Data recovery software is essential for any computer user, whether you’re an average Joe with family photos or an IT manager responsible for the day-to-day operations of your company’s servers. But, what makes one data recovery software different from another? How do you know which option to choose? This guide will help you answer these questions and more as we explore the best data recovery software options, both free and paid, on the market today.
Most Recommended Free Tools
1. Disk Drill
2. MiniTool Power Data Recovery
3. Wise Data Recovery
4. PC Inspector File Recovery
5. Remo Recover
6. ZAR Data Recovery for Windows 8, 10, 7 , Vista, XP
7. SoftPerfect File Recovery
8. PhotoRec
9. Recuva
10. R-Studio
11. Undelete Plus
12. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
13 . Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery
14. Avira Rescue System
15. TeraByte Unlimited Image For NTFS
16. IsoBuster
17. Runtime’s GetDataBack for FAT
18. Runtime’s GetDataBack for NTFS
19. Pandora FMS
20. Digital Image Retrieval Tool (DIRT) is free software that can recover files from any storage device or file system.
It can also recover files from volumes formatted with the following filesystems:
FAT12/16/32, exFAT, Ext2/3/4, HFS+, UFS1/2/3, XFS. DIRT supports all versions of Windows including XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10. DIRT supports Linux and can be used on USB flash drives to recover data from removable media on both PCs and laptops. DIRT works with Apple Time Machine backups as well as network shares that use various SMB/CIFS protocols. In addition to recovering individual files, DIRT also offers options to explore an entire disk partition to find deleted files based on their filename pattern or other parameters such as date created, size in bytes etc.
The ‘Expert Mode’ feature allows you to scan your drive at high level looking for strings inside data structures like MFT records or FAT clusters which might contain readable chunks of file data. If you are not familiar with Unix systems, this may be a good option for you.
Also, if your hard drive has been damaged due to some disaster and does not show up in Windows Explorer or My Computer anymore, there are many recovery tools out there that will help you get back access to your data even if it has been removed by deleting the OS partition.
10 Data Recovery Tips
1. Invest in a good data recovery software program. This is your best defense against data loss.
2. Be sure to regularly back up your files. This will help ensure that you have a copy of your data should something happen to the originals
3. Keep your backup files in a safe, separate location from your main computer files. This way, if something happens to your computer, your backup files will be safe.
4. K eep multiple copies of important files. This way, if one copy is lost or corrupted, you will have others to fall back on.
5. Use cloud storage for important files. This way, even if your computer is lost or damaged, your files will be safe and accessible online.
6. Check the file extensions before opening any file type (i.e., an image with an .jpg extension). It could contain malicious code that could compromise your device or cause irreparable damage to it.
7. Format external hard drives as NTFS instead of FAT32. FAT32 isn’t compatible with many devices such as newer PCs, so formatting it this way can lead to data corruption when transferring files between systems with different operating systems.
8. Avoid opening email attachments unless you are certain they are from a trusted source; otherwise, they may contain malware designed to steal sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers from your device or computer system by accessing sensitive areas of your operating system such as web browsers, social media apps, and photo editors.
9. Perform regular maintenance on your PC to prevent malware from taking over.
10. Don’t forget about password protection! If someone else gets their hands on your laptop, tablet, or phone, they’ll be able to access all of your personal information without having to hack into anything. Remember – strong passwords protect you from hackers!
Most Popular Paid Tools
1. Disk Drill
2. Stellar Data Recovery
3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
4. MiniTool Power Data Recovery
5. Wise Data Recovery
6. UndeleteMyFiles Pro
7. LC Tech Data Recovery Expert
8. R-Studio
9. Macrorit DataRecovery
10. Remo Recover
11. Alsoft Uneraser
12. Pandora Box
13. Recuva
14. Ontrack EasyRecovery
15. IsoBuster
16… More details to come as we get closer to 2022!
Of course, if you’re not willing to pay for your data recovery tool, there are plenty of free options that you can use instead. Whether you’d rather wait a few hours for your file recovery tool or download a larger application first, there’s something for everyone here in our list of free file recovery software solutions. If it turns out you need help recovering files from an encrypted hard drive, try these programs below.
17. DiskCryptor Decryptor
18. VeraCrypt Mount Tool
19. Oxygen Forensic Browser
20. Dislocker
21. FTK Imager
22. Ikelite Home Edition
23. PhotoRec
24…. 25. Double Commander
25. TestDisk
26. WinHex
27. HexEdit
28. GSmartControl
29. BlaBlaCar.
Finally, this blog post would not be complete without mentioning the most popular carpooling app of the decade: BlaBlaCar. Created by two French entrepreneurs (Frédéric Mazzella and Nicolas Brusson) in 2006, the company has become so successful that they’ve now raised over $1 billion dollars in funding and acquired many competitors like Crubile Technologies SA. For a long time, the company was only available in Europe; however, with their global expansion efforts launched back in 2012, they’re quickly becoming one of the largest ride-sharing companies worldwide. With more than 18 million members and 500 employees, people have been sharing their rides with each other since 2007 through BlaBlaCar which is currently operating across 34 countries.