Retrova Download

Recover. Verify. Reclaim.

Retrova gets your files off a drive that won’t open, without writing a single byte to it. Then it checks every copy against the original, and helps you take back the space.

Download Retrova Free for macOS and Windows All downloads and first-launch help

Free and open source. No account. Nothing leaves your computer.

A drive read the Retrova way: every block is read once, unreadable ones are tried again, and nothing is ever written back.

  • Not read yet 3,600
  • Unreadable 0
  • Trying again 0
  • Rescued 0

How a rescue works

Five steps, in the order you’ll take them. From the first click to the last, your original drive is only ever read.

  1. Point it at the drive that won’t open

    Plug the drive in and pick it from Retrova’s list, even if macOS or Windows says it can’t be read. Retrova reads the file system itself, so it can see folders your computer has given up on. Have a disk image instead? Open that.

  2. Pick what matters

    Browse the drive as it was, with its folders, names, dates and sizes. Preview photos, videos and PDFs before copying. Retrova points out folders that can be rebuilt, like caches and node_modules, so you can leave them behind.

  3. Copy it out, read-only

    Choose another drive with enough room. Retrova copies your picks there and never writes to the damaged one. Unreadable spots are retried and logged, existing files are never overwritten, and copying pauses if the destination runs low on space.

  4. Verify every byte

    Compare each copy with the original: names and sizes, a sample, or every byte. Anything that doesn’t match is copied again. A SHA-256 manifest lets you re-check the copy years from now, without the old drive.

  5. Reclaim the space

    Rescues leave clutter: files copied twice, folders that are identical, virtual machine disks full of empty space. Retrova finds them, shows exactly what will change, and moves the extras to the Trash, where you can still put them back.

Promises, not settings

None of these can be switched off by accident. They’re how Retrova is built.

  • Your original drive is only ever read.

    Drives you recover from are opened read-only. Retrova has no repair button and no code path that writes to them, so it can’t make a damaged drive worse.

  • Nothing is deleted. It goes to the Trash.

    Every removal, from duplicates to caches, goes to the Trash or Recycle Bin after you’ve seen the list and the sizes. Copies never overwrite an existing file; a clash is saved alongside under a new name.

  • It runs 100% on your computer.

    No account, no upload, no telemetry, no update checks. Retrova’s window talks only to its own engine on your machine (127.0.0.1), using a key that changes every launch.

What’s inside

One app for the whole rescue, and for looking after your drives once the scare is over.

Recover.

Get files off drives that won’t open, and find the ones that were deleted.

Recover from drives that won’t mount

Retrova reads damaged and unmountable volumes directly, without the operating system’s help, and copies files out with their names, folders and dates. It works with internal and external drives, USB sticks, SD cards and disk images.

If a drive is failing, make a full sector image first. Imaging is resumable, and you recover from the image instead of the drive.

  • APFS
  • NTFS
  • FAT12/16/32
  • exFAT
  • ext2/3/4
  • XFS
  • Btrfs
  • Disk images

Deep scan for deleted photos, documents and videos

When a file was deleted or the file system is beyond reading, deep scan searches the raw drive for the signatures of known file types: JPEG, PNG, HEIC, GIF, MP4, MOV, PDF, Office documents, ZIP, MP3, WAV, SQLite and more.

Original names are usually lost this way, so what it finds is sorted into folders by type, ready to preview.

Verify.

Prove the copy is perfect before you trust it, or wipe the old drive.

Verify and repair copies, byte for byte

Check a copy against its source at the depth you need: a quick pass over names and sizes, a sample, or every single byte. Mismatches are listed and repaired by copying again from the original. Only the copy is ever written.

Save a SHA-256 manifest next to your files and export the results as CSV, so the proof travels with the data.

Reclaim.

See where the space went, and take it back without losing anything.

Space map, duplicates and twins

See which folders and file types fill a drive. Retrova spots files that were copied twice (“report copy.pdf”, “photo (1).jpg”, leftovers from earlier rescues), whole folders that are identical, and true duplicates confirmed by their contents. It suggests which copy to keep; you decide.

Virtual machine disks that are mostly empty can be rewritten as sparse files: the same contents, checked by hash, in far less room. On a Mac, duplicates can also become APFS clones that keep both names and share the space.

Find text inside photos and scanned PDFs

Search for words in screenshots, photos of receipts and whiteboards, and scanned documents. Text recognition runs on your computer with the engine built into macOS or Windows, and the search index stays on your disk.

On Windows, PDFs are searched by their text layer; reading scanned PDF pages is macOS-only.

Cleanup that only moves things to the Trash

Clear caches, logs, temporary files, old installers and build leftovers. Each category shows how much it frees and whether it’s safe or worth a look. System folders are never offered.

System check and free memory

See memory pressure, swap, CPU load and the apps using the most. Quit an app politely, or ask the system to release memory it isn’t using.

Built after my own drive died

A drive I relied on stopped opening one day. Years of my work were on it.

So I went looking for recovery software. Every option was a subscription or a paid licence. The free versions would scan my drive, show me my own files, and then stop: a 100 MB limit here, a 2 GB cap there, no real trial. Pay first, then you get your files back.

I’m a developer, so I wrote my own. It read the drive without ever writing to it and copied everything off. Then the next questions came. Is every copy really intact? Why is my backup drive suddenly full? Which of these folders are copies of each other? Each answer became a tool, and together they became Retrova.

Retrova is free for anyone rescuing their own files. No trial, no account, no recovery limit. Nobody should have to start a subscription to get their own photos back.

Jishnu MahantaIndependent developer, Guwahati, India · jishnumahanta.in

Getting 250 GB of photos and projects back. How much the free version of a recovery app returns, drawn to scale.
  • Typical free version, scan and preview only then $89 a year or $149 to save anything 0 GB
  • Typical free version, 100 MB cap then $76 a month or $145 lifetime 0.1 GB
  • Most generous free version, 2 GB cap then $100 a year or $150 lifetime 2 GB
  • Retrova All of it. Free. 250 GB

Free limits and prices as published by popular recovery apps in October 2026.

Free. Actually free.

For your own drives there’s no trial, no account, no recovery limit and no subscription. Ever. And the code is open, so you can check every word of that.

Personal

Freeforever, no limits

  • Recover any amount from drives that won’t open
  • Deep scan for deleted photos, videos and documents
  • Whole-drive images of failing disks
  • Byte-for-byte verification and repair
  • Space map, duplicates, cleanup, Find Text and System
Download RetrovamacOS and Windows

Technician Coming soon

One-time licenceno subscription

For repair shops, IT teams and anyone who recovers drives for paying clients. It funds Retrova’s development, and the personal version never loses features to make room for it.

  • Use on client machines and drives
  • Offline activation for air-gapped benches
  • Priority email support from the developer
  • RAID and encrypted volumes, as they ship
Watch for it on GitHub

Download Retrova

Version 1.0.1. Free, with no account, no trial and nothing to unlock.

Check your download against the SHA-256 checksums.

Not sure which Mac you have? Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. If it lists a Chip, pick Apple Silicon; if it lists a Processor, pick Intel.

What you need

  • A Mac running macOS 11 Big Sur or later, or a 64-bit PC with Windows 10 or 11.
  • A second drive with enough free space for the files you want back. Retrova never saves onto the drive it’s rescuing.
  • Your administrator password, to read whole drives directly. Retrova asks only when it’s needed.
  • Nothing else. No Python, no internet connection, no account.

Opening it the first time

Retrova isn’t signed with an Apple or Microsoft developer certificate yet, so your computer will warn you once.

On a Mac

  1. Open the .dmg and drag Retrova into Applications.
  2. Double-click Retrova once. macOS will say it can’t check it; click Done.
  3. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway, then confirm. You only do this once. (On macOS 14 or earlier you can instead right-click Retrova and choose Open.)

On Windows

  1. Run the installer, or unzip the portable version anywhere and run Retrova from that folder.
  2. If SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”, click More info, then Run anyway.

Keep Retrova free.

Retrova is built by one developer, with no investors and no ads. If it saved your files, a small thank-you keeps it going for the next person staring at a drive that won’t open.

UPI (India)

Scan with Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm or any UPI app. On your phone, tap the button instead.

UPI QR code to pay Jishnu Mahanta

8472066376-4@ybl

Pay with a UPI app

Wise (anywhere)

Card or bank transfer in your own currency, from any country.

Pay with Wise

Free ways to help

Star Retrova on GitHub, tell a friend, or report a bug. It all helps people find it.

Star on GitHub

Questions

The things people ask before trusting a drive to a new app.

Is Retrova really free?

Yes, for your own drives. There’s no trial, no account, no recovery limit and no paid step to unlock saving your files. A paid Technician licence for people who recover drives for paying clients is coming; it funds development, and the free version won’t lose features to make room for it.

Is Retrova open source?

Yes. Retrova is free software under the GNU AGPL-3.0, and the full source is on GitHub. Anyone can read exactly what it does to a drive, build it themselves, or suggest improvements.

Does it upload anything, or phone home?

No. Retrova makes no connections to the internet at all: no telemetry, no crash reports, no update checks, no sign-in. Its window talks only to its own engine on your computer, at 127.0.0.1, using a key that’s created fresh at every launch.

Which drives and file systems does it work with?

Internal and external drives, USB sticks, SD cards and disk image files formatted as APFS (Mac), NTFS (Windows), FAT12/16/32 and exFAT (cameras, USB sticks, SD cards), ext2/3/4 (Linux), XFS and Btrfs. It also finds the partitions on GPT and MBR disks by itself.

Will it fix my drive?

No, on purpose. Retrova copies your data off the damaged drive and never writes to it, because repairs are exactly what can turn a recoverable drive into an unrecoverable one. Once your files are safe and verified, you can decide whether to reformat or replace the drive.

Why does it ask for my administrator password?

When macOS or Windows can’t open a drive, the only way in is to read the disk directly, and both systems reserve that for administrators. Retrova uses those rights to read. You can browse your own folders and use most other tools without them.

Can it bring back files I deleted?

Often, yes. Deep scan looks through the raw drive for the content of photos, videos, documents and other common file types. Original names and folders are usually lost this way, so finds are sorted by type. The less you’ve used the drive since deleting, the better your chances, so copy results to a different drive.

What do I need before I start?

A second drive with enough free space for what you want back, and a bit of patience: reading a damaged drive carefully can take hours. If the drive makes clicking sounds or keeps disconnecting, make a full image first and recover from that.

Is Cleanup safe to use?

Cleanup only offers things that can be rebuilt or are clearly leftovers: caches, logs, temporary files, old installers, build folders. System locations are never listed. You see every item and its size before anything happens, and everything goes to the Trash or Recycle Bin, so you can put it back.

Why does my computer warn me when I first open it?

Retrova isn’t signed with a paid Apple or Microsoft developer certificate yet, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen show a warning the first time. The download section shows how to open it.

Does Find Text send my photos anywhere?

No. It uses the text recognition built into macOS or Windows, which runs on your computer. The search index is a small database saved in Retrova’s own folder on your disk.