Files - Recovery (24)

DataRecovery recovers deleted files even if they have been purged from the recycle bin. You can also search for deleted files by partial string in the filename. The program supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, EFS filesystems.

Alternatively, for files that should not be recoverable, the program includes a wipe feature.

NTFSWalker is a simple, straightforward utility for analyzing NTFS partitions on any media readable by your computer, showing deleted files, regular files, as well as file preview and detailed attributes for each file.

A program by the same developer is available for FAT partitions.

Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier allows you to copy files from disks and CDs 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 them back together. Using this method, most types of files can be made usable even if some parts were not recoverable in the end.

See the website for earlier versions that support Win9x through NT.

CD Recovery Toolbox helps recover damaged files from 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 the surface) or as a result of incorrect recording. Thus, the program can recover data that was considered lost, depending on the degree and location of the damage.

Undelete Plus is a quick and effective way to retrieve accidentally deleted files, files removed from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from a network drive, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. Since release 2.8 it can clean the disk (free space, cluster tips and directory entries).

Note: Undelete Plus has gone payware. As such, I have made the version I have available for direct download. Please see comments for more download links contributed by donald.

Roadkil's Undelete lets you undelete files that you have accidentally deleted from your drives. It supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS filesystems.

ADRC Data Recovery Tools contains a collection of data recovery tools that supports a wide variety drives and file systems. It enables you to undelete files, create a disk image for backup, restore a backup image, copy files from hard disk with bad sectors, clone a disk, backup/edit/restore your boot parameters etc. As with most tools of this nature, administrator privileges are required to use the tools.

Note: ADRC Data Recovery Tools has the annoying habit of opening its user guide on the web in the web browser on startup. This behaviour cannot be disabled. It is not as stealthy as phoning home without your knowledge, but can be irritating.

Pandora Recovery helps to recover permanently deleted files that cannot be found in the Recycle Bin. The program works with NTFS, NTFS5 and NTFS/EFS partitions. You can preview deleted files of certain type (images and text files) without performing recovery. A deep cluster scan mode is also available that is able to recover files whose MFT record has been overwritten, or when the file allocation table is missing or corrupted. In addition, Pandora Recovery supports recovery of archived, hidden, system, sparse, encrypted and compressed files, as well as ADS (Alternate Data Streams).

The program will ask you to fill up a survey upon exit when you run it for the first time, which you can skip by clicking the "Close" button.

Note: Latest version of this program is ad-supported and has not been tested for portability. A mirror for the 1.4 version has been contributed post in forums (thanks NickR).

FileExtractor is a tool for recovering files from a binary data source such as digital cameras, partitions, hard drives, memory sticks or floppy disks. It also works on Linux partitions and image-files. It is possible to use the extractor itself (configurable to search certain types of file) or a wizard, specially in order to recover data from devices.

Note: If recovering a device, the program works by creating an independent image before attempting recovery. However, this is not the case when searching the internals of files.