If you have ever accidentally deleted a file in Windows or noticed that files have been deleted by hardware failures or computer virus attacks you know that file recovery software is the only option besides regular backups to access those files again. Windows users have the choice between many free and commercial data recovery programs which often differ in terms of functionality, reliability and performance.
MultiStage Recovery is a commercial file recovery software that supports most digital storage devices such as hard drives, flash drives and data cards providing that they are formatted with a Windows file system.
The application displays a list of drives, partitions, devices and disk images in the left sidebar on startup. The program will either start a scan automatically (when selecting a drive letter) or manually.
Different scans are provided to the user including low-level file scans, partition search, missing NTFS or FAT file scan and the default scan.
The performance and reliability is influenced by the scan type. The choices are displayed beneath the drive or partition selection in the sidebar.
- Default scan – the most effective method in most cases. It finds displaced chains in the file system.
- Search for missing NTFS files – This method is more time consuming than the default scan but detects files from formatted NTFS partitions and can recover names
- Search for missing FAT files – This method only performs a search for lost files and folders on FAT volumes
- Low level file search – This is used when a partition has been formatted and may have new software installed.
It is possible to mount and scan disk images. That is an important option as it is recommended to create a disk backup first if data has been lost on a drive to be able to work with the backup and not the original drive to avoid additional damages to the data.
The files and folders that are found during the scan are displayed in the interface afterwards. The left sidebar will list the folders while the main part of the interface the files and folders of the selected directory level. The footer area lists status messages, previews and search results.
Files can be recovered by selecting them directly in the main interface. The status messages and preview options usually indicate if a file can be recovered, a color scheme in the interface would make this step easier for the user. The dates the files have been created, modified and accessed are also displayed and can give an indication of the recovery chance.
Installation
The data recovery software can be installed by executing the setup.exe after unpacking the files. The product key and name that are needed for registration are provided in the readme.txt file that is also in the zip file.
Positive
- Supports disk images
- Various file recovery scan options
- Multi-threading
- Search tool
Negative
- Works only with Windows file systems
- No success indications
- Rather slow
MultiStage Recovery is an interesting file recovery software for the Windows operating system. It is not the fastest to begin with and can only scan Windows file systems but provides all the means to recovery those files effectively.
The data recovery software is provided for free today at the Giveaway of the Day website. The developer’s website is located here.
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