Run as administrator
Deep scan needs raw disk access, which a standard Windows user account can silently restrict. Right-click the application and choose "Run as administrator" before starting the scan — this resolves the majority of scans that appear to hang at 0%.
Scan stalls at the same percentage every time
If the scan consistently freezes at one point, that section of the drive may contain a failing or unreadable sector. Try scanning a different partition or a smaller folder to confirm — if only one area causes the stall, the drive itself, not the software, is the likely cause.
Other programs competing for disk access
- Pause backup software or cloud-sync tools (OneDrive, Dropbox) during the scan
- Temporarily close antivirus real-time scanning if it re-scans every file the tool touches
- Avoid running two deep scans on the same physical drive at once
When it's worth checking the drive itself
If deep scan fails consistently across multiple attempts and other drives on the same machine scan fine, it's worth running a standalone disk-health check (Windows' own "chkdsk /f" or a manufacturer diagnostic tool) once the recovery attempt is finished. A drive nearing hardware failure will often show the same symptoms — slow response, stalls, or the system briefly not responding — regardless of which software is reading from it.
Downloading & running RecuvaDownload
1. Install or extract it
Use the Windows or macOS button on this page. For the installer, run it with administrator rights; for the portable ZIP, extract it to a drive you're not scanning.
2. Scan, preview, restore
Pick the drive or device, run quick scan first, switch to deep scan if needed, then restore selected files to a different drive than the one you scanned.
FAQs
It depends heavily on drive size and speed — anywhere from 20 minutes for a small USB stick to several hours for a large, slow hard drive.
Yes — canceling doesn't affect the drive itself, though you'll only see results found up to that point.