cards. You can use Stellar Data Recovery to cover all these and more.
• 🔓 Recovery Limits: Free versions often have limits; check how much data you can actually recover without paying to see if it fits your needs.
• 🖥️ Operating System Compatibility: Verify that the software supports your version of Windows or other OS.
• 💰 Cost Efficiency: Consider whether the tool’s pricing makes sense based on your recovery needs and budget.

Conclusion

If preview functionality is important to your recovery workflow, not all tools are created equal. If you want a combination of accuracy, usability, and powerful scan options, Stellar Data Recovery for Windows and macOS stands out as the most robust solution.

Unlike basic software that may only show filenames or limited previews, Stellar offers you clear file previews, deep scan support, and the ability to recover from almost any device across multiple file types. Free tools may be useful in some cases, but professional recovery demands a more capable, trusted platform, especially when you’re recovering permanently deleted or corrupted files. And remember, prevention is the best cure, so always back up your data to avoid these scenarios in the first place.

FAQs

1. Can I recover files from a formatted drive with preview?

Yes, powerful recovery software, like Stellar Data Recovery for Windows and macOS, support formatted drive recovery with a preview feature.

2. Does preview work for all file types?

No, not always. Most tools support previews for popular and frequently used formats for images, videos and documents, but complex or custom file types may not always be previewed.

3. Is file preview available in free versions?

Yes. Some tools allow preview in their free/trial versions, even if they limit your actual recovery.

4. Will previewing damage my files or drive?

No, it won’t. Previewing is a read-only function and does not change the original file or overwrite your data on the storage device.

5. Can I use Stellar Data Recovery software on external drives or SD cards?

Yes, Stellar Data Recovery software supports external media recovery with preview capabilities.