recuva and photorec are the obvious ones here, both free. recuva has a bad rep with some people (seen a few threads saying it doesn't work) but honestly it's hit or miss. it worked fine for me a couple times. photorec is more solid as an actual tool but the interface is confusing to say the least. maybe watch a tutorial first if you need a walkthrough, here’s one - https://youtu.be/c0j9jE0X4nY?si=uzB0l1Fxy9i1wlzs

about the scan thing, don’t panic too much. proper recovery scans should be read-only, so one extra scan usually isn’t a big deal. but i still wouldn’t go wild and run every random app you find, just to be safe

Recuva and PhotoRec are reasonable starting points if you want to check free options before paying, but you should go in with the right expectations.

Recuva is easy to use and can work if the files were deleted recently and the card wasn’t reused. But based on our tests, it’s inconsistent on SD cards, even in clean deletion cases on FAT32 and exFAT. 

PhotoRec is open source and often more reliable when the file system is damaged or the original file entries are gone. And unlike Recuva, it works on Mac. But it has its own downsides: it recovers files without original names or folder structure, and throws all recovered files into one big pile. Also, PhotoRec itself is command-line based, which can be inconvenient, but on Windows there is a GUI version called QPhotoRec included in the same package (you can see the location on the screen below).

We’ve recently put together a list of the best free unlimited data recovery software if you want to compare more tools. But yeah, Recuva and PhotoRec are still the main ones I’d try first. 

A quick safety note: recover everything to a different drive, not to the SD card. More advanced tools usually warn you about this, but with Recuva or PhotoRec, double-check the output location yourself. If you install other recovery tools, install them on your PC or another drive too.

About repeated scans, I mostly agree with @ohiotom. On a healthy card, read-only scans usually shouldn’t cause harm. But I’d add one thing: if the device is already fragile, even read operations can make things worse. So it depends on the situation, but I’d still be careful and avoid running scans just for the sake of it.

This probably doesn't apply to you directly, since Disk Drill already found the files you need. But for anyone reading this later: don’t record anything new to the card after deletion, or the old video data may be overwritten. In that case, even solid recovery software might not be able to get everything back.

Also, if the card came from an action camera, like DJI, GoPro, Insta360, etc., there is a decent chance those videos are fragmented on the card. In that case, basic free tools may still find the files, but fail to rebuild them into playable videos, so don’t be surprised if that happens. 

P.S. Despite the alternative suggestions, I personally think Disk Drill is worth it if the license is within your budget. If you don’t absolutely need a cheaper option, I wouldn’t overcomplicate it. IMHO.

@datarecoverexpert Damn, that’s way more info than I expected haha. Thank you!

Recuva is not that bad honestly. I used it a few months ago when I deleted a whole folder of photos from a USB stick and it got most of them back. Videos are maybe different, I don’t know, but trying it costs nothing. Also there is Windows File Recovery from Microsoft. It is official and free - https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n26s50ln705?hl=en - maybe it could work as an alternative too…

@phillyjohn Windows File Recovery made me want to throw my laptop out of the window. I’m sure someone will reply with “it worked for me once in 2015,” but my experience was awful. Confusing commands, weird output, and in the end I got a pile of files that either didn’t open or were duplicates of garbage I didn’t need. For one or two Word docs, fine, maybe. But for camera videos I wouldn’t waste my time on it unless you enjoy suffering. I’d rather pay than deal with it ever again

@em_on_pc I’d phrase it less harshly, but yes, mostly agreed. Windows File Recovery can be okay in very narrow cases. Based on our tests, it performs best with recently deleted files on NTFS, for example when files were moved to the Recycle Bin from an internal drive and then removed from there. But once you get into signature recovery, SD cards (I mean file systems typically used with memory cards), or large camera videos, it’s not reliable enough to be a serious Disk Drill alternative

UPDATE

I tried both Recuva and PhotoRec like you guys suggested. Recuva found some files but the longer videos don’t play properly. PhotoRec found much more stuff, but same issue. Some clips open in VLC, but then I get these weird visual artifacts, and after a few seconds the video just freezes. Others don’t open at all. 

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if the tools just can't handle it?? 

@carlos_the_creator What camera was the SD card from? GoPro, DJI, regular Sony/Canon, something else? Action cameras especially can be weird with video files. I had a GoPro card once where recovery tools found MP4s, but most of them were broken. If yours is from something like that, it might explain why Recuva and PhotoRec are giving you corrupted long clips

@ryan404 It’s from DJI Osmo Action 4. The files were MP4 videos, mostly longer clips from a trip. The short ones seem easier to recover, but the longer ones are exactly the ones Recuva and PhotoRec keep bringing back broken

@carlos_the_creator Okay, this fits the fragmented-video scenario I mentioned above. Good catch from @ryan404 on the camera model.

You probably didn’t do anything wrong. Some tools can detect the beginning of an MP4 file and still fail to put the rest of the video back together. For this kind of case you usually need something more professional than a basic undelete tool.

Did Disk Drill show those videos in preview during the scan? Not just the file name or recovery chance, but an actual playable preview. If yes, that is a strong sign that the videos are recoverable, even if the other tools produced broken files. 

@datarecoverexpert This is what I’m seeing in Disk Drill. The videos show up in the preview panel and they actually play there, so I’m guessing that’s the “actual preview” you meant, right? At least it looks normal to me. I did test a couple of the shorter ones and they came back fine. I was just hoping there was an alternative to Disk Drill that didn’t cost as much

@carlos_the_creator Yeah, it looks like the right kind of preview. 

I get wanting a free option, but for fragmented videos you may simply need a more capable software. Since Disk Drill showed proper previews and recovered test clips play from start to finish without artifacts, you probably already found the tool that can handle this case. 

If you’re unsure, check some reviews from people who actually tested Disk Drill. For example, this Reddit user described a very similar fragmented video case in his post.

But if you want to compare more apps like Disk Drill, test only those that specifically claim to handle fragmented video recovery. I wouldn’t keep trying random tools at this point, because most of them will probably repeat the same result: files found, videos broken

There's a tool called GoProRecovery that I used maybe 4 (?) years ago. Works especially well with fragmented video files. It recovered around 30GB of footage from my GoPro back then. Might be worth a look in your case

@alexr I just looked it up and GoProRecovery was actually acquired by Disk Drill lol. It's on their site: https://www.cleverfiles.com/goprorecovery.html

@carlos_the_creator Oh wow didn't know that. Then honestly yeah, maybe that explains why it’s finding your clips properly. GoProRecovery saved me back then

I’ll throw in my two cents here too. Are there Disk Drill alternatives? Of course there are. But I’d only look for another software in areas Disk Drill isn’t really meant for, not in regular data recovery cases. 

Like, if you need to repair partitions (not to recover individual files from partition) TestDisk makes more sense. As an HDD repair tool for bad sectors or drive diagnostics, Victoria is better. On Linux, UFS Explorer is a more realistic option simply because Disk Drill can’t be installed there. In those particular cases, looking for an alternative actually makes sense. Вut for straight-up fragmented video recovery on Windows, I honestly don’t think there are many tools that are clearly better than Disk Drill.

I tested a few tools myself and went through a bunch of Reddit threads when I had a similar issue. And people give a lot of positive feedback about Disk Drill’s fragmented video recovery specifically. Take a look at these:
https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/1bapafb/comment/ku501nx/
https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/1lplurm/comment/n0vvbws/

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/1q1jxvi/comment/nxsybr7/

So yeah, if Recuva and PhotoRec already gave you broken videos, and Disk Drill previews your clips properly, I honestly wouldn’t overthink it 

I work as a photographer at events. If I got a dollar for every photo I've accidentally deleted over the years, I wouldn't be a millionaire, but I'd definitely be much richer lol. Anyway, that's why I bought Disk Drill like 3 years ago, and it's been worth every cent, not gonna lie.

Funny thing, I was poking around their Help Center recently and stumbled on this: https://www.cleverfiles.com/help/disk-drill-pro-coupon-discount.html Apparently they have discount coupons. No use to me now but I really wish I'd known that back then. If the price is the sticking point, worth checking out. And I'd go lifetime license if I were you. If you shoot regularly, I guarantee you this won't be the last time something like this happens

@chris_89 Oh I had no idea they had coupons, thank you! That's actually really helpful

UPDATE

Thank you all guys for your advice!

I couldn’t find any decent alternative in the end, so I bought the full version of Disk Drill. I went with the lifetime license. It still hurt to pay for it, but I figured it’s better than buying the same thing again in two years if I mess up anything else. I also used the coupon someone posted above, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

And I managed to recover 5 GB of videos!! I think that’s everything I deleted. The original filenames didn't survive but I'm guessing that's just how fragmented video recovery works. One video has some artifacts in a section but honestly compared to what Recuva and PhotoRec were giving me, that's nothing.

Overall really happy with it. If anyone finds this thread later, try the free tools first, absolutely. But if you've got fragmented videos like me and the free options are spitting out corrupted files, this is probably where you end up anyway. Not the answer I wanted at the start, but it worked