The application reminds the user during installtion that it should not be installed on the same drive that data needs to be recovered from. That is a sound advice as the installation could overwrite deleted data which would make it unrecoverable. It is also recommended to have a safe storage device with enough space at hand to store the recovered data on. This may not be a problem if you need to recover a Word or Excel document that you have deleted accidentally but if you plan on recovering all data on a hard drive (for instance after formatting) or a partition you need a lot of space.

When you first start up Data Recovery Wizard you are presented with three options: Deleted File Recovery, Complete Recovery and Partition Recovery.

Deleted file recovery

This module can be used to recover individual files on the system that have been deleted before. Deletion does not necessarily mean user initiated, it can very well mean that a virus or crash has rendered data unreadable.

Users can undelete (it is sometimes called unerase as well) files if the file system is not corrupt or broken. The other available recovery modules are for situations where the file system or a partition were damaged.

Generally speaking, files can be recovered if they have not been overwritten by new data. This means that recovery chances are best for newly deleted files, and increasingly worse for every day the computer has been in use since the files have been deleted.

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard scans the connected drives and displays them in the drive overview. Here it is possible to select a drive for file recovery.

Data Recovery Wizard scans the selected hard drive or storage device and displays its finding on the next screen. Directories and files are displayed in an explorer-like fashion. A file search offers help if a lot of results have been returned and if the user knows part of all of a file’s name.

Files are selected with checkmarks. The file recovery software supports file previews (for images and text) which can be handy for supported file types. The storage location for all selected files needs to be configured in the last step. Data Recovery Wizard recovers the files then and places them in the selected location.

It is then possible to go back to the file listing to recover additional files.

Complete Recovery

Complete recovery has been designed if the drive is not accessible anymore, for instance after a hard disk crash, accidental formatting or other forms of corruption. The initial screen displays the hard drives again. Users can select a disk image that they want to process instead of one of the connected hard drives.

The selected hard drive or disk image is then scanned by the recovery software. The application searches for files, boot records, partition tables, folders and other information.

A list of partitions is displayed to the user in the end. Each partition is displayed with various information, from storage size to files and folder matches and a suggestion that indicates how likely it is that it is the right partition of the drive. If no partitions are displayed quit the process and start the partition recovery module instead.

Up to four partitions can be selected for recovery in the complete recovery module.

Partition Recovery

Partition Recovery comes into play if the complete recovery module does not find partitions. The recovery process itself is very similar to the previously described process. A list of hard drives are shown and it is up to the user to select one of the drives or a disk image to scan for recoverable partitions.

All partitions that have been found by the scan are displayed in the program interface. Here it is again possible to select partitions for recovery.

Core Features

• Recover deleted or lost files
• Disk recovery after hard drive crashes, accidental formatting
• Recover data from unformatted hard drives
• Recover files if the partition is corrupt, not accessible anymore
• Supports not only hard drives but also USB drives and storage, e.g. digital camera cards.
• Supports FAT12, FAT16, VFAT, FAT32, NTFS/NTFS5 file systems
• Create disk images to assist in the file recovery

Verdict

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard is an easy to use file recovery software for Windows. Its feature set should be sufficient for the majority of file recovery situations that users encounter.

Giveaway

We have an unlimited number of copies to give away. The software offered is the latest version of Data Recovery Wizard (V5.0.1). Just install it, the software is automatically registered. Please note that you cannot update the software with newer versions, that’s however the only restriction.

You can download the setup file (3 Megabytes) below. Please do not hotlink to the file.

Update: The Givaway has ended.

The software is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. You find additional information about the product over at Easeus.

The name would suggest that it can only be used to recovery digital pictures but that is not the case. PhotoRec can recovery and kind of data on a drive providing that it has not been overwritten yet.

Windows users need to start photorec-win.exe after unpacking the application to a local directory. That makes PhotoRec a portable application on Windows.

The program displays a list of devices that the application can scan for deleted data. PhotoRec will only display internal hard drives if the program is started with elevated rights (right-click the program and selected run as administrator to do that). The program supports a variety of file systems including FAT, NTFS, EXT2/EXT3 and HFS+.

A device can be selected with the arrow keys and pressing enter after the selection has been made. It is then necessary to select a partition type on the next screen. This may pose troubles for inexperienced computer users. The default one is usually correct and should be selected as PhotoRec auto-detects the partition table type.

The source partition has to be selected in the next step, and then the file system of that partition. The default values are usually correct. Finally, the destination for recovered files needs to be selected. Users can configure some options to configure the file types that should be recovered or if corrupted or partial files should be recovered.

The analysis of the file system can take a while depending on the size of the disk It is usually not a good idea to run the program on a large disk, as there is no option to select specific file types for recovery. PhotoRec will recover all files that it finds to the selected destination directory. This makes it ideal for usb sticks, memory cards and other devices with little storage space.

PhotoRec is available for download at the CGSecurity website.

Why can files become unreadable on optical media? Burned CDs and DVDs suffer from material degradation. And most disks also suffer from oxidation, not to mention scratches and other forms of physical contacts. The average lifespan of such disks is said to be ten years.

This overview looks at free solutions to recover files from CDs and DVDs.

It should be obvious that data that is not there anymore physically cannot be read by even the best DVD or CD recovery software. Sometimes though files can not be read by the user in Windows, while they are largely recoverable on the byte level. Basically, data recovery software copies every readable byte of the optical disks to another storage device.

IsoBuster

isobuster

What the developer says:

It supports all optical disc formats and all common optical disc file-systems. Start up IsoBuster, Insert a disc, select the drive (if not selected already) and let IsoBuster mount the media. IsoBuster immediately shows you all the tracks and sessions located on the media, combined with all file-systems that are present. This way you get easy access, just like explorer, to all the files and folders per file-system. Instead of being limited to one file-system that the OS picks for you, you have access to “the complete picture”. Access data from older sessions, access data that your OS (e.g. Windows) does not see or hides from you etc.

IsoBuster is available as a free and professional edition. The free version has several limitations, largely lack of HD DVD, Blu-Ray and file format support.

The program tries to install a toolbar during installation, make sure to cancel that before continuing. The program is simple to use. It will automatically recognize a CD or DVD that has been inserted into the drive. The sessions, tracks folders and files are displayed in the program interface.

Here it is possible to navigate the menu structure, and extract individual files or files from folders from the disk. IsoBuster displays a Save As dialog and extracts the data to the selected disk.

Several recovery options can be configured in the preferences. This includes the maximum number of retries, sorting criteria, file system specific settings or image files handlings. IsoBuster can load CD and DVD images as well, which is the recommended way of handling recoveries.

CD Recovery Toolbox

cd recovery toolbox

What the developer says:

CD Recovery Toolbox Free – repair damaged CD disks

CD Recovery Toolbox tool was developed for recovering damaged files from different disk types: CD, DVD,HD DVD, Blu-Ray, etc. You can use it to restore information lost as a result of some mechanical damage of the disk (scratches, chips, different spots on thesurface) or as a result of incorrect recording.

This program is very easy to use. CD Recovery Toolbox supports recovery of CD, DVD,HD DVD and Blu-Ray disks. It begins with the selection of the drive, and the output directory. The program then reads the files from the disk and displays them in a file browser.

Here it is possible to select the root folder, or one of the subfolders of the disk for recovery. A click on Save reads the data from the disk and saves it on the selected storage device.

CD Check

cdcheck

What the developer says:

As your CD and DVD collection grows, there are two important problems you face – do your CDs and DVDs still work? What can you do when a CD or DVD starts to have problems? These are crucial questions since the discs are used to store valuable files like email, home movies, photographs, business/tax records and music. The solution is to use a free program like CDCheck. It can scan most CDs in a few minutes to tell you if the data is OK – this way, you don’t have to find out the hard way that there is a problem. Plus you can use the time it takes for a scan to complete as indicator of the CD or DVDs overall health – even though files may not be recorded as damaged, slower results normally indicate a CD that is on the way out (expect longer times if there are more files on the CD).

If a CD or DVD is showing files with damage or you can no longer read a file in a drive, CDCheck can be switched to recovery mode and make a full sweep of the CD or DVD, recovering lost files along the way. When parts of a file can’t be fully recovered, the program will still recover any salvageable fragments. Many file formats such as Zip, TIFF and JPEG can still be used if incomplete (success of this technique varies, depending on the damage). Most zip tools have a ‘repair archive’ function, and a standard graphics editor can help repair damage to photographs caused by missing fragments.

CD Check is a software that needs to be registered on the developer’s homepage before it is free to use for a lifetime. The program can check a disk for read errors, which the other programs in this overview cannot. The time of each check depends on the disk and the speed of the drive.

The other options are to compare directories, for instance a directory on the CD or DVD with a local directory, and to recover files from the disk. For comparison purposes, hashes are generated.

DVD Disaster

dvd disaster

What the developer says:

CD, DVD and BD media keep their data only for a finite time (typically for many years). After that time, data loss develops slowly with read errors growing from the outer media region towards the inside.

Archival with data loss protection

dvdisaster stores data on CD/DVD/BD (supported media) in a way that it is fully recoverable even after some read errors have developed. This enables you to rescue the complete data to a new medium.

Data loss is prevented by using error correcting codes. Error correction data is either added to the medium or kept in separate error correction files. dvdisaster works at the image level so that the recovery does not depend on the file system of the medium. The maximum error correction capacity is user-selectable.

DVD Disaster is not a typical data recovery software, as it can be used to prevent data recovery by adding error correction codes to optical disks. To create error correction codes a disk image is required. The program is able to create those disk images and create the codes. Those codes can then later be used to recover files from a disk.

Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier

unstoppable copier

What the developer says:

Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data. The program will attempt to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together. Using this method most types of files can be made useable even if some parts of the file were not recoverable in the end.

The program can be used as a daily backup system using its batch mode functions. A list of transfers can be saved to a file and then run from the command line to perform the same batch of transfers on a regular basis without having to use the GUI interface. The program supports command line parameters which allow the application to be run from schedulers or scripts so it can be fully integrated into daily server tasks.

Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier can read data from any kind of disk. It tries to recovery files on a byte level, and can copy files partially because of this. This often means that files can still be accessed, especially if they are not binary.

Abyssal Recovery

abyssal recovery

What the developer says:

Abyssal Recovery can rescue corrupted or lost data from damaged, scratched, or defective CD and DVD discs. Abyssal Recovery can copy the files to another destination on your hard drive. Abyssal Recovery will skip the bytes which are not readable from file and copy all other bytes to extract maximum data. You can set the program to copy byte with byte to minimize the losses, or you can set a higher number of bytes to be copied once for a faster recovery.

Abyssal Recovery is a basic CD and DVD data recovery software that tries to rescue data from partially unreadable disks by copying all readable bytes to another storage device. It does not offer an advanced feature set as several of the other recovery solutions in this guide.

Update: Abyssal Recovery is no longer available. The link has been removed.

Verdict

Two of the tools in this review can be used to prevent data loss. Both CD Check and DVD Disaster offer the means to check data on disks regularly to ensure 100% readability of the data. DVD Disaster even offers a solution if data becomes unreadable.

For disks with corrupt data, IsoBuster is probably the prime choice. Even though it may make sense to use several tools for best recovery results.

Have you encountered unreadable disks in the past? If so, what have you done to recover the data on them?

In this article I am going to show you how to tackle the basics with Partimage – backing up a system to a local file. In later articles I will demonstrate recovering as well as backing up and restoring across a network. Once you know how to use Partimage, you will have an excellent disaster recovery tool (as well as an imaging tool).

Installation

I want to approach this in the simplest way possible. So we’ll go ahead with the installation method for Partimage. And like many Linux application installations, this one is simple. You can install Partimage with the following steps (illustrating with Ubuntu):

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install partimage
3. Enter your sudo password.
4. Accept the dependency installation.

That’s it. Once Partimage is installed you are ready. The only other thing you will need for the method I am going to show you is either enough room on your machine for the compressed image you want to make, or an externally attached drive with enough room.

Using Partimage

Figure 1

Partimage is run from the command line. The interface is an ncurses interface, so don’t expect a fancy GUI interface. You will also need to run Partimage with root privileges (so either with sudo or after you su to the root user).

As you can see (in Figure 1), there is little to the interface. The options are few, but that does not make the tool any less powerful. Partimage has everything it needs.

In order to save your partition you will first need to select which partition you want to save. Move the selector up or down with your up or down arrow keys. When you’ve selected the partition you want hit the Tab key to move down the next section. One issue of note: The partition that you want to save can not be mounted. So if you are wanting to save the partition you work from for later rescue, you will have to do that using the SystemRescueCD.

The next section is the name for your image. You will need to enter the exact path and file name for your image here. Enter that and then Tab down to the next section.

In this next section you need to select that correct action. We are going to use the first option, Save partition into a new image file, so we won’t need the connect to server option.

Once you have taken care of that hit the F5 key to continue on.

In the next window you will select the following options:

Compression level: How much compression you need to use on your image.

Options: Partition check, description, and overwrite without prompt.

Image Split Mode: How to split larger images.

Upon success: Wait, halt, reboot, quit, last.

Figure 2

Unless absolutely necessary, I would opt for medium compression (Gzip) to prevent possible data loss. I would also make sure Check partition before saving is checked. In fact, the default settings you are offered (see Figure 2) are pretty good for most situations.

Once you have configured those options, click F5 again to move on.

The next window will ask you for a description (if you selected that option). Once you enter the description Tab down to the OK button and hit Enter.

After that, Partimage will do it’s thing.  Once finished you will have a backup image (or multiple images – depending upon the size of the image.

Final thoughts

In my next article I will show you how to save an image across a network using Partimage. Partimage is a very handy tool to use and we all know that keeping images of critical machines (or partitions) can make or break data recovery in case of disaster. We’ll continue on with Partimage and cover as much of it’s usage as possible.

Abyssal Recovery is just one of the recovery tools that Windows users can use to recover files on CDs and DVDs. Computer users in need for data recovery software can also take a look at previously reviewed applications like Isobuster, CD Recovery Toolbox, CD Check or Dataminer.

Abyssal Recovery is a basic disc recovery software that will copy files on the byte level ensuring that everything that can still be read will be copied to the destination directory.

The program lacks the advanced options of comparable recovery software apps such as Isobuster. The recovery process is divided into three steps. It begins with the selection of the files that should be recovered from the disk. The destination directory is then selected in the next step which is followed by the actual process of copying the files to that directory.

Abyssal Recovery is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s homepage.

Isobuster is a disc recovery software that is available as a free and professional version. The free version has most of the features of the pro version except for (high-end) data recovery from UDF discs and images.

The free version is classified as adware as it tries to install a toolbar and change the homepage and default search engine. All of those ad related changes can be disabled during installation.

Isobuster can try to recover data from image files and discs. It is usually recommended to create an image file from a disc first and load that into the disc recovery software to use the original disc as little as possible.

The program can extract tracks and save them in a disc image format such as Iso.

All recovery options are accessible from the right-click menu as well. A right-click on a track or disc opens options to create MD5 checksums, find missing files or folders, perform a surface scan or create a list of known erroneous sectors.

Isobuster is an easy to use software that will display the recovered files directly in its interface from where they can be extracted to the local computer system. The software program is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows and available for download at the developer’s website.

You can take a look at our CD Data Recovery overview for some additional disc recovery programs.

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.

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard is a commercial file recovery software for the Windows operating system. We reviewed Data Recovery Wizard back in 2008. Back then it was version 4.3.6. of the application, today’s giveaway is version 5.0.1.

Key Features

• Recover deleted or lost files emptied from the Recycle Bin.
• File recovery after accidental format, even if you have reinstalled Windows.
• Disk recovery after a hard disk crash.
• Get back files after a partitioning error.
• Get data back from RAW hard drives.
• Recover office document, photo, image, video, music, email, etc.
• Recover from hard drive, USB drive, memory card, memory stick, camera card, Zip, floppy disk or other storage media.
• Support FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS/NTFS5 file systems.
• New! Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7

When To Use

• Hard Drives that have been formatted.
• Corruptted or missing critical file system structures.
• Accidental file deletion.
• File loss without reason.
• Unexpected system shutdown or application failure.
• Computer viruses and worms infection or corruption.
• Boot-up problems.
• Partition structures are damaged or deleted.
• Damage due to a power failure or surge.
• Various kinds of file system corruption.
• Recover files from devices with unknown file systems including Hard Disk, external ZIP/USB drive, removable SmartMedia, MemoryStick, SD cards, etc.

The startup screen of the software has not changed at all. It still provides access to the three core recovery options each providing tools for specific recovery scenarios.

• Deleted File Recovery
• Complete Recovery
• Partition Recovery

The first recovery option can be used to recovery files that have been deleted from the computer system. A list of all connected hard drives is displayed after selection.

The selected hard drive will be scanned by the application. This can take some time depending on the speed and size of the hard drive or partition. It took about five minutes to scan a 260 Gigabyte hard drive with Windows running on it.

The recovery software will display a list of files that it can try to recovery. Folders are displayed in the left sidebar while the actual deleted files that have been found during the scan on the right. Each file is displayed with its filename, file size, file type and dates.

Icons are used to distinguish between lost folders, deleted files or folders and lost or raw files. The top contains buttons to find a file by name, search the files or to preview files

Files or folders can be selected to be recovered and a click on the Next button will initiate the recovery process. It is recommended to save the recovered files on a different partition or hard drive to avoid data loss due to overwriting the wrong space on the hard drive.

Complete recovery can help if the hard drive has been formatted, if Windows displays a dialog to format the disk although data had been on it before, after virus attacks and software crashes.

The interface is basically the same as before with the difference that unformatted partitions are also displayed in the selection window.

The partition recovery mode can be used to recover partitions that have been accidentally deleted.

Installation

The installation of Easeus Data Recover Wizard is comfortable. The program will be registered automatically during installation if it is installed today.

Positive

• Recover files and partitions
• Option to search for and preview deleted files

Negative

• Search files option not working properly, find file by name however is.
• File preview limited to text and image files.
• No estimations on the chance of full recovery
• Saves files with their initial directory structure (can be confusing)
• Can only recover Microsoft file systems

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard is available for free today at the Giveaway of the Day website. The homepage at the Easeus website contains additional information and several how tos that might be helpful to users who want to recovery files or partitions.

Data can become inaccessible because of several reasons. It can be that the user accidentally deleted the data, that the partition or hard drive was formatted or that the partition headers became corrupt so that the operating system is not able to read the data.

The recovery software iCare Data Recovery provides a solution for all three scenarios. It can be used to recover formatted drives and partitions including external storage devices like flash cards (for instance to recover deleted photos from the digital camera’s flash card), ipods and basically any storage device that can be connected to a PC.

The second option of the file recovery software is the ability to restore partitions which have become corrupt and therefor unreadable by the operating system.

Data recovery options are provided as well. It is possible to restore deleted files and to run a deep scan recovery.

All levels of Hardware RAID supported.
Advanced and unique deep searching and scanning algorithm that recover lost files in seconds
Recover formatted sd card, hard drive partitions, ipod etc.
Recover files from RAW drives or file system; You do not have to convert file system back to FAT/NTFS
Recover photos, documents, video, music and emails.
Preview lost photos, office files before buy.

The data recovery software is relatively easy to use. It displays four icons in the main menu that lead to the program’s modules to recovery partitions, unformat drives and to recover deleted files. Beginners will notice the lack of information and onscreen aids. The deleted file recovery module will for instance display the partitions of the computer system and the options to perform an advanced or undelete recovery with no information on what these actually do.

The developer’s website offers a tutorial for some usage scenarios which is a recommended read for users who want to know more about the software’s capabilities.

• Formatted partition, camera card, usb drive, external hard drive – You should try iCare Data Recovery Software – “Format Recovery” wizard. It brings everything back from the formatted drives no matter quick formatted or regular formatted etc. It supports to recover formatted disk drive, external hard drive, digital camera card like SD card, flash card, cf card, memory card, usb drive, pen drive, ipod, iphone, etc. – If you deleted your partition by mistake, failed to see your partition in “my computer” or cannot find partition in disk management(lost without a reason), and there are important files/photos in the lost partition, iCare Data Recovery Software can help you take files back.
• Partition Deleted, partition lost, partition missing – If you deleted your partition by mistake, failed to see your partition in “my computer” or cannot find partition in disk management(lost without a reason), and there are important files/photos in the lost partition, iCare Data Recovery Software can help you take files back.
• Partition inaccessable, partition unreadable, Drive shows RAW file system, The disk in drive * is not formatted, do you want to format it now? – When your partition which contains important files are no longer accessable or becomes unreadable; when you try to visit a drive or try to open an external drive, or camera card etc, it says “The disk in drive H is not formatted, do you want to format it now?”; When you click the partition, it shows RAW, and the property says RAW in file system;
• Emptied Recycle Bin, shift+delete and files gone – when you deleted files and emptied the recycle bin, when you performed SHIFT+DELETE, you can retrieve deleted files via iCare Data Recovery Software

Installation

The zip file offered at the Giveaway of the Day website contains a readme with instructions and a setup to install the software. All that needs to be done by the user is to install the software which will be activated automatically at the end of the installation.

The download is provided today at the Giveaway of the Day website. Make sure to install the program today so that it becomes registered. The developer’s website is available here.

Positive

• Can recover partitions, formatted drives and recover files
• Can recover files from Raw partitions
• Full hardware raid support

Negative

• No documentation or online help
• Does not recover all partitions or drives connected to a system

ICare Data Recovery Software is a sophisticated file, partition and drive recovery software for the Windows operating system. It lacks documentation but makes up for that (at least for users who know what they have to do or those who try out until they know) with functionality and speed. Recommended.

Comodo Time Machine is another software program that can create system snapshots and restore them if necessary. The system snapshot will create a copy of all files and settings of the hard drive Windows is running on. This includes Windows files, Registry settings, programs and documents and other files stored by the user.

The program will automatically take a system snapshot during installation which is called the baseline snapshot in the program. The program can create new snapshots automatically or on the user’s request with further options to delete previously taken snapshots (except for the baseline snapshot) to free up disk space.

Snapshots can be mounted right in the applications’s interface by right-clicking a snapshot and selecting the mount option. It is possible to mount the snapshot with full access rights or read-only rights. All files of the snapshot become then accessible in Windows like any other directory.

Files can also be recovered individually without mounting with the help of the Recover Files menu in the Time Machine application. This feature provides a file search option to search for files in the selected snapshot. This makes it rather complicated to use, a Windows Explorer like approach would be helpful here.

The creation and restoration of system snapshots can be scheduled in the application which offers several interesting possibilities. Public computer administrators can for instance schedule a restoration of a snapshot whenever the computer starts to ensure that data that has been tampered with won’t affect the system after a restart.

Users who have full disk encryption software programs installed will not be able to use Comodo Time Machine as it requires the uninstallation of those programs before it will commence the installation. That’s a rather strict and unfortunate rule that will likely turn away users from testing or using the program regularly.

Comodo Time Machine can be managed from the command line as well. Commands like taking or restoring a snapshot can be issued from the command line.

There is finally a so called sub console that is displayed during system startup if the user presses the Home key. This sub-console loads before Windows and offers the means to restore the system, take a snapshot, uninstall the program or compact the snapshots to save hard drive space.

Comodo Time Machine is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Its features make it an interesting program for public computers, test systems, multi-user systems and computer systems where the user wants to be able to restore a previous snapshot in case of emergency. The recovery system that loads before Windows and the ability to schedule snapshots make Comodo Time Machine a clever product for that purpose. Only the incompatibility with file encryption software like True-Crypt put a dent in the otherwise interesting program.

The software can be downloaded from the Comodo website (via BlogsDNA)

Recover My Files is an award winning file recovery software for the Windows operating system that is actually more than just another data recovery software. Let us look at the basics first.

Recover My Files starts with a wizard after installation that can be used to configure a file or drive recovery process. This wizard does not have to be used but it can streamline the process so that it becomes easier for inexperienced users.

Recover Files allows a user to recover

• individual files have been deleted and emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin;
• files have been deleted and bypassed the Windows Recycle Bin;
• files have been deleted by a virus, trojan or worm;
• a file of the same name has saved over another important file;
• files have been lost by some other unknown cause.

Recover Drive allows a user to recover files if

• a drive has been formatted;
• a drive has been formatted and windows has been reinstalled;
• a Windows recovery or system restore has resulted in a fresh installation of Windows and the previous user created files are missing;
• a drive letter has gone missing;
• the drive is recognized by your PC as RAW and not files can be read;
• or some other problem has effected the entire contents of the drive

It is furthermore possible to add Raid information or a disk image to the recovery process. Recover My Files offers two modes of searching for recovered files. The first is an automatic search on a computer’s hard drive for all deleted files or to perform the search for deleted files and afterwards for files that are no longer listed in the Filesystem but with contents on the hard drive. The second file recovery option is more thorough but takes longer to complete.

The computer user can select specific file types that should be recovered, e.g. Microsoft Office documents, database and financial files, archives or photos.

The scan itself will check every sector of the selected hard drive for files that match the types selected by the user and display those in the results list as well. This obviously takes longer than the first recovery option but usually yields better results.

The data recovery software will sometimes display generic names instead of the original files names which can be attributed to lost file information. It is still possible to recover those files if they are displayed in the result list.

Recoverable files can be selected and saved to the computer system. It is recommended to save them to a different hard drive to avoid them overwriting part of the files that have not been recovered yet.

Drive recovery is the second option that Recover My Files provides. Here it is again possible to perform a fast search or to specify additional files for the sector based search of the hard drive. The search itself is divided into two phases:

• Phase 1: of the search attempts to locate and rebuild then entire lost partitions. Partition recovery should take between 1 – 45 minutes to complete (depending on the size of the drive, the number of files that it contains and the speed of the computer / drive). Learn about steps within phase 1 – partition recovery.
• Phase 2 of the search will automatically commence. Phase 2 uses the selected file types to help locate the missing Filesystem records (the file and folder structure) on the drive

File recovery reports can be printed, exported to csv for further analysis. Recover My Files is an excellent file recovery software. The disk recovery option sets it apart from many free file recovery software programs that usually do not come with those options. Users who are interested in the program can download it from the developer’s website. The program is fully functional except for the ability to save files that have been discovered by the program.

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DataMiner is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that can be used to recover data from optical media such as CD or DVD. The program will analyse the data on the disc using heuristic detection algorithms. The analysis of the data on the disc is highly influenced by the type of disc, the data and the type of error that is encountered when trying to access the data.

Dataminer will analyze the whole disc, a process that can be terminated at any point. The files that have been found up to this point are then displayed in the interface. The display is basic as it will only list the file name (if it was discovered), the size, type and offset of the file on the disc.

It is possible to extract selected files or files of a certain file extension to a local storage device. Other options include a basic search to find a specific file name and saving project related information to continue working on the project at a later time. the CD and DVD data recovery software can also create and load images of physical discs which is obviously the safer way to go as it is then possible to analyze the disc image instead of the disc itself which will reduce the chance to further damage the disc.

The data recovery software is available at the Greenfish website. It is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Well, there is actually another option that is provided by the Lazarus Form Data Recovery extension for the Firefox web browser. Lazarus saves form data as soon as it is entered by the user in its SQLite database (lazarus.sqlite in the profile folder). This makes it possible to recover the form data when vising the page the form was on again.

There are obviously some privacy concerns which are handled excellently by the software program. It is for one possible to set a period (minute, hour, day, week) in which the form data is stored. Once the time is up the form data gets erased. Another security measure is that it is possible to create a password that has to be supplied once per browsing session before form data can be restored. The form data in the database is encrypted to prevent that users with local computer access can reveal the form information there directly.

The form data recovery add-on works by right-clicking the form on the Internet website. The user can then select the Recover Text or Recover Form entry to restore the text in that form.

Lazarus works nicely in the background and can be a real life safer for users who regularly post lots of text.

The best practice in the beginning is therefor to clean the disk properly. One could start with a quick dusting using cloth that has been ideally designed for that purpose. This wont remove fingerprints and other dirt though. To tackle those you use liquids to clean the CD. This can again be done with specialized expensive solutions or some warm water and mild soap.

Sometimes the best CD cleaning efforts do not have the desired effect. If data on the CD is unreadable so called CD data recovery tools come to use which try to recover the data from the CD.

CD Recovery Toolbox

The data recovery tool has been specifically designed for CD, DVD and HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks. The application has been streamlined for ease of use as the recovery process can be initiated with just a few clicks. It will display the contents of the selected media giving the user the option to select specific files – or all – for recovery.

developer link

Iso Puzzle

Iso Puzzle creates an ISO image of a selected CD or DVD flagging good and bad sectors at the end of the process to give the user an overview of the situation. It will also create a file on the local disk detailing the bad sectors that could not be read. The unique solution by this software program is to utilize different CD or DVD drives to read those bad sectors as error correction differs widely among drives.

CD Check

CD Check can recover unreadable files from disks. What makes it unique is the ability to create hashes of those files at the first startup. Those hashes can be used to compare the states back then with the current state of the disk. It does come with the means to recovery unreadable files from those disks.

developer link

Copy Cat and Unstoppable Copier

Those two tools are copy software programs that try to copy files from a selected location to another one. They have been designed to use various reading techniques to copy files even from scratched or partially readable media.

developer link 1 link 2

Do you know of additional free tools to recover CDs or DVDs? Let us know in the comments.

The data recovery software is completely portable and will display all hard drives and removable drives that are connected to the computer system after startup. The next page provides a checklist of various file types that can be recovered by DiskDigger. It is divided into the three categories photos and images, documents and Audio & Video. All files are selected by default but it is possible to uncheck file types so that the program is only scanning the hard drive for those file types.

Several popular file formats are missing in the list. The documents category for instance contains only Microsoft Office documents and the pdf format. That’s a limiting factor as it is not possible to add file types to the list.

DiskDigger will display three tabs after that selection that contain the various file formats that have been found on the selected hard drive separated into their three categories. Previews are available for some file types, mainly those located in the image category. What sets DiskDigger apart from other tools that can recover deleted files is that it acts independently of the file system. It should theoretically work with damaged partitions. Other file recovery tools might fail because of that.

Here is a list of alternative programs that can be used to recover deleted files: (all link to Ghacks)

Forensic Data Recovery Software
Smart Data Recovery Enterprise
File Recovery Undelete My Files
Data Recovery Tools Encopy
DVD Data Recovery Software
Recover Deleted Files

Got any software to recover deleted files to add? Let us know in the comments.

Drive Look is a free forensic disk investigation tool from the developers of Drive Image XML. The forensic data recovery software is free to use and runs on many Microsoft operating systems like Windows 2000 or Windows XP but not Windows Vista. Registration data has been posted on the download page that needs to be entered into the software.

The forensic software will scan a selected hard drive, partition, logical drives, network drives or images and index all words that meet specific criteria. The user can select the minimum and maximum word length and chars during setup. There is also the possibility to specify words that should be included in the scan.

Drive Look will list all words that it has found during scan in a searchable interface in the end. It is possible to scroll through the words on the left side or enter a search term to find out if a word or phrase has been discovered in the specified location. The forensic data software will display the locations on the storage device in either Ascii or Hex mode and list the sector and offset information of each hit. It is possible to read the text that is surrounding the discovered phrase to get a better understanding.

An alternative to Drive Look is The hard drive data retrieval tool Disk Investigator which makes use of a realtime search.

The user can perform a sector to sector analysis of the hard drive, display the raw file contents or perform a search on the selected hard drive or partition.

The default view can be switched between disk and directories view. While the disk view is displaying the hard drive data sectors the directories view is providing access to the file structure. A click on a file will open a raw file data viewer in a separate browser

So what will you find when your run a search or analyze the data on the hard drive? You will be able to discover opened urls, passwords, email contents, document contents and more. The easiest way to discover the data is by performing a search for it. You might be surprised at the wealth of information that can be discovered when running Disk Investigator.

Another possible use for this software is to make sure that a disk wipe was successful. The software program works with most versions of the Windows operating system including Windows XP but with the exception of Windows Vista.

Why could this be important? The Windows Registry contains important information about configured devices, users, software programs, network configurations or services and drivers and it might be faster and easier to copy those settings to the new installation instead of configuring the system manually.

The data recovery program can read all Registry hives. The hives can be found in the Windows\System32\config directory and can only be loaded if they are not in use. This is usually the case if you are accessing a crashed installation from a new system,

Data can be exported into Regedit4 format which makes it easy to import it to a different system. It is also possible to save the data as CSV files to analyze them in other applications.

Windows Registry Recovery provides access to the following information:

• File Information – In this explorer you can see basic file properties and checksums.
• Security Record Explorer – Displays all security records used in registry. Usage counter, owner SID, group SID, list of affected keys and list of SACL and DACL is displayed for every record with flags and permissions enumerated. This explorer is available only for NT based system registry hives.
• SAM – Displays Machine SID and part of SYSKEY. Enumerates local user and group accounts and some of their properties. This explorer is available only for NT based system registry SAM hive.
• Windows Installation – Displays Windows name, ID and key, install date and user registration info. Enumerates installed software with descriptions and install date and list of installed hotfixes wih description. This explorer is available only SOFTWARE registry hive (Product ID and key are extracted in SYSTEM hive too).
• Control Set – Displays all configured devices that worked on host machine. They are displayed in “like Device Manager” tree with some properties. This explorer is available for SYSTEM registry hive.
• User Data – Displays user and machine name and tree based Start menu for selected USER hive. This explorer is available for USER registry hive.
• Startup Applications – Enumerates applications that are registered to be run after startup. This explorer is available for SOFTWARE registry hive.
• Services and Drivers – Enumerates all installed services and drivers with properties. This explorer is available only for NT based system registry SYSTEM hive.
• Network Configuration – Displays all installed network clients, protocols and services. Enumerates all defined network connections with its TCP/IP configuration. This explorer is available only for NT based system registry SYSTEM hive.
• Environment – Displays all environment variables. This explorer is available only for NT based system registry SYSTEM hive.
• Shell Folders – Displays shell folders (folders known to system). This explorer is available only for NT based system registry SYSTEM hive.
• Outlook Express – Digs out all Outlook Express accounts and their settings. This explorer is available only for NT based system registry USER hive.
• Raw Data – This explorer displays whole registry in known tree format. Contains powerful searching and data interpreter.

The data recovery software can be downloaded directly from the developers homepage. It is compatible with all Windows versions from Windows 95 to Windows Vista. The software program is fully portable.

Its portability make it an excellent companion for a tool collection on an USB device. The usability of Encopy has a severe limitation. The file browser can be pointed to select exactly one file from the medium or folder. Users who rely solely on the file browser will be dissatisfied by this. It is possible to use wildcards to include multiple files in the data recovery process. To copy all executable files from hard drive d one would use the wildcard d:\*.exe to do so.

Encopy comes with a set of options that define and alter the data recovery process. It is for example possible to verify the data after, force faster copying or skip system files.

Encopy lacks the visual eye candy that many data recovery tools come with but makes this more than up by the impressive size of only 69 Kilobytes and the quality of the data recovery. It did throw a few runtime errors on a test system which could not be reproduced the next time though.

Assuming that the initial backup completed error free the most common cause of loosing data are (partial) unreadable backups. It’s actually pretty easy to test if you have CDs or DVDs lying around that you burned several years ago. It is not uncommon that several files on those disks might be unreadable. There can be quite a few causes for this like scratches, exposure to sunlight, great heat or humidity.

One way of making sure that a DVD backup is still readable is to check it periodically with DVD data recovery software that can check file integrity on the disk and provide additional options like computing and comparing file hashes of previous tests or of files on the hard drive.

CD Check is a free for personal use CD and DVD data recovery software that can also check and compare files and directories on the disks.

The data recovery software provides four main functions that are all useful in the backup process.

• Hashing: Create hashes of files residing in a specific directory of the computer. This can be a partition, folder, CD or DVD drive. Various hash types like MD5, CRC-32 or SHA-512 are available. In addition ISO compliance can be checked.
• Check: Check a source folder for errors. Can be used in combination with a hash file to check file integrity.
• Compare: Compare two folders and define compare direction
• Recover: Data recovery that tries to recover unreadable files

The DVD data recovery software can deal with audio and data CDs, data DVDs and DVDs with media ratings. The software program comes as a portable version and an installer and is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows Vista.

The download version requires a free registration at the software developer’s website to receive a free registration key to be able to use the dvd data recovery software for more than 30 days.