Program for recovery after deletion. File recovery programs: the best of the best
When an important file is lost, a document you spent a week working on is erased, and photos have disappeared from a suddenly formatted memory card, there is no need to worry ahead of time. Deleting a file from a disk erases its description in the system. The set of bytes that made up the file stays in place until something else is written over it. So you can try to recover data using any of these applications.
Be careful if you install applications on the drive where the deleted files were located. There is a risk that the application files will be overwritten during installation. It is better to choose another partition or physical disk for installation.
Platform: Windows.
Price: free, $19.95 for the extended version.
Recuva is able to recover data lost by mistake, for example from an accidentally emptied Recycle Bin. The program can recover photos from an accidentally formatted memory card in a camera, or music from an empty MP3 player. Any media is supported, even iPod memory.
Platform: Windows, Mac.
Price: free, $89 for the extended version.
Disk Drill is a data recovery application for Mac, but there is also a version for Windows. This program supports most types of disks, files and file systems. With its help, you can recover deleted files due to the Recovery Protection function, as well as find and clean the disk. However, the free version does not allow you to recover files lost before installing Disk Drill.
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS, DOS.
Price: is free.
A very functional and versatile open source application. It has a text interface, but it's easy to understand.
TestDisk supports a huge number of file formats. In addition, the program can be written to a LiveCD to recover data from a disk that does not boot the system. The utility can recover a damaged boot sector or lost data.
TestDisk comes with PhotoRec, which recovers deleted files, photos, music and videos.
4.R-Undelete
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux.
Price: the free version recovers files up to 256 KB in size; $79.99 for the full version.
R-Undelete is part of R-Studio. This is a whole family of powerful data recovery software. Supported file systems are FAT12/16/32/exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, HFS/HFS+, UFS1/UFS2 and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4.
R-Studio applications can recover deleted data both on local drives and over the network. In addition to data recovery, the utilities provide tools for advanced partition copying and searching for bad blocks on disks.
Platform: Windows.
Price: free in trial mode with recovery up to 1 GB of data; $69.95 for the full version.
Eassos Recovery recovers deleted files, photos, text documents and more than 550 file formats. The application has a very simple and intuitive interface.
Platform: Windows.
Price: the free version does not save found files; $37.95 for the full version.
Developer Hetman provides a set of utilities for recovering various types of data: entire partitions or individual photos and documents. The program supports all hard drives, flash cards, SD and microSD.
Platform: Windows.
Price: free, $19.97 as part of Glary Utilities.
Glary Undelete can recover any deleted files, including compressed, fragmented or encrypted ones. Filtering of recovered data is supported.
Do you know more convenient and functional data recovery applications? Tell us about them in the comments.
Restoring files from hard drive- a question that worries many owners of personal computers.
This is the loss of valuable information, and the time required for its successful recovery.
Specialized services charge a lot of money for this, but if the media is working, it makes sense to try to recover the data yourself.
Causes of Information Loss
If the media is intact, the main reason may be:
- errors that occurred in the partition table or file system devices. Most often this happens due to incorrect shutdown of the personal computer, failures, malfunctions in the operation of hardware and software;
- the harmful effects of viruses, as well as user errors, often lead to data loss or corruption. With such failures, the information usually remains on the disk, but data about its location is lost. This is expressed in the loss of several disk partitions, displaying the partition as unformatted;
- inaccurate file system entries can also lead to partial or complete loss of individual files and directories.
The main causes of malfunctions that lead to the loss of information
Or maybe files, important data were accidentally deleted or the partition in which they were formatted. Information recovery is carried out using certain software in manual or automatic mode.
When using the appropriate programs, all the information that exists on the media is scanned. Based on the detected information, a "map" of the fragments of the data being recovered is created. It contains information: which file belongs to which sector, names, sizes and other parameters of the elements of the scanned system. The selected data is then transferred to another drive.
What to do in case of data loss?
If nothing was written to the sectors from which the information was deleted, then the data was not physically destroyed, but information about their location was distorted or lost. First of all, it is necessary to determine exactly where the sectors that store the necessary information are located, as well as reproduce it in the correct sequence.
If information was written to the drive from which the files were deleted, such as formatting and installing a new operating system, there is a high probability of physical destruction of data. In these cases, the feasibility of successful recovery of information depends on the ratio of lost and written data. For example, when deleting 2 gigabytes of databases and writing 100 gigabytes of music and movies in their place, the probability of successful recovery tends to zero.
The mechanism of data recovery using programs
- media scanning;
- based on the scan results, a map of the location of information fragments is compiled, based on the detected service records, and a directory tree is built;
- the map contains data about which file belongs to which cluster, name, size and other parameters of file system elements;
- if the information received is not enough, then certain extrapolation methods are used;
- folders and files that need to be restored are selected in accordance with the compiled map and transferred to another medium.
This article will consider a variety of programs, both paid and free, analyze their strengths and weaknesses so that the reader can quickly choose the most suitable software for his request.
5 Best Data Recovery Software
Recuva
Recuva is one of the most popular programs for recovering lost data or formatted drives. The high demand for this program can be explained by a simple and intuitive interface. Recuva does not require experience or special knowledge in the field of data recovery, it is very convenient and easy to use. You can download it from here
The program scans the selected hard drive in detail (both various hard drives and flash drives are supported). Information can be recovered even if the drive has suffered any physical damage or has been formatted using a standard system command.
It is recommended to restore using the program without changing the default settings, unless, of course, you are an expert in the field of data recovery. This utility has simple interface and will ensure effective information recovery, even if the user does not have the necessary knowledge.
The program will prompt you to select the type of file to be restored. When searching for a specific file (music, picture, document), it is worth specifying a category to save time required for the recovery operation. But, if you don't know the file type or want to find data from different categories, select "Other" and the program will search for all deleted information.
Choose what to look for
Next, you need to select the location where this file was before deletion. You can select not only a separate folder, but also larger areas, for example: “My Documents” or “On a Memory Card” and the program will check the selected area for the necessary data. If the exact location is unknown (the file was deleted using special programs or simply disappeared), you should leave "Definitely unknown" by default so that the utility scans the entire surface of the media.
Choose where to search
The Restore Ready window appears. An in-depth analysis is recommended: it takes more time, but its efficiency will be many times higher.
It is worth waiting for a while while the program searches for files. If you did not choose deep analysis, then the operation will take very little time.
Selecting information to recover
A window will open showing the found deleted data. From this list, you should select the information that needs to be restored, after which the program will prompt you to select a folder for recovery.
It is important to choose the correct folder where our files will be restored, because this will affect the efficiency of their recovery. Recovery should be carried out on a different drive, not on the one from which the recovery is being carried out. Especially, it concerns the return of a large number of files. You can connect an additional hard drive or flash drive to return data to them. The space should be slightly larger than the size of the files being recovered.
The recovery procedure will not take much time and depends on the number and size of files.
R-Studio
R-Studio is a convenient and functional program for recovering information from different drives that was deleted by mistake. With its help, you can scan various media and recover lost data not only from hard drives but also from flash drives. You can download the utility from the website http://www.r-studio.com/en/Data_Recovery_Download
Initially, you should decide on the choice of version: demo or full. If you are not constantly involved in data recovery, it is better to choose a demo version. A 20-day period is more than enough to restore all the information.
If you are not a pro, it is better to use the demo version
In addition to recovery, the utility can also perform a pre-scan. This operation will speed up and increase the efficiency of the recovery procedure. It is worth noting that you can also scan the device with third-party programs, and upload a file with a report on the work done to R-Studio. The utility always performs a detailed scan by sector. This may take some time, depending on the size of the partition being checked.
We scan the selected section
After the scan is completed, it will be possible to view all the files that it managed to detect and then select those that can be restored. In order to restore a file, you need to right-click on it and select the "Restore" command.
R-Studio is convenient and multifunctional
If it is not known exactly what was deleted from the device, and you are going to recover all the lost files, in this case, right-click on the desired media and select "Recover all files".
At the end, just select the partition where to restore
At the end, you will need to select the folder where the seized information will be restored. Important! Be sure to keep in mind that the folder should not be located on the hard drive from which the information will be returned, because during the restoration of some files, others may be completely overwritten by them.
After selecting a folder, you need to wait until the program diagnoses the drive and restores the lost information.
Easy Recovery
Easy Recovery can safely be called a high-quality program for professionals, which can be mastered by an ordinary user. It has gained popularity due to its excellent efficiency and, at the same time, ease of use in comparison with similar utilities. The advantage of this program is that it can also perform preliminary media diagnostics. Downloading the program
Click on "Disc Diagnostic" and select the desired command. If the utility was downloaded in order to recover data, then we carry out a deep scan "SmartTests". In addition to scanning, the program will make diagnostics and determine if there are problems with the hard drive, for example, unreadable sectors or any other, in order to prevent trouble.
Diagnostic menu
After selecting a command, the type and number of media that are currently working on the device are determined. We choose with what we will work, where to restore information.
For the most accurate and complete diagnostics, select "Run extended SMART test". First of all, you should be patient: the check will take a lot of time.
Be patient and choose to scan
To recover files, go to the "Data Recovery" section and select the mode that we are interested in. In this program, the modes are selected depending on the specific situation.
For example, if you accidentally formatted your hard drive, select the "Format Recovery" category. Next, select the file system of the drive and the partition that was formatted.
If there is a need to recover deleted files, in this case, select the “Deleted Recovery” function - the disk selection menu opens and the formats of the files to be recovered are determined.
Recovering lost files
If the data is lost as a result of a software failure or the reason for the loss is unknown, select the “Advanced Recovery” option. After scanning, the program will find information that was deleted in a certain period of time.
We choose what we need to restore. Usually, the diagnostic and recovery procedure does not take much time. This will depend on the amount of data that needs to be returned.
PhotoRescue Pro
PhotoRescue Pro is a utility that will help you recover deleted photos or videos. Today's digital devices provide ample opportunities for recording, rewriting and optimizing media files. If you accidentally deleted the necessary files from your digital gadget, this utility will solve this problem.
With this program, you can recover data from any type of flash drives, hard drives or mobile phones. It is possible to recover data even from damaged and formatted media.
Working with PhotoRescue Pro is very convenient and affordable. You can download it from here The program supports many languages, including Russian. After selecting the language, a window appears in which we press the “Next” button and the registration window appears. If you just want to recover a few photos, registering the program does not make sense, but if you are constantly working with the camera and this problem occurs to you quite often, it is worth purchasing the full version.
First, select the drive from which we will return information. The utility works with several file systems at once, which is very beneficial. Click "Next".
Analyzing content
After selecting the drive we need, click "Next", wait a couple of seconds - the utility will check the partition we have selected. A list of folders is displayed, we need to select the one that interests us. If the location of the file is unknown, click on the checkmark at the very top to highlight all the data found. Next
Select the desired folder
We select the formats of the files we are interested in. In order not to be mistaken, it is better not to uncheck individual formats so that the utility finds as much information as possible. Next, select the required files. Click "Next".
Select the desired folder
After the selection of formats is completed, the scanning operation will begin. The verification time will depend on the amount of data and will take from several minutes to a couple of hours.
Scan duration depends on data size
The advantage of the program over analogues is the simultaneous check of the drive for the presence of unreadable sectors in it. Thanks to this, it is possible not only to recover lost information, but to carry out diagnostics and troubleshooting.
It remains only to restore the data
After the scan is completed, a list of files opens. It is possible to search for files by categories (video, photo, audio) and formats, and not by sections and various folders.
The program shows how much data was found and what was deleted. Thanks to this, you will quickly find out which files are found and which have been irrevocably lost.
GetDataBack
GetDataBack is one of the most efficient and most powerful. With its help, you can recover data in almost any situation. The developer divided the program into two subtypes: the first for the NTFS file system, and the second for FAT. Download it from here: https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
Recovering all deleted files for effective results
This utility must be installed on an external hard drive. You cannot restore to the media from which the files will be restored, as the necessary information will be overwritten.
After opening the program, a menu of four items appears. For maximum efficiency, it is recommended to select the fourth item - “I want to recover deleted files” (I want to recover deleted data).
Select the required section
In the list of local drives that opens, which the utility will find during the scan of the hard drive, you need to find the partition where the deleted files were located. The program provides many options in the field of data recovery, but if you just want to recover information from the drive and don't know where they were, you should choose the "Physical drives" category.
A window of file systems opens and you need to select the one that this version of the program supports (in our case, NTFS). In modern computers, different file systems are used simultaneously, so we put a checkmark next to "Show recommended".
Select the file system we are interested in
After a detailed scan, the utility will open the folder explorer, simple and easy to understand. The contents of the selected folder will be displayed on the right; if the information has been deleted, after recovery, GetDataBack will show the files in a strikethrough font for easy classification. Each file is equipped with a special marking, with which you can determine the type of information found.
Data recovery is easy and convenient
As a result, we select the data we need and start the recovery. After the end, the restored file will be available in the editor
Restoring files using this program in the FAT file system is carried out in a similar way.
Conclusion
In this article, in my opinion, the most popular and effective programs for recovering deleted data from a hard drive and various media were considered. For beginners, the popular Recuva with a simple interface is suitable; if you lose media files, you should choose PhotoRescue Pro, it can recover data from almost any modern gadget; for constant work with returning information, GetDataBack is ideal - it has powerful functionality, is effective and at the same time has an ergonomic main menu.
If, for some reason, you were unable to recover your data, and the information is valuable, it makes sense to turn to specialists. They have more powerful software and can help where these utilities are powerless.
A lot of technologies have already been invented to save data. Already no program deletes a file without confirmation. Baskets are bursting with junk files. But still, every now and then I hear cries of "I accidentally deleted this file, and it is very, very necessary !!!".
First of all, I recommend using a backup. But there are situations when this is not possible. For example, someone accidentally erased all the photos on the memory card of a camera or flash drive. In this case, DiscDigger or Recuva will help you recover deleted files.
DiscDigger
DiscDigger is a program for recovering data from various types of media, such as memory cards, flash drives, hard drives or floppy disks.
The interface of the program is so simple that it is difficult to get confused. First, you are prompted to select a drive to scan. The Physical Media section reflects the physical devices available for scanning. The Logical Drives section shows the logical drives, with a drive letter. If you are just recovering accidentally deleted files from a hard drive or flash drive, you just need to select the appropriate logical drive. If the files were lost as a result of repartitioning the disk, then scanning the entire physical media is indispensable.
After selecting a disk, we determine the type of scan. Scan file system for deleted files will help you recover only recently deleted files, but it will recover quickly and with the same file names. Scan disc surface for traces of files - a deeper scan that allows you to recover files even if only memories remain of the file system.
For the surface scan mode, you need to select the types of files that you want to recover. The program supports the most common formats of images, documents, audio and video files.
Found files are divided by type into several tabs (Pictures, Documents, Music/Video).
Already in the process of scanning, the found files can be viewed. The preview window is very simple, but it is usually enough to decide whether the file is needed or not. And also determine how damaged it is.
To restore the file, click on the button with the floppy disk labeled Save.
Thus, it was possible to recover quite a long time deleted files from a flash drive and hard drive.
I hope DiscDigger will help you get out of some sticky situations with minimal loss.
Recuva
Recuva is a program for recovering lost data that was accidentally or deliberately deleted without leaving any traces. Recuva stands out for its very friendly interface, support for the Russian language and the availability free version without any restrictions.
The first time you launch the program, you will be greeted by a Recuva wizard to help you find your data. First you need to select the file type: pictures, music, documents, videos, compressed files, emails, or show all files if you are not sure about the format. After that, you need to select the location where the files were located (hard drive, flash drive or any other available media). As in the case of the format, you can specify the position "everywhere" if you are having trouble choosing a placement. After setting the necessary parameters, the analysis will begin, it is possible to choose an in-depth analysis, which will take longer, but will show more accurate results. As a result, a table of found files will be released indicating the location and the probability of recovery (excellent, average, poor or completely lost). Then select files and restore files in one click.
Advice: before scanning, enable in-depth analysis (Deep Scan). Thus, the chances of recovery are much greater.
In the settings, you can change the language, select the mode for displaying recovered files, enable or disable the wizard at startup. Additionally, you can configure automatic checks for updates, “secure” removal options, as well as some settings for searching and restoring.
It is difficult to find a user who has never had to bite his elbows, for example, after accidentally deleting an important document from a disk or an interesting picture from a memory card - this can happen in the hustle and bustle, and simply due to banal absent-mindedness. Of course, a file deleted from a hard drive in the usual way is not a problem to bring back to life using Windows tools - you just need to restore it from the trash. However, the recycle bin is more or less regularly emptied by special cleaning utilities, and data is often deleted bypassing the recycle bin using the Shift + Del key combination (in order to save time and space) - in this case, it will no longer be possible to restore an accidentally deleted file from the recycle bin using Windows tools. As for deleting files from USB drives and memory cards, they do not go to the trash at all - which means that they cannot be restored using the built-in Windows tools. Finally, accidentally deleting files is not the only way to lose valuable information. You can lose important data in other ways: as a result of a system failure, incorrect operations of a particular program, exposure to viruses, formatting a disk, deleting a partition, etc. In all these cases, the Windows toolkit will not be able to "revive" the files.
So, should you immediately rush to a data recovery specialist when you lose files? It is not necessary at all if you have a reliable utility for recovering accidentally deleted and lost files. As a rule, with its help you can recover at least part of the information without any problems. The main thing is not to waste time and follow certain rules of the game.
In a nutshell about file loss and recovery
You should not immediately put an end to accidentally deleted files, although they, for example, are not displayed in the corresponding folder of the explorer and are not in the trash. In fact, the deleted files are still on the media, because when they are deleted by means of the operating system, the files are not physically destroyed. It is not the body of the file that is deleted, but only its header; while the clusters in which it was written are simply marked empty and can be read until they are overwritten with new data. That is why deleted documents, presentations, snapshots, etc. can be recovered using specialized utilities.
Recovery of lost files is possible in a number of other situations. For example, after a quick format of a hard disk - after all, with such a procedure, information about the initial record of the placed files is reset (for example, in NTFS - in the MFT area), and all other areas of the disk remain unchanged. Some utilities can also recover data from disks that have a corrupted file allocation table, deleted data partition, etc.
However, it would be reckless to say that any file (even just deleted from the trash) can always be restored. Alas, this is not the case, and failure is to a large extent associated with incorrect user actions. The fact is that any computer activity on the disk from which data was accidentally deleted can lead to the clusters containing fragments of the corresponding files being overwritten, because the operating system now perceives them as empty. After that, the recovery of the corresponding files will already be more than problematic. Of course, with partial overwriting, a number of utilities restore such files, but it’s not at all a fact that such files can later be used (the exception is text documents, with individual saved fragments of which you can later work with). As for the pictures, music, videos and other things restored after partial overwriting, this, as a rule, is futile. That is why, first of all, it is necessary to prevent the possibility of overwriting clusters - that is, do not write anything to a hard disk partition, flash drive or memory card with lost data, otherwise the chances of returning the lost information to life will be minimal.
In addition, the possibility of recovering lost data may be associated with a number of circumstances that are no longer dependent on the user at the time of recovery. So, the chances of success are higher when recovering files from media formatted in the NTFS file system, and not in FAT. The success of recovering a specific file also largely depends on the degree of its fragmentation: if the file is highly fragmented, then it is possible to hope (and even then with reservations) for its recovery only in the NTFS system, but on media with FAT, most likely, it makes no sense. Naturally, for this reason, it is especially difficult to recover very large frequently overwritten files on a heavily filled disk, which, due to circumstances, as a rule, always turn out to be highly fragmented.
It is also worth adding that none of the programs will be able to recover data after the guaranteed destruction of information by means of specialized solutions, as well as low-level formatting.
How to recover files
The most important thing is to start recovering accidentally deleted and lost files as soon as possible (ideally, immediately after deleting a file), although in practice it is not uncommon to recover even long-lost data. However, there is no guarantee that the document you need will be among such invisible “long-livers”, so you should not hesitate.
First you need to stop any computer activity on the medium of interest, since the operating system can write some other data in place of deleted or lost files (even if you yourself did not record anything at all), run the utility installed on the computer to recover lost files and scan it carrier. The situation becomes more complicated when it comes to recovering data on the system disk, on which the system writes something all the time. In this case, it is optimal to remove the hard drive with deleted files and connect it to another computer as a secondary one, and only after that proceed with the recovery process.
As a rule, in the corresponding tools, by default, a quick scan is carried out by analyzing file records. If the searched file cannot be found during such an analysis (this is possible if the disk was formatted, the partition was deleted, etc.), then it makes sense to resort to advanced analysis. With this analysis, a deep scan of the disk is performed with a full scan of all sectors - it takes more time, but it can be more efficient. In order to speed up the process, you can resort to limiting the search area by data type (images, documents, etc.), file name, etc.
In no case should you restore data to a scanned disk, although in a number of solutions it is possible (again, due to the danger of overwriting the sectors of interest). Therefore, usually the recovered data is saved to another hard drive, another hard drive partition or flash drive.
Before starting any data recovery, you should take into account the possibility that the cause of the loss of files may also be a physical malfunction of the device. Most of the solutions discussed in this article will not be able to help in this case, and the process of recovering information in such situations requires certain professional knowledge and experience. In addition, further work with a faulty device may lead to the complete impossibility of recovering important folders and files from it. Therefore, in case of loss of critical information, it is wiser to abandon independent experiments and immediately turn to specialists.
Utilities to recover lost files
Until recently, utilities for recovering lost files were among the few categories where the bulk are very expensive commercial products, the capabilities of which are completely incomparable to what affordable, let alone free utilities can offer. Now the picture has changed markedly, and today home users, if they wish, may well find effective programs on the market with which you can not only easily restore accidentally deleted folders and files, but also bring back to life data lost as a result of quick formatting a disk, deleting a partition, and etc. It is about such - affordable or even free solutions for recovering folders and files - that will be discussed in this article.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery 6.6
Developer: MiniTool Solution Ltd
Distribution size: 5.64 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7
Distribution method: shareware (http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/download.html)
Price: Commercial license - $119; Personal license - $59; Free Edition - free (allows you to recover no more than 1 GB of data; only for personal or home use)
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a comprehensive solution for recovering data from hard drives (IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB), memory cards, flash drives, CD/DVD and Blue-ray drives, iPod and other storage media. The program supports FAT12/16/32, VFAT and NTFS file systems and can recover files deleted from the Windows Recycle Bin, find and recover lost data (due to a virus attack, power failure, accidental formatting, partition deletion, etc.). In addition, this tool can recover data from damaged hard drives, as well as damaged, scratched or defective CD/DVDs.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery includes five built-in data recovery modules: Undelete Recovery, Damaged Partition Recovery, Lost Partition Recovery, Digital Media Recovery, and CD & DVD Recovery (Figure 1). Each one focuses on different data loss scenarios. The Undelete Recovery module is designed to recover files and folders deleted from the recycle bin or using the Shift+Del combination. Works with hard drives, flash drives and memory cards. The Damaged Partition Recovery tool allows you to recover lost data from existing but damaged or formatted partitions. MBR partitions and dynamic disks are supported: Simple Volume, Spanned Volume, Stripped Volume and RAID-5 Volume. The Lost Partition Recovery module is used to recover data from a deleted or lost (for example, as a result of disk partitioning) partition. The Digital Media Recovery module recovers data from digital media devices (flash drives, flash drives, memory cards, iPod, etc.) and is focused on recovering lost or deleted photos (including RAW format), music (mp3 files, MP4 files) and video files. The CD & DVD Recovery module is used to recover lost and deleted files from damaged, scratched or defective CD/DVDs. This unit works with various types of CD/DVD (CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R and DVD-RW), supports multisession discs, some UDF discs (burned using DirectCD, InCD , packetCD) and can recover data from RW disks formatted with quick format.
Rice. 1. MiniTool Power Data Recovery window
with five built-in modules
Despite the lack of Russian-language localization, it is not difficult to deal with the nuances of recovering deleted and lost files in this utility, since all operations are performed under the control of a step-by-step wizard. For example, in the simplest case - when recovering accidentally deleted files - you just need to activate the Undelete Recovery module, specify the device to be scanned (Fig. 2) and click the button Recover, after which the program will immediately display a list of found folders and files. In most modules, scanning can be fast or full, the latter taking more time, but also more efficient. The folders and files found during the analysis are marked with icons in the form of a cross, a question mark, or an exclamation mark - the cross is used to indicate accidentally deleted files, and other icons indicate lost data and RAW files, respectively (Fig. 3). Images and text files can be viewed directly from the utility before recovery.
Rice. 2. Run disk analysis for deleted files
Rice. 3. Presentation of scan results
in MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Auslogics File Recovery 3.3
Developer: Auslogics Software Pty Ltd
Distribution size: 3.69 MB
Work under control: Windows XP(SP2 and up)/2003/Vista/7/2008
Distribution method: shareware (15-day demo version that allows you to recover no more than ten files no larger than 100 KB - http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/file-recovery/download/)
Price:$49.95 (in the Allsoft.ru store - 990 rubles)
Auslogics File Recovery (formerly Auslogics Emergency Recovery) is a program for recovering accidentally deleted files, as well as files lost due to viruses or system failures. With this utility, you can recover documents, music, photos and any other files from hard drives, floppy drives, USB drives and flash memory cards. At the same time, you can recover not only files accidentally deleted in the usual way, but also files lost during the deletion of a disk partition or quick format. As additional functionality, the utility includes tools for guaranteed data deletion and creating disk images.
Recovery in Auslogics File Recovery is carried out under the guidance of a wizard (Fig. 4) and does not require any effort from the user (it is enough to decide on the media, file types, analysis option and, if necessary, set restrictions on the search area). The program has two scanning options: normal and deep (it is very long) - with deep scanning, it is possible to recover files lost after a quick disk format. To speed up the scanning process, you can resort to limiting files by type, setting up an exclusion list that includes files and folders that will be ignored during scanning, etc. Files found during the search are displayed in the main program window with an indication of the program's "opinion" regarding their status ( Fig. 5). The structure and names of folders, as well as file names are displayed unchanged even during a deep scan for lost data. You can preview files - pictures, photos, videos, text and PDF documents.
Rice. 4. Setting the search for lost files
in Auslogics File Recovery
Rice. 5. The result of scanning the disk with the program
Auslogics File Recovery
Handy Recovery 5.5
Developer: SoftLogica
Distribution size: 2 MB
Work under control: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/Me/XP/2003/Vista/7
Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo that allows you to recover one file per day - http://www.handyrecovery.com/download.shtml)
Price:$ 49, in the Softkey store - 950 rubles. (we are talking about the latest Russian-language version of Handy Recovery 4.0)
Handy Recovery is a handy utility for recovering lost files. The program supports FAT12/16/32/64(ExFAT) and NTFS/NTFS 5 file systems and can recover data from a hard drive or other storage media, including CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and SecureDigital memory cards. The range of recoverable files covers a wide variety of formats: MS Office documents, archive files, mail databases (Outlook and Eudora), photos, music and video files, etc. At the same time, you can recover not only accidentally deleted files (deleted from the recycle bin, deleted bypassing the recycle bin) , but also files corrupted by virus attacks and crashes, and files from deleted or formatted volumes. In addition to this, the utility provides the ability to create accurate disk images for delayed recovery.
In Handy Recovery, developers have implemented two scanning modes: standard (performed by analyzing file records and helps recover deleted files if these records were not damaged) and advanced, which even allows you to find data when information in file records has been partially overwritten or damaged. Scanning in standard mode starts automatically immediately after starting the utility (Fig. 6), at the end of the process, a list of detected folders and files will be displayed in the program window; lost files and folders are marked with a red cross for convenience (Fig. 7). For each file, the probability of its successful recovery is indicated. The contents of a number of files (Word and Excel documents, graphic and text files, archives) can be previewed before being restored in the preview window. As for advanced scanning, it is used in cases where, after analyzing the disk, the files of interest were not found. With such a scan, you can search for strictly defined types of files (for example, images), lost file records, and also conduct a more thorough analysis of data deleted from the recycle bin (during a standard search, some of such data may not be found). The structure of the found folders and file names based on the scan results are displayed unchanged.
Rice. 6. Run disk analysis in Handy Recovery
Rice. 7. Display of data found during the analysis
in Handy Recovery
Recuva 1.43
Developer: Piriform Ltd
Distribution size: 2.44 MB
Work under control: Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7
Distribution method: commercialware (http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download)
Price: Business - $34.95; Home - $24.95; Free - free
Recuva is a very easy-to-use file recovery utility from the developers of popular solutions like CCleaner and Defraggler. This tool allows you to recover photos, documents, music files, videos, etc. in FAT (including ExFAT) and NTFS file systems from hard drives, as well as from any rewritable media (flash drives, external hard drives, memory cards, etc.). With this utility, you can recover accidentally deleted files, recover files that were deleted as a result of system errors, crashes or virus attacks, and also try to recover files from formatted or damaged drives. Additionally, the program can be used for guaranteed data deletion. In addition to the standard edition, the utility has a portable edition that can be installed on a flash drive or external hard drive.
By default, the file recovery process is carried out under the guidance of a wizard (if desired, the automatic launch of the wizard can be easily disabled) - fig. eight; using the wizard allows you to narrow the search area, limiting yourself to searching for images, music, documents, etc. Scanning can be fast or deep. Deep scanning allows you to identify a larger number of files "buried" on the analyzed disk, but it also takes much more time. If necessary, advanced users can switch to the advanced mode and fine-tune the search parameters - use the filter by file type to narrow the search area, enable folder structure recovery, etc. After the scan is completed, the list of deleted files is displayed in the main program window (Fig. 9 ); each found file is marked in green, yellow or red (the color indicates the chances of recovery). In advanced mode, the program additionally shows details about the file, image thumbnail, recovery quality rating.
Rice. 8. Run disk analysis in Recuva
Rice. 9. Result of file search through Recuva
Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Developer: Pandora Corp.
Distribution size: 3.11 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista
Distribution method: freeware (http://www.pandorarecovery.com/download/)
Price: is free
Pandora Recovery is a simple utility for recovering files in a variety of formats: photos, music, videos, documents, etc. The program supports FAT16/32, NTFS, NTFS5 and NTFS/EFS file systems and allows you to recover data from local, network drives and flash drives. It is possible to recover accidentally deleted files, as well as lost ones (if the MFT record was rewritten by the OS, the disk is formatted, the file allocation table is damaged or missing). In addition to the free standard edition of the utility, there is a commercial portable edition of Pandora Mobile Recovery distributed on 1 GB flash drives ($19.95 per disc). It does not require installation and can be run directly from a USB stick.
File recovery, as a rule, is carried out under the guidance of a step-by-step wizard, and this process does not cause any difficulties, especially since the wizard starts automatically when the program is loaded. To start the search, you need to specify the drive and select the file search method (Fig. 10) - there are three options: search for all deleted files, search for deleted files taking into account the file name, size and creation / modification date, or full disk scan (Deep-scan ). The latter option is used to search for data on disks with a corrupted file allocation table, recently formatted disks, etc. Unfortunately, such a search does not recover file names and paths, only some types of files are found (images of the most common formats, MS Office documents, MP3 files, PDF documents and ZIP archives), and the scanning itself takes much longer . Also, this method only works on non-fragmented files. Found deleted and lost files are marked with red crosses, while the names of files with partially or completely overwritten clusters are displayed in red, the names of encrypted (EFS) files are green, and compressed ones are blue (Fig. 11). In addition, the program gives an assessment of the success of recovering detected data as a percentage of overwriting: the higher the percentage, the lower the chances of successful recovery. Before recovery, you can view images of popular formats and text files.
Rice. 10. Run Disk Analysis in Pandora Recovery
Rice. 11. Result of file search through Pandora Recovery
Utilities testing
It was very interesting to try to evaluate in practice various programs for recovering lost data in terms of scanning speed and the effectiveness of detecting deleted and lost files, which we tried to do. To do this, all the utilities in question were installed on one of the hard disk partitions, and a 3.7 GB flash drive was allocated for the experiment. This flash drive was among the working ones, and therefore contained certain information - in particular, a lot of software distributions, drivers, etc. One of the driver folders contained a Chipset folder, which included six subfolders with numerous subfolders and 914 files totaling 176 MB. It was this folder that was chosen as one of the test ones (of course, the contents of the folder for further analysis and comparison were copied to the hard disk in advance).
After that, the flash drive was formatted in the FAT32 file system with the built-in Windows tools so that nothing was left on it. Then, the Delete_files folder, previously prepared on the hard disk, was copied to the flash drive, including 50 files with a total volume of 66.8 MB. The files were in a wide variety of formats, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, ZIP, RAR and 7z archives, images (JPEG, TIFF, RAW, etc.), applications, music (MP3, WAV, MID) , ISO images, SWF files, AVI movies, etc. Then all files from the Delete_files folder were deleted bypassing the trash (Shift + Del). After that, we conducted the first experiment on data recovery with each of the software solutions. The results are presented in the table.
At the next stage, in order to complicate the task, five new files with a total volume of 78.4 MB were written to the root directory of the flash drive. It is obvious that the last operation should have fundamentally worsened the recovery results (compare the volumes of deleted and newly written files - 66.8 and 78.4 MB), since it is highly likely that a large part of the clusters in which the deleted files were originally located ended up being partially overwritten when copying with other data. Then we subjected the experimental media to the analysis of each of the utilities discussed in the article in order to search for accidentally deleted files (the Delete_files folder), after which, as far as possible, we tried to recover the deleted files. Finally, we conducted an experiment to identify lost files and folders (Chipset folder).
Based on the test results, it can be seen that any of the considered utilities can be successfully applied to recover just deleted data. And it is equally obvious that the result of restoring such files after writing new information to the disk with an impressive volume (that is, when some of the sectors were overwritten) is disappointing. All this only confirms the most important rule of recovery: do not write anything to the media and generally stop any work with it immediately after the emergency.
As for the recovery of files and folders lost after formatting, then the results are ambiguous. The MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition and Handy Recovery programs coped best with the task, but using the Recuva utilities for these purposes, and even more so Pandora Recovery turned out to be problematic due to the lack of folder structure and file names in their scanning reports. In addition, in Pandora Recovery, the situation is even more aggravated by the fact that the list of formats supported by Deep-scanning is rather limited. Although these programs should not be discounted, they are one of the best free software products in their class, which are very easy to use and do an excellent job of recovering "freshly deleted" files.
Conclusion
Gone are the days when you always had to turn to professionals to recover lost files, and this event cost a pretty tidy sum. Today, there are quite a few fairly easy-to-use utilities on the market that allow you to return files that were accidentally deleted or lost as a result of a computer failure, virus attack, or other computer cataclysm. Some solutions are offered at affordable prices for home users or are free for non-commercial use. Therefore, in simple situations, when it comes to accidental deletion or loss of files, for example, as a result of a quick format, it makes sense to restore the data yourself. But if the reason for the loss of files is damage to the hard drive at a mechanical or electronic level, then you should not experiment - it is better to entrust the data recovery operation to professionals.
When restoring on your own, you should act wisely and take care in advance that such a cataclysm does not take you by surprise. In other words, it is worth keeping at hand (that is, on the disk in the installed form) a couple of suitable utilities and, if possible, resort to data recovery as soon as possible in compliance with all mandatory rules (exclude the possibility of writing other data to a storage medium, save the recovered files to another carrier, etc.). In addition, if you fail with one utility, be sure to give another a chance - they have different media scanning algorithms, so it is possible that the work of the second utility will be more successful. And finally, do not forget that not a single, even the most expensive and powerful solution guarantees absolute success, and therefore no one has canceled the reservation of valuable data.
On the Internet, including on our portal, the topic has been repeatedly raised
file recovery. In fact, there is a whole class of universal and perfectly working programs that differ from each other only in the class of application - whether you need to restore erased correspondence via AS or a hard drive polished with a power cable. In this race, all participants ran to the finish line - be sure that each of these programs will cope with what it is declared to be able to cope with. I don't list links or prices because armed with Google (and I'm not promoting Google) you'll quickly discover both these very popular programs and their cures. In the end, I will share with you my subjective impressions and comments for those who somehow want to choose “the very best of the very best”.
Search and Recovery
Let's start with a standard list of features common to most programs of this class: support for most file systems; search for deleted files on any device equipped with permanent
memory; work on portable media (you can run the program from cd-dvd and scan the damaged hard drive); file recovery after emptying the recycle bin, from formatted drives, after reinstalling Windows, immediate recovery of messages in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, and QUALCOMM Eudora. Restoring contacts, calendars, tasks, etc. in MS
outlook. There is a preview function, with which you can view the erased file without restoring it (both in its natural form and, for special aesthetes, in hexadecimal encoding).
Search and Recover allows you to work in two modes: "master" and user. I note that in this context, the “master” is the settings of the program for “artificial intelligence”, where, according to the idea, it should do everything for you. In the "wizard" mode, all the most necessary tools are easily accessible.
"Custom" mode has a number of differences. You yourself set the types of files and their location, specify disk drives.
It is worth noting the user interface of the program: different files are highlighted in different colors (that is, all text files, for example, you can see by a given color). There is also an option to view all files in good, fair or bad condition.
As a bonus, I note the function of completely erasing files (using the method of multiple overwriting) and high, even very, speed.
EasyRecovery
[All standard features]
With EasyRecovery Professional it is possible to recover more than 300 files of various types on a disk, including MIDI music files, sound recording files, movies and much more that a modern user may encounter. Essentially, EasyRecovery consists of a DataRecovery data recovery module, a FileRecovery file recovery module, a disk diagnostics module, and a user trying to figure it all out.
The diagnostic part of the program provides: testing of disks and their partitions; detailed information about the use of disk space; information about the positions of the DIP switches of the disks (via the Internet); creating a diagnostic floppy that loads the version of Caldera
DR DOS.
Scanning a disk, especially a large one, in contrast to the previous participant in our race, requires a lot of time. Not surprisingly, it is possible to stop this process and remember its state in order to resume scanning at a later time. Testing can be of different depths and take different times, but a short test provides, according to the company itself, a diagnosis reliability of 90%. The program provides for reading parameters (thresholds) corresponding to SMART technology from the disk controller and warning about possible problems with it (only for modern disks).
Data recovery possible at different levels, up to serious damage to the file system. Summarizing, we can conclude that a program with such rich functionality can be useful to those users who have severely mocked the hard drive (sorry for the pun) and could not recover the lost information by other, faster means.
DiskInternals Uneraser
[All standard features] +
[Recovery of compressed (under NTFS) and encrypted (under NTFS5) files, support for long names, recovery of partitions with subsections]
The authors of the program claim to have a unique technology for recovering deleted FAT32 partitions in Windows 2000/XP along with their contents. Another difference between the program and other similar utilities is that when restoring files in operating systems Windows 2000/XP and in FAT32 it is not always possible to restore them completely. Therefore, the program we are considering restores them in several versions, the most suitable in terms of their content, so that the user can then determine which one is more suitable, and by other means could select the necessary information from them if the file was not completely restored. (But they didn’t want to restore the archive files. The program did not show them among the files in the deleted partitions.)
The specific features of the NTFS file system do not allow for individual files to determine the partition in which they were previously located. Such files are placed in the Lost files shared folder.
A feature of the program is also the ability to save and then work with a disk image. The authors suggest that you create such an image before you start restoring files (especially if the number of files to be restored is large), and also to prevent destruction of the disk content due to incorrect user actions. It is recommended to create a disk image (file) on other logical drives or on network drives. After its creation, such an image can be connected to the program in the simplest way, and it will be possible to work with it as with a real logical disk.
The program behaves very well in case
file recovery from broken disks. Having found an unreadable cluster, it will not try to extract information from it, but will write zeros instead and move on to the next cluster.
FinalData
[Short list of features]
Already a little old (there were no official updates for more than a year), but still quite a convenient set of programs that can automatically find drives, even if Boot Sector or the file allocation table has been deleted or damaged, and also restore files that are not referenced from the directory. Even after partitioning a hard drive into partitions and converting one file system to another, you can recover information and save it to network drives.
The function of monitoring and protecting files from accidental destruction looks very useful and necessary (unfortunately, this function was not available in the demo and I could not test it in practice).
Also, FinalData will help you recover information from damaged CDs, permanently delete unnecessary information, clean up your donkey, cache and history, restore MS Office package files and email messages, etc. etc. etc. and h.z.ch.
Memory Stick Data Rescue Service
But this is not quite ordinary software. It allows you to recover photos and data files that were recorded on a Memory Stick and then lost or deleted. The File Rescue software is free and can be downloaded from Sony's customer support site. Before downloading the file recovery software, the program will require the user to register the Memory Stick model name and serial number. The simple and convenient MSFR is capable of recovering jpg (DCF format), MPEG1 and mp4 (MS Video file format) files, and is also capable of
recover most office files, including documents prepared using PowerPoint and the Word editor. Once a Memory Stick is inserted into the slot, MSFR guides the user through seven easy steps that check, repair, and rewrite files.
Memory Stick File Rescue is compatible with all types of Sony Memory Stick sold since 1998. The success of file recovery depends on the state of the data and whether any data has been written "on top" of the recoverable file.
Dead Disk Doctor
[All standard features]
The program is distinguished by the original algorithm for finding and correcting errors on partially unreadable media. It allows you to minimize the loss of "live" data when trying to restore information in "dead" areas during block reading. The file is read in blocks of 10 KB, and when the device (CD-ROM, for example) gives an error, the block size is reduced by 10 times, the attempt is repeated, and so on until the data block is read without errors. If the block size reaches the minimum, the program skips one byte and starts reading from the next. After a successful read, the block size is increased by 10 times, and so on, until it reaches a maximum of 10 KB.
Thanks to such a non-standard solution, in many cases it is possible to recover even the information that did not succumb to other anti-deleters.
GetDataBack
[All standard features]
Quite a powerful and interesting means of data recovery, worthy of participating in our race. Regardless of what happened to the information, whether it was deleted, whether there was physical damage to the hard drive or a crash of a running program, or even low-level formatting of the HDD, GetDataBack will most likely be able to return all the information written to the disk. GetDataBack allows data recovery both on the computer on which the program is installed and on a remote computer, for example, on any of the computers on the local network; one more good property - fast work.
Finish
Search and Recover, in my opinion, tore everyone apart in terms of the speed of scanning and restoring information, however, in terms of capabilities and richness of functionality (I don’t know files that the program could not recover), EasyRecovery pulled ahead. The rest of the programs turned out to be too specific, and from them I would like to single out Dead Disk Doctor, which can help in almost hopeless situations.
