Yes, Recuva is safe in the “not malware” sense if you grab it from the official source, but I slightly disagree with the idea that safety is the whole question. The bigger issue is whether it’s the right tool for your exact loss.
For a recent Recycle Bin empty on a normal hard drive, Recuva is still a reasonable first pass. Lightweight, simple, free. But if this was an SSD, or the files matter a lot, I would not spend too much time with it. TRIM and background writes can kill recovery chances fast.
Where I agree with @shizuka, @viajeroceleste, and @mikeappsreviewer is that people often blame the app when the real problem is the drive kept being used after deletion.
My different take:
- Recuva is safest when used for quick triage, not prolonged experimenting
- If scan results look messy, stop early instead of running endless rescans
- If the drive is making noises, disconnect it and skip software attempts entirely
About Disk Drill:
Pros:
- better interface
- stronger deep scan results in many cases
- useful for partitions and tougher recoveries
Cons:
- not fully free for actual recovery on Windows
- can feel heavier than Recuva
- more features can confuse beginners
So: Recuva is safe enough to try once. If results are weak, move to Disk Drill quickly rather than poking the same drive over and over.