Data Recovery Tools
There exist a plethor of tools to do data recovery on hard disks, some good and some not. This page is mainly intended to index the list of tools I presently use or know about to do data recovery from either hard disks or USB memory devices. It is by no means exhaustive and due to a lack of time not all tools have been researched extensively. If you have any tools that should be added, especially free ones, or have corrections for this page, by all means email me.
Name of package | Free or price | Brief Description | Uses what OS | Supports what file systems | Supports what OS | Supports what devices | Comments | Web link |
HDD Regenerator 1.7.1 | $39.95 US | Regenerates bad sectors, makes sectors readable again | DOS on boot CD | Any | Any | HD | Works great, excellent tool | http://www.dposoft.net/ |
MHDD | Free | Diagnose mechanical of drives, view SMART attributes, perform low-level format, bad sector repair, etc | DOS on boot CD | Any | Any | HD | Not tested | http://hddguru.com |
Easus Data Recovery Wizard 5 | $89.95 | Recovered deleted files, lost partitions, etc. | Windows installer | NTFS FAT |
Windows | HD USB memory cards |
http://www.easeus.com | |
Easus Disk Copy 2.3 | Free | Copies partitions to other disk, allows bad sector skip | Linux boot CD | Most | Any | HD | Excellent for copying partitions | http://www.easeus.com |
IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness | Free | Tests hard disks | DOS on boot floppy or CD | Any | Any | All HD | Great tool, tests all hard disks, not just Hitachi/IBM | http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm |
PowerQuest Deploy Center | Abandoned | Copies partitions to other disk | DOS | NTFS FAT |
Windows up to Visa | HD | Good tool, but getting old & limited | none |
GHOST Solution Suite | $Varies | Copies partitions to other disk | DOS Windows WinPE |
NTFS FAT |
Windows | HD | Only tested DOS Ghost, not too impressed | http://www.symantec.com/business/ghost-solution-suite |
Acronis True Image | $Varies | Copies partitions to other disk | Custom OS loader | NTFS FAT |
Windows | HD | Briefly tested. | http://www.acronis.com |
TestDisk | Free | Diagnoses, fix boot sector, fix MFT/FAT, undelete files, etc | Many | Many | Many | HD, more? | Untested | http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk |
PartEd Magic | Free | Partition recovery, file recovery, etc. | Linux | Many | Any | HD, more? | Untested | http://partedmagic.com |
GetDataBack | $Varies | Recover files from partitions | Windows | NTFS FAT |
Windows | HD, more? | Untested | http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm |
R-Studio | $Varies | Recover files from partitions | ? | NTFS FAT etc |
Many | HD, more? | Untested | http://www.r-studio.com/#local |
Stellar Phoenix | $Varies |
Recover files from partitions | ? | Many | ? | HD, more? | Untested | http://www.stellarinfo.com |
OnTrack Data Recovery Pro | $$$ Expensive |
Recovers files from partitions, recovers lost partitions, etc | Windows installer | Many | Windows | HD, more? | Old version tested, was only good to WinXP | http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/data-recovery-software |
RecoverMyFiles | $69.95 | Recovers files from partitions | Windows | NTFS FAT |
Windows | HD, more? | Untested | http://www.recovermyfiles.com |
Page created by Peter Schepers, IST
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