Some might now bring forth the old argument of having nothing to fear if you have got nothing to hide, which has been refuted over and over again. One argument against is that you may value your privacy. There is really no need for someone else to see family photos, financial documents or private email messages when you are crossing the border.

Zer0 is a basic program for Windows that deletes files so that they become unrecoverable on the system. The developers state that it is using a “high security file deletion” algorithm, but fail to elaborate on that. Tests confirmed that files can’t be recovered with software like Recuva or Undelete My Files.

While that may do for private use, it is not recommended for corporate environments because of the lack of information.

Files can only be added via drag and drop to the program interface. Each file is listed with its full file path, size and a status code.

A click on delete removes the selected files from the system and overwrites the occupied space on the hard drive so that it cannot be recovered afterwards. Successful deletions are indicated in the status column in the interface.

Zer0 is nowhere near as sophisticated as Eraser for instance. The program still gets the job done even though you’d probably would want to skip it if you are deleting a lot of files regularly on the system.

You can download the program from the developer website. Please note that a “free of all sponsored” offers version is provided on the download page next to the regular program versions. If you download the regular version, you will notice that it is filled to the brim with those offers that install toolbars and other gimmicks that you may not need on your system.

Free File Wiper is an alternative that provides more information about the file deletion process.

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 reason for this is simple. The Windows operating system write protects occupied storage space on the hard drive and a deletion basically removes that write protection and the file reference. Files are fully recoverable for as long as no data is saved into their original storage space on the hard drive. They may be partially recoverable if data has been saved in the location.

A tool like Moo0 FileShredder deletes files securely so that they cannot be recovered by file recovery software. all the tool does is to write over the storage space of the deleted file to delete its data from the hard drive.

The application is easy to use. All it takes is to drag and drop files into the program interface to delete them. It offers multiple methods of deleting files securely which seem to differ in the amount of overwrites. All methods on the other hand make the files unrecoverable.

The algorithms are explained in detail. The default algorithm performs the following operations:

• Overwrite all Data (including Cluster Tip Area and ADS) with pseudo-random data
• Change file size to 0
• Change file name
• Change file attribute
• Change file timestamp

All methods perform these operations at least once. Moo0 FileShredder is automatically set to be always on top which makes the drag and drop operation more comfortable. The program is available for download at the developer website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

The chance of recovery depends highly on the time between the deletion and recovery attempt. Windows for instance does not delete files permanently on the hard drive when the user deletes them from the system. The operating system merely deletes the file information (file xyz is stored here) and enables the space on the hard drive for writing. If no other file has been written partially or fully to the location then it is likely that the file can be recovered.

Undelete 360 is a free file recovery software for Windows that is comfortable to use

A recovery process begins with the selection of Search in the main toolbar. The file recovery program retrieves all connected storage devices and asks the user to select one or multiple devices. These devices are scanned by the application once the Start button is activated by the user.

Undelete 360 displays file groups in a sidebar on the left and the deleted files that it found on the hard drive on the right.

The sidebar items allow the user to filter by application type. That’s handy to limit the file listing to find specific files faster or to recover all files of a specific type. It is possible to switch to a folder display in the sidebar instead which is handy if files that have been stored in a specific folder need to be recovered.

All deleted files are listed with their name, path, recovery status and size. The recovery status gives an indication if a file is recoverable.

A search on top can be used to find files with a specific name or path. File previews are available once a file has been selected.

Files can be recovered by the application by selecting them first in the file listing before the Recover button is pressed.

This spawns the recovery options window where the destination directory and other related parameters can be configured.

File filters can be enabled in the top menu as well. Here it is possible to filter by filename, date range and file size.

Undelete 360 offers another interesting feature: The ability to wipe files and folders. Wiping makes the files and folders unrecoverable on the system.

The application is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Downloads are provided directly at the developer website.

The software program displays a list of options on startup, they are:

• Lost Partition Recovery
• Advanced Files Recovery
• Deep Scan Recovery
• Format Recovery

Partition Recovery

Partition recovery can help the user recover hard drive partitions, for instance if the file system or MBR have been damage or become corrupted, if the partition has been deleted by mistake or if the partition is no longer been detected by the PC.

The partition recovery module scans the computer’s hard drives on selection and all available ones are displayed in the disk listing. The user needs to select the drive on which the partition was located.

The device will be scanned and the available partitions displayed in a menu in the end. A click on Show files after selecting one of the partitions lists the available files found on that partition so that they can be recovered by the program.

Advanced File Recovery

Advanced file recovery works best in situations where files have been deleted by human error or by malicious software. A prime example would be a case where a user deletes file in the Windows recycle bin only to find out that one of the files is still needed on the system.

The module will scan the selected hard drive for deleted files that can be recovered. the scan may take some time depending on the size and speed of the hard drive.

Files can be selected for recovery in the file browser. The data recovery software offers a search to find files by name and a file preview to see if the complete file can be recovered.

Deep Scan Recovery

Deep scan recovery is a RAW recovery mode which means that it will scan the device sector by sector ignoring file systems. Raw recovery can find files that the other recovery modes may not be able to find. A disadvantage of this mode is that the files cannot be identified by their name.

Format Recovery

Format Recovery has been designed to address formatting related problems on the system. Helpful if a hard drive or other storage device has been formatted in error. This module is used to scan the formatted device to find out if data can be recovered from it. This depends largely if the device was quickly or fully formatted.

PC users who are looking for a good file recovery software should visit the promo page to snag a copy of iCare Data Recovery Software. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

It displays a list of available partitions and drives on startup, and offers to load disk images in the Advanced Tab. Once a drive has been selected it displays the available partitions, and then detailed information about the partition and data contained.

ntfswalker

The MFT (master file table) records are displayed on the left sidebar. Here it is possible to select a record to display information about it on the right content side. The content side is divided into the tabs file information, preview and hex data.

File information list all available information about the select file, from creation and modification dates to file attributes, allocated size on the partition, flags and the name namespace.

Preview displays a preview of the selected file if available. This is largely only possible if it is an image or contains textual data. Hex data finally displays the file in hex code.

ntfs file recovery

Existing files are displayed with a file icon in front of their row, while files that have been deleted with a red X. Those files may still be recoverable, especially if the size information is greater than 0 and a name is still displayed for the file.

A right-click on those files, and the selection of Save selected files in the context menu, restores the file on a selected storage device that is currently connected to the computer system.

The major advantage of NTFSWalker over comparable solutions is that it uses its own NTFS driver, which means it runs independent from the operating system in this regard.

NTFSWalker is a free software that is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. The portable application is available for download at the developer’s website.

File corruption can also originate from crashes or viruses. The effect on the system is however always the same: Files become unusable. Users with backups can simply restore a backup, providing that they are still usable, users without backups on the other hand need to use file recovery software to recover files partially or even fully.

Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier has just been released in a new version. The software is offered as a portable version and installer for Windows and Linux operating systems. It uses a different approach than most file recovery tools, since it will not try to recover deleted files. The app tries to copy existing files from a damaged hard drive or storage device.

roadkills unstoppable copier

Copy Damaged Files

The program offers two operating modes. Copy is the first mode, accessible in the first tab of the program. It can be used to copy files from one source directory to a target directory. Statistics about the transfer are displayed in the lower half of the screen, including the number of good, corrupt and skipped files.

According to the developer, Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier allows to “copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data”, by attempting “to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together”.

While there is not a guarantee that the program will recover all files stored on a damaged storage disk, it can often restore the files partially so that they become usable again (which obviously is only true for non-binary files).

Backup System

Batch Mode is the second mode of operation offered by the software program. It largely acts as a backup system. Multiple pairs of source and target folders can be added in batch mode, to process them immediately, or regularly through the supported command line parameters.

Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier supports several command line parameters. This includes copying files from a source to a target folder (as in the Copy tab in the UI), and the execution of a batch mode file. The Online Help of the application contains all the information needed to configure those processes.

Data recovery options can be customized in the program’s settings. Here it is possible to switch from best data recovery mode to faster recovery modes, enable the resuming of partial files, enable context menu entries or to set the maximum number of retries.

file recovery software

Unstoppable Copier is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and Linux systems, including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Take a look at other file recovery and backup software tools that we have reviewed in the past if you need an application for a different purpose, or if the application does not yield the desired results.

Prevent Restore is an easy to use software that can be used to wipe the free space of a hard drive. It is in this regard an alternative to the popular free program Eraser which can be configured to do the same.

Prevent Restore displays a list of hard drives on startup which can be selected for the disk wipe process.

Only the drive letters are shown in that menu which might make the identification more complicated than necessary. Users should also make sure that they do not (accidentally) select a SSD for the process.

A total of five different algorithms are available of which only one is provided to users who have not registered the software. The replace with spaces option is available to those users. Registered users who have to pay $9.95 to do so can also select random characters or digits, Peter Gutmann algorithm or the Department of Defense algorithm.

The program has not changed a lot since our first review of it in 2008. Most features that have been added have only been added to the commercial version of the program. (see Erase Files for our first review)

Prevent Restore is an alternative to Eraser, especially for users who have troubles with the program. Eraser is on the other hand the disk wipe program with a better functionality and choices. There is no need to use Prevent Restore if Eraser is working properly.

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.

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.

Christmas Giveaway:

You can win a license of Recover My Files by commenting on this review.

Check out the giveaway at Windows 7 news for the chance to win even more prices.

TechPP are giving away 20 Freedur plug-n-play proxy/VPN licenses.

Glary Undelete is another free file recovery solution. It can recover deleted files from connected storage devices. Users who want to recover deleted files can search for all deleted file information or filter the results by search phrase, size, date or recovery state.

The file recovery tool will then scan the selected partition or hard drive. This can take quite some time depending on the storage size and amount of files that have been on the drive in the past. Glary Undelete will display a folder and file type list in the left sidebar and a file list in the main window. The file list contains file names, the file path, file size and path, a recovery evaluation and the last modified date. Deleted files can be recovered by putting a checkmark in their box and clicking on the Restore button. It has to be noted that it is not always possible to recover a file completely.

Many of the files and folders are recognized by the file recovery software without their original name. They are then listed as folderxxxx in the program. Users who want to install Glary Undelete should pay attention during installation as the program tries to install the Ask toolbar on the user’s computer. Both options in the dialog have to be unchecked to avoid this from happening. Glary Undelete is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including Windows XP and Windows Vista. It’s a good choice for a second or third try to recover deleted files on a computer system.

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.

Pandora Recovery is compatible with all Windows NT operating systems including Windows NT, Windows XP and Windows Vista. The recovery software provides some interesting features that most of the other software programs do not offer. It lists the available partitions and hard drives and the user can start a scan immediately by clicking on one of the partitions. This will scan the partition for all deleted file information.

The user can browse the partition after the scan. The software application is displaying the name of the deleted file, the path, the creation and modification date and the percentage that it is overwritten. Overwritten files have a lesser chance of being fully recoverable.

Pandora Recovery provides access to a file search as well which can be used to find specific files on a partition. Files can be filtered by partition, name, size and date. The application is also displaying overall statistics about the amount of deleted files that are not overwritten, partially overwritten and completely overwritten.

To recover deleted files the user would simply right-click a file or folder and choose the Recover To option from the context menu. It does also provide the option to quick view the file which can display the contents of the files or show the contents as text if no viewer has been found for the file.

The third function is a deep surface scan which can find file information in the following three cases:

• Recovery of files whose MFT record has been reused by OS.
• Recovery of files from reformatted media.
• Recovery of files from discs with damaged or missing file allocation table.

Think of it as a deep scan which takes much longer to be performed but is more thorough. The additional information and the surface scan are great aids when trying to recover deleted files on a partition.

Another interesting aspect of that scan for deleted files is the option to preview items before they are recovered. Every file can be marked and a click on the preview button opens the file in the default viewer. It becomes pretty obvious if a file can be recovered, chances are slim if the default viewer cannot open it. If the file displays fine on the other hand chances are good that it can be recovered without difficulties.

Undelete My Files provides access to two specialized recovery operations: Media and Mail Recovery. Both target specific files and try to recover them. The advantage of using Media Recovery is that it specifically targets multimedia files offering a preview pane for quick file previews.

Mail Rescue tries to recover Microsoft Outlook Express, MS Outlook, Eudora and Netscape mails. The software automatically tries to locate the installation folders and proposes a system scan if none can be found.

Another function provided by Undelete My Files is the Advanced File Search. That’s a nice function if you know what you are looking for. You can pinpoint the tool to search specific folders, look for certain names and file types, sizes and attributes. Pretty convenient if you want to recover specific files.

The last two functions are not related to file recovery. The first is a disk wiper that deleted existing files on the disk securely so that they cannot be recovered by normal means. The other the creation of a Emergency Disk Image which creates a snapshot of a disk to work with later on. That’s actually a great idea to prevent that deleted files are overwritten by new files and the same way professionals are handling this issue.

Wipe Disk and Wipe Files (via Download Squad) are two applications that can delete disks and partitions or files securely so that they cannot be recovered by normal means. Normal means are those typical file recovery applications like Recuva.

Both applications are available in different languages which can be changed in the Extras > Language menu. The default language of both applications is German. Both are pretty straightforward. A disk, file or directory is added to the queue and one of the fourteen algorithms is selected that delete the data securely.

Some of the algorithms are being used by the Department of Defense, the US Navy or Nato. I would always suggest to use a software like Recuva after deleting data on a disk to make sure that those cannot be retrieved by normal means.

Those algorithms use different ways to overwrite the location on the hard drive that was occupied by the data. A German basic description of every algorithm is available in the program’s help file.

CD Recovery Toolbox is a software that tries to recover data on CDs, DVDs and even HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs with no file size limitations which means that it can recover files of a size larger than 4 Gigabytes which is obviously not an issue if you want to recover data from CDs.

The application is compatible to all Microsoft operating systems since – and including – Windows 98 which includes Windows XP and Windows Vista. The easy to use wizard guides the user through the process which is simply a matter of selecting the drive where the CD or DVD has been inserted into, a target directory on the hard disk to store the recovered files and the selection of the files after CD Recovery Toolbox has analyzed the contents of the disk.

Files and folders can be checked so that they will be recovered in the next step and written to the target directory that was selected in step 2 of the process.

There is no guarantee that all files and folders can be recovered from the disc inserted though. Another application that can be used to recover files from discs is Iso Puzzle which shines if access to several CD or DVD drives is available.

CD Recovery Toolbox on the other hand is the first free tool that I know of that can recover files from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs.

That’s how file recovery programs like Recuva operate. They scan the hard drive for those deleted files and have a good chance of recovering them. The chance is better for newly deleted files because the chance is lower that their sectors on the hard drive have been overwritten by other files.

You will hopefully agree with us that it is highly impracticable to wait until the file has been overwritten by other files to make sure that it cannot be recovered by normal means.

One solution is to use so called File Wipers and DP Secure Wiper by Dirk Paehl is one of them. It provides three different methods of deleting a file permanently so that it cannot be recovered anymore.

Single Overwrite: This is the fastest way of deleting a file. File Recovery Programs that are freely available on the Internet will not be able to recover the file anymore.
lDoD Wipe: Department of Defense compliant wiping. The file will be overwritten seven times.
Gutmann’s Method: It will overwrite the file with 35 different patterns.

DP Secure Wiper works by dragging and dropping files or folders into the program window. The one thing that is missing in our opinion is a context menu entry that sends files directly to the application.

Free Undelete scans one partition of the hard drive and provides access to all recoverable files and folders that it found during the scan. The scan itself is surprisingly fast, faster than the one by Recuva but this could be due to the way both applications present the data after the scan. Recuva is displaying all files it found in the main window while Free Undelete displays the folder structure of the files.

That’s a great approach if you can remember the folder names of the files that you want to recover. If you cannot remember them you are in for some folder clicking until you find the files that you want to recover because Free Undelete does not offer a search, only a filter that filters the current results by filename and folder name.

This difference matters only if specific files have to be recovered. It is easier to recover all files and folders with Free Undelete because it displays less of them in the main interface. A tip is to always recover files on a different partition than the one the files are being recovered from. It could happen otherwise that recovered files are stored in locations of files that are still to be recovered which will obviously fail then.

If you only have one partition I suggest to use an external device, USB drive, external hard drive or similar to store the files temporary on that device.