Glary Undelete Review (2026): Simple Free Undelete

Brief selection A quick shortlist of our top alternative picks, based on aggregated independent research.	Best Alternative EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Best overall · 2 GB free Visit Website See Full Review	Stellar Data Recovery Best for photos · 1 GB free Visit Website See Full Review	Wondershare Recoverit Best for video · 100 MB free Visit Website See Full Review
Deep Scan	✓	✓	✓
Formatted Drive Recovery	✓	✓	✓
RAW Photo Support	Broad	Broad	Limited
File Repair	✓	✓	Video only
Free Tier	2 GB	1 GB	100 MB

This review aggregates three evidence sources for Glary Undelete v5.0.1.25: vendor documentation (the official product page, Glarysoft’s changelog, and the supported-filesystem list), independent external evaluation, and verified user feedback (Reddit threads on r/datarecovery and r/techsupport, Trustpilot, plus Softpedia and MajorGeeks editor listings). Feature claims and architectural limits are cross-referenced across these source types before being stated as fact.

Tier assignments in this review (Excellent / Very Good / Good / Fair / Limited / Not supported) reflect the aggregate of that evidence for each capability — not an in-house benchmark. Where independent testing diverges from Glarysoft’s marketing claims (for instance, independent reports of USB device issues that the vendor’s feature list implies are supported), we follow the independent evidence and note the discrepancy. For the broader Windows recovery-tool landscape Glary Undelete sits within, see our ranking of the best Windows data recovery software. Full methodology details are on our How We Test page.

Glary Undelete is safe to install and use. Glarysoft has operated since 2006 with a two-decade track record of Windows utilities, most notably the Glary Utilities suite. The Glary Undelete installer is small (under 5 MB on the official download), does not bundle third-party adware or offers during installation, and does not install background services. The tool scans drives in read-only mode — running a scan cannot overwrite or damage the files you’re trying to recover.

One caveat: Glarysoft has received mixed community feedback on Trustpilot (roughly a 3.3-star average for the broader Glarysoft product line, though most criticism concerns paid products like Glary Utilities Pro rather than the free Glary Undelete tool). Complaints typically involve customer service response times and auto-renewal friction on the Pro-tier products. The free Glary Undelete has no billing component, so those concerns don’t apply here.

The workflow is refreshingly simple — one of the easiest recovery tools on Windows. No wizard because the entire process fits on a single screen:

Glary Undelete is for users who just deleted a file and want to get it back immediately, for free, with no account and no software to learn. The ideal scenario is a recently deleted document, photo, or archive on an intact NTFS or FAT drive — most commonly an internal Windows system drive, a USB flash drive, or an external HDD.

A concrete example: an office worker on a Windows 11 laptop who accidentally deleted a Word document from the Documents folder, emptied the Recycle Bin before realizing, and needs to recover the file in the next few minutes before the disk gets much further use. Glary Undelete is a reasonable first attempt for that situation — it’s free, installs in under a minute, and if the MFT entry is still intact, it’ll find the file. For a broader look at tools specifically for this case, see our guide to Recycle Bin file recovery software.

If your situation is more complex — a formatted drive, a corrupted partition, a camera SD card with RAW files, an exFAT-formatted portable SSD, or a drive that doesn’t show up in File Explorer at all — the next section explains where this tool’s architectural limits start.

Glary Undelete’s strengths cluster around simplicity, accessibility, and the “truly free” positioning. Independent reviewers consistently highlight the same four attributes:

Genuinely free with no data caps

The strongest differentiator. Most tools marketed as “free” impose a volume cap (Disk Drill at 100 MB, Recuva’s Pro upgrade prompt, EaseUS at 2 GB) or restrict features behind an upgrade. Glary Undelete has no cap on recovery volume, no time-limited trial, no “Pro” upgrade, and no registration. Independent evaluation consistently calls out that, unlike most paid software, Glary Undelete and Glarysoft File Recovery have no maximum cap on the volume of data that can be retrieved. This makes it one of the few tools genuinely suitable for recovering large datasets at no cost — provided the data-loss scenario falls within its architectural capabilities. For a broader view of truly free options, see our roundup of the best free data recovery software.

Fast MFT parsing for recently deleted files

Because the tool only parses existing file-system metadata (MFT on NTFS, directory entries on FAT), scans finish quickly on intact file systems. Independent hands-on evaluation finds both SSD and HDD internal drives yield fast results during typical small-recovery workflows. For the narrow case of a freshly deleted file whose metadata entry hasn’t been overwritten, the workflow is effectively instant.

Single-screen interface with no learning curve

The entire UI fits on one screen: drive selector on the left, file list in the middle, filter and restore buttons on the right. There is no wizard, no multi-step flow, no preferences panel to configure before scanning. Independent reviewers consistently characterise this as one of the most straightforward layouts in the category. For users who just want to undelete a file without learning recovery software, this is a genuine strength.

Recovery-state indicators that actually help

Every found file is tagged with a recovery-state indicator (Very Good, Good, Medium, Poor, Overwritten) that reflects how intact its data clusters are on disk. This is more useful than it sounds: for large result sets, the indicator lets you skip likely-corrupted files and prioritize the ones with a high probability of clean recovery. Not every tool at any price exposes this information this clearly — it’s an architectural feature worth highlighting.

The limitations are real and architectural. The tool is free because it does a deliberately narrow job; it is not a “lite” version of a more capable product. Four gaps stand out in independent testing and community feedback:

No deep scan or signature-based recovery

Glary Undelete cannot recover files whose file-system metadata has been wiped. There is no signature scanner that reconstructs files from raw disk data. The consequence: formatted drives return no results; corrupted partitions that have lost their MFT return no results; old deletions that have been overwritten at the metadata level return no results. Independent evaluation consistently flags this as the primary reason to consider paid alternatives — users who need partition recovery, file previewing, or signature-based reconstruction should look toward paid programs like R-Studio. This is the single biggest gap between Glary Undelete and the category leaders.

exFAT is not supported

Glarysoft’s official supported-filesystem list is FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and NTFS+EFS. exFAT is conspicuously absent. This matters because most modern SD cards larger than 32 GB ship formatted as exFAT by default, as do most portable SSDs intended for cross-platform use. Users attempting recovery on an exFAT-formatted SD card, memory card, or external SSD will find that Glary Undelete simply cannot scan the drive. This alone disqualifies it for most camera-card recovery workflows — tools in our best SD card recovery software roundup all handle exFAT natively.

Cannot scan unmountable drives or USB issues

If Windows cannot mount a drive — it shows as RAW, unallocated, or not recognized — Glary Undelete cannot scan it. Independent evaluation observes this directly: Glary Undelete is unable to handle unmountable USB devices. More capable tools like Disk Drill, R-Studio, and DMDE can read drives at a lower level and attempt recovery even when Windows refuses to mount them. Glary Undelete has no such capability.

Limited modern RAW camera format coverage

Because Glary Undelete relies on file-system metadata rather than signature scanning, RAW photo recovery is entirely a function of whether the original filename entry survives. Even when it does, the tool does not repair or preview RAW files — it just restores them to disk. For photographers who need reliable recovery of newer RAW formats (Canon CR3, Sony ARW, Olympus ORF, Adobe DNG), a signature-aware tool like PhotoRec (which ships with 480+ file signatures including every major RAW format) is a better architectural fit.

How Glary Undelete performs, capability by capability, based on aggregated independent evaluation:

Tier scale: Excellent / Very Good / Good / Fair / Limited / Not supported. Aggregated from independent external evaluation and vendor documentation, 2026.

Glary Undelete is completely free. There is no paid version, no premium tier, no subscription, no time limit, and no upgrade prompt. The tool is free for both personal and commercial use with no data recovery limits and no registration required. This is the simplest pricing in the entire data recovery category: $0, permanently.

Glarysoft monetizes through its separate products (Glary Utilities Pro at $39.95/year, Glarysoft File Recovery Pro at $49.95/year). Glary Undelete itself is not part of an upsell funnel — the free tool stands alone. Among other free options, Recuva offers unlimited free recovery with a $24.95/year Pro tier, while PhotoRec is open-source and unlimited.

Among paid tools, Disk Drill charges $89/year, EaseUS charges $99.95/year, and Stellar charges $79.99/year. Pricing varies across the category — the tools higher in the price stack typically bundle deep scan, signature recognition, and broader file-system support that Glary Undelete does not offer.

Tier assignments based on aggregated independent research. April 2026.

Glary Undelete’s feature set is deliberately narrow — the tool does one job (undelete files from mountable FAT/NTFS drives) and exposes only the controls that serve that job. Here’s the full feature inventory, grouped by what actually happens during a recovery session.

File-System Support Matrix

What Glary Undelete can and cannot scan, by file system. Support is binary — either the tool parses the metadata or it doesn’t.

Source: Glarysoft’s official supported-filesystem list, cross-checked against community reports on the Glarysoft user forum.

Recovery Engine

Glary Undelete uses a single scan mode — directory-table parsing on FAT, MFT parsing on NTFS. There is no signature-based deep scan, no sector-by-sector mode, no reconstruction from disk images. This narrow engine design is what makes the tool free (no signature database to maintain) and what caps its capabilities.

Recovery-State Indicator Legend

Every file Glary Undelete finds is tagged with a recovery-state label based on how intact its data clusters are on disk. These labels matter: use them to prioritize your restore queue rather than blindly recovering everything.

UI & Workflow

The entire interface fits on one screen. When launched, Glary Undelete presents a list of every drive Windows has mounted — internal disks, USB sticks, SD cards, and external HDDs — with drive letter, label, file system, and size. Drives on unsupported file systems (exFAT, HFS+, APFS) appear in the list but cannot be selected for scanning.

After clicking Search, results populate a single file table with name, size, deletion date, and the recovery-state indicator. A filter panel at the top narrows results by name, date, size, or state — useful when a scan returns thousands of entries. Selecting files and clicking Restore opens a destination picker; the tool warns against (and actively blocks) saving to the same drive being scanned, since that would risk overwriting remaining deleted data.

There are no preferences to configure, no profile to set up, no scan-mode toggles. The entire workflow is drive → scan → select → save. Glarysoft has not materially changed the UI since v5 shipped, which means every tutorial and screenshot published online remains accurate.

Safety, Footprint & Support

Glary Undelete doesn’t have a dedicated listing on G2 or Capterra — those platforms list the broader Glary Utilities suite instead, so isolating sentiment specific to the standalone undelete tool required pulling from the sites that cover it individually. Here’s what independent reviewers and users have said:

Glary Undelete handles one narrow use case well: recently deleted files on intact FAT or NTFS file systems. Outside of that, these alternatives fit better:

👥 Written, Tested & Reviewed By

Marcus Whitfield

Data Recovery Software Analyst & Senior Writer

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Marcus has evaluated data recovery tools for more than six years across Windows, macOS, and Linux — from free utilities to enterprise-grade platforms.

B.Sc. Computer Science6+ years data recovery evaluation

Rachel Dawson

Technical Approver · Data Recovery Engineer

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Rachel brings over twelve years of cleanroom data recovery experience. She validates research methodology and ensures published guidance reflects real-world recovery outcomes.

12+ years data recovery engineeringCleanroom HDD recovery