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Recovering files from hard drive is a question that worries many personal computer owners.

This includes the loss of valuable information and the time required for its successful recovery.

Specialized services charge a lot of money for this, but if the media is in good condition, it makes sense to try to recover the data yourself.

Reasons for losing information

If the storage medium is undamaged, the main reason may be:

• errors that occurred in the partition table or file system devices. Most often this happens due to incorrect shutdown personal computer, failures, malfunctions in hardware and software;
• the harmful effects of viruses, as well as user errors, often lead to the loss or corruption of data. With such failures, the information usually remains on the disk, but data about its location is lost. This is expressed in the loss of several disk partitions, displaying the partition as unformatted;
• Inaccurate file system records can also lead to partial or complete loss separate files and catalogues.

The main causes of malfunctions that lead to loss of information

Or maybe files, important data were accidentally deleted or the partition in which they were located was formatted. Information recovery is carried out using certain software in manual or automatic mode.

When using the appropriate programs, all information that exists on the media is scanned. Based on the detected information, a “map” of fragments of recovered data is created. It contains information: which file belongs to which sector, names, sizes and other parameters of the elements of the system being scanned. The selected data is then transferred to another drive.

What to do if data is lost?

If nothing was written to the sectors from which information was deleted, then the data was not physically destroyed, but information about its location was distorted or lost. First of all, it is necessary to determine exactly where the sectors that store the necessary information are located, and also reproduce it in the correct sequence.

If information was written to the disk from which the files were deleted, for example, formatting and installation of a new operating system, there is a high probability of physical destruction of the data. In these cases, the feasibility of successful information recovery depends on the ratio of lost and recorded data. For example, if you delete 2 gigabytes of databases and write 100 gigabytes of music and movies in their place, the probability of successful recovery approaches zero.

Data recovery mechanism using programs

• media scanning;
• Based on the scanning results, a map of the location of pieces of information is compiled, based on the detected service records, and a directory tree is built;
• the map contains data about which file belongs to which cluster, the name, size and other parameters of the file system elements;
• if the information received is not enough, then certain extrapolation methods are used;
• folders and files that need to be recovered are selected in accordance with the compiled map and transferred to another medium.

This article will discuss various different programs, both paid and free, their strengths and weaknesses so that the reader can quickly choose the most suitable software for his request.

5 Best Data Recovery Software

Recuva

Recuva is one of the most common programs for recovering lost data or formatted disks. The high demand for this program can be explained by its simple and intuitive interface. Recuva does not require experience or special knowledge in the field of data recovery, it is very convenient and easy to use. You can download it from here

The program scans the selected hard drive(both various hard drives and flash drives are supported). Information can be recovered even if the drive has suffered any physical damage or was formatted using a standard system command.

It is recommended to perform recovery using the program without changing standard settings, unless, of course, you are an expert in the field of data recovery. This utility has simple interface and will provide effective recovery information, even if the user does not have the necessary knowledge.

The program will prompt you to select the type of file to be restored. When searching for a specific file (music, picture, document), it is worth specifying the category to save time necessary for the recovery operation. But, if you do not know the file type or want to find data from different categories, specify “Other” and the program will search for all deleted information.

Choosing WHAT to look for

Next, you need to select the location where the file was located before deletion. You can select not only a separate folder, but also more extensive areas, for example: “My Documents” or “On a memory card”, and the program will check the selected area for the presence of the necessary data. If the exact location is unknown (the file was deleted using special programs or simply disappeared), you should leave the “Exactly unknown” default so that the utility scans the entire surface of the media.

We choose WHERE we will look

A window appears when you are ready to perform the restore operation. It is recommended to conduct an in-depth analysis: it takes longer, but its efficiency will be many times higher.

It is worth waiting a while while the program searches for files. If you did not choose in-depth analysis, the operation will take very little time.

Selecting information to restore

A window will open indicating the deleted data found. From this list You should select the information that needs to be restored, after which the program will prompt you to select a folder for recovery.

It is important right choice folders where our files will be restored, because this will affect the efficiency of their recovery. Restoration should be carried out to a drive other than the one from which the recovery is being carried out. This is especially true when returning a large number of files. You can connect an additional hard drive or flash drive to return data to them. The space should be slightly larger than the size of the files being restored.

The recovery procedure will not take much time and depends on the number and size of files.

R-Studio

R-Studio is a convenient and functional program to recover information from different drives that was deleted by mistake. With its help, you can scan various media and recover lost data not only from hard drives, but also from flash drives. You can download the utility from the website http://www.r-studio.com/ru/Data_Recovery_Download

Initially, you should decide on the choice of version: demo or full. If you do not perform data recovery on a regular basis, it is better to choose the demo version. A 20-day period is more than enough to restore all information.

If you are not a pro, it is better to use the demo version

In addition to recovery, the utility can also perform a preliminary scan. This operation will speed up and increase the efficiency of the recovery procedure. Please note that you can scan your device third party programs, and upload a file with a report on the work done into R-Studio. The utility always conducts a detailed scan by sector. It may take certain time, depending on the size of the partition being scanned.

We scan the selected partition

After the scan is completed, it will be possible to view all the files that it was able to detect and then select those that can be restored. In order to restore a file, you need to right-click on it and select the “Recover” command.

R-Studio is convenient and multifunctional

If you don’t know exactly what was deleted from the device, and you are going to recover all lost files, in this case, right-click on the desired media and select “Recover all files.”

At the end, simply select the partition where to restore

At the end, you will need to select a folder where the seized information will be restored. Important! It is imperative to take into account that the folder must be located on a different hard drive from which information will be returned, because during the recovery of some files, others may be completely overwritten by them.

After selecting a folder, you need to wait while the program diagnoses the drive and restores lost information.

Easy Recovery

Easy Recovery can safely be called a high-quality program for professionals, which even regular user. It has gained popularity due to its excellent efficiency and, at the same time, ease of use in comparison with similar utilities. The advantage of this program is that it can also perform preliminary diagnostics of the media. Download the program

Click on “Disc Diagnostic” and select the required command. If the utility was downloaded in order to recover data, then we conduct a deep scan “SmartTests”. In addition to scanning, the program will perform diagnostics and determine whether the hard drive has problems, for example, unreadable sectors or any others, in order to prevent troubles.

Diagnostic menu

After selecting the command, the type and number of media that are currently running on the device are determined. We choose which one we will work with and where to restore the information.

For the most accurate and full diagnostics select “Run extended” SMART test" First of all, you should be patient: the verification will take a lot of time.

Be patient and choose scanning

To restore files, go to the “Data Recovery” section and select the mode that is interesting to us. In this program, modes are selected depending on the specific situation.

For example, if you accidentally formatted your hard drive, select the “Format Recovery” category. Next, select the file system of the drive and the partition that was formatted.

If there is a need to recover deleted files, then select the “Deleted Recovery” function - the disk selection menu opens and the formats of the recovered files are determined.

Recovering lost files

If the data is lost as a result of a software failure or the reason for the loss is unknown, select the “Advanced Recovery” option. After scanning, the program will find information that was deleted within a certain period of time.

We choose what we need to restore. Typically, the diagnostic and recovery procedure does not take much time. This will depend on the amount of data that needs to be returned.

PhotoRescue Pro

PhotoRescue Pro is a utility that will help you perform recovery deleted photos or video recordings. Current digital devices provide ample opportunities for recording, dubbing and optimizing media files. If you accidentally deleted the necessary files from digital gadget– this utility will solve this problem.

Using this program you can recover data from any type of flash drive, hard drive or mobile phones. It is possible to recover data even from damaged and formatted media.

Working with PhotoRescue Pro is very convenient and accessible. You can download it from here. The program supports many languages, including Russian. After selecting the language, a window appears in which we click the “Next” button and the registration window appears. If you just want to recover a few photos, there is no point in registering the program, but if you constantly work with your camera and this problem occurs to you quite often, it is worth purchasing the full version.

First, we select the drive from which we will return information. The utility works with several file systems at once, which is very beneficial. Click “Next”.

Analyzing the content

After selecting the drive we need, click “Next”, wait a couple of seconds - the utility will check the partition we have selected. A list of folders is displayed, we need to select the one that interests us. If the location of the file is unknown, click on the checkmark at the very top to highlight all the data found. "Next"

Select the desired folder

We select the formats of the files that interest us. To avoid mistakes, it is better not to uncheck individual formats so that the utility can find as much information as possible. Next, select the required files. Click “Next”.

Select the desired folder

Once you have completed selecting formats, the scanning operation will begin. The verification time will depend on the volume of data and will take from a few minutes to a couple of hours.

Scan duration depends on data size

The advantage of the program over analogues is that it simultaneously checks the drive for the presence of unreadable sectors. Thanks to this, you can not only restore lost information, but also carry out diagnostics and troubleshooting.

All that remains is to restore the data

After scanning is completed, a list of files opens. It is possible to search for files by categories (video, photo, audio) and formats, and not by sections and various folders.

The program shows how much data was found and what was deleted. Thanks to this, you will quickly find out which files were found and which were irretrievably lost.

GetDataBack

GetDataBack is one of the most effective and most powerful. With its help, you can recover data in almost any situation. The developer divided the program into two subtypes: the first for the NTFS file system, and the second for FAT. Download it from here: https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

We recover all deleted files for effective results

Install this utility necessary for a foreign hard drive. You cannot restore to the media from which files will be restored, because necessary information will be overwritten.

After opening the program, a menu of four items appears. For maximum efficiency, it is recommended to select the fourth option – “I want to recover deleted files” (I want to recover deleted data).

Select the required section

In the list that opens local disks, which the utility will find while scanning the hard drive, you need to find the partition where the deleted files were located. The program provides many possibilities in the field of data recovery, but if you just want to return information from the drive and do not know where it was, you should select the “Physical drives” category.

A file system window opens and you need to select the one that is supported by this version of the program (in our case, NTFS). IN modern computers Different file systems are used simultaneously, so check the box next to “Show recommended”.

Select the file system we are interested in

After a detailed scan, the utility will open a folder explorer, simple and easy to understand. The contents of the selected folder will be displayed on the right; if the information was deleted, after recovery GetDataBack will show the files in strikethrough font for easier classification. Each file is equipped with a special marking, with which you can determine the type of information found.

Data recovery is easy and convenient

As a result, we select the data we need and start the recovery. Once finished, the recovered file will be available in the editor

Restoring files using this program in the FAT file system is carried out in the same way.

Conclusion

This article discussed, in my opinion, the most popular and effective programs to recover deleted data from a hard drive and various media. For beginners, the popular Recuva with a simple interface is suitable; if you lose media files, you should choose PhotoRescue Pro, it can recover data from almost any modern gadgets; For permanent job with information return, GetDataBack would be ideal - it has powerful functionality, is efficient and at the same time has an ergonomic main menu.

If for some reason you were unable to recover your data, but the information is valuable, it makes sense to contact specialists. They have more powerful software and can help where these utilities are powerless.

When an important file is lost, a document you spent a week on is erased, and photos disappear from a suddenly formatted memory card, there is no need to worry ahead of time. When you delete a file from the disk, its description in the system is erased. The set of bytes that made up the file remains in place until something else is written on top of them. So you can try to recover your data using any of these applications.

Be careful if you install applications on a drive where deleted files were located. There is a risk that application files will be overwritten during installation. It is better to choose another partition for installation or physical disk.

Platform: Windows.
Price: free, $19.95 for premium version.

Recuva can recover data lost by mistake, for example from an accidentally emptied Recycle Bin. The program can return photos from an accidentally formatted memory card in the camera or music from an empty MP3 player. Any media is supported, even iPod memory.

Platform: Windows, Mac.
Price: free, $89 for premium version.

Disk Drill is a data recovery application for Mac, but there is also a version for Windows. This program supports most types of disks, files and file systems. With its help, you can recover erased files by Recovery functions Protection, as well as find and clean up the disk. However free version does not allow you to recover files lost before installing Disk Drill.

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS, DOS.
Price: for free.

A very functional and versatile application with open source code. It has a text interface, but it is not difficult to understand.

TestDisk supports a huge number file formats. In addition, the program can be burned onto a LiveCD to recover data from a disk on which the system does not boot. The utility can recover a damaged boot sector or lost data.

TestDisk comes with the PhotoRec program, which recovers erased files, photos, music and videos.

4. R-Undelete

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux.
Price: the free version recovers files up to 256 KB in size; $79.99 for full version.

R-Undelete is part of R-Studio. It's a whole family powerful programs for data recovery. Supported file systems are FAT12/16/32/exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, HFS/HFS+, UFS1/UFS2 and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4.

R-Studio applications can recover deleted data both on local drives and over the network. In addition to data recovery, the utilities provide tools for advanced partition copying and searching for bad blocks on disks.

Platform: Windows.
Price: free in trial mode with recovery of up to 1 GB of data; $69.95 for full version.

Eassos Recovery recovers deleted files, photos, text documents and more than 550 file formats. The application has a very simple and intuitive interface.

Platform: Windows.
Price: the free version does not save found files; $37.95 for full version.

Developer Hetman provides a set of recovery utilities various types data: entire sections or individual photos and documents. The program supports all hard drives, flash cards, SD and microSD.

Platform: Windows.
Price: free, $19.97 included with Glary Utilities.

Glary Undelete can recover any deleted files, including compressed, fragmented or encrypted ones. Filtering of recovered data is supported.

Do you know more convenient and functional data recovery applications? Tell us about them in the comments.

Accidentally deleting files from your computer is quite easy. But restoring them can be problematic. Especially if you don't know where to start. Below you will find a selection of programs for recovering deleted files for Windows. You can safely use any of them to recover lost data.

It is best to keep one of these programs installed on your computer, so that if necessary, you can simply launch and restore lost files without special problems. This is extremely important, since the success of the procedure depends on the quantity file operations(disk writes) that occurred after files were deleted.

06/20/2016, Anton Maksimov

There are a great variety of different programs on the Internet. Every day, users install and uninstall different programs. In some cases, due to a variety of reasons, a system failure occurs and some data can easily go missing. The most important data on our computers are documents, photos, audio and video archives. To prevent yourself from losing important data, it is highly recommended to create backup copies regularly. Well, if it happens that the data is lost and there is no backup copy, then Recuva comes to the rescue. This is a free program for easily recovering deleted files (whether due to a crash or mistakenly deleted by the user).

12/26/2014, Anton Maksimov

About creation backup copies A lot has been said, but still situations are different. Sometimes a disk may fail, or it may be accidentally formatted, forgetting to write off important data from it. As a result, restoration is urgently required. In this case, the software package comes to the rescue Hetman Partition Recovery.

According to the developers, this product will help recover data from hard drives, USB drives and even memory cards as a result accidental deletion, formatting, deleting “bypass the Recycle Bin” via Shift + Del, blocked by a virus, system failure or media damage.

02/27/2012, Marcel Ilyasov

Undelete 360 ​​is a file recovery program. Undelete 360 ​​is completely free (for home use) and has a high-quality translation into Russian. To scan and recover data, unlike any other similar programs, the application uses a more efficient search algorithm, which can significantly reduce the time spent on preliminary scanning hard disks. The application can work with flash media, memory cards, CD\DVD, ZIP, external HDDs etc.

02/10/2012, Marcel Ilyasov

Information is valuable, and losing such value is very, very unpleasant. And in some cases, information is so valuable that its cost can reach tens, hundreds and even millions of rubles/dollars. Hard drives, flash cards and memory cards that store our data allow us to achieve a very high degree of storage reliability, but they also have failures. In addition to device failures, human absent-mindedness also leads to information loss - any user can easily “by inertia” delete important documents, and only then realize that he did something wrong. In any of the options there is a chance to recover information. In the event that this is not hardware failure, then you can try to perform the recovery yourself using specialized utilities. One of the tools for recovering files from media is EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free.

Loss these days important files— an unpleasant event, to put it mildly. But if you catch yourself in time, they may still be able to be saved. There are many programs for logical data recovery, and among them there are many that deserve attention free products. They will be discussed in this article.

The main reasons for data loss are:

• physical malfunction of the disk or flash drive (most often defective unreadable areas, colloquially “bad blocks”),
• accidental deletion of necessary files by the user himself,
• damage to the file system (due to power and hardware failures, exposure to a virus, or incorrect operation of regular software).

In flash drives and memory cards, the internal translation table often crashes, as a result of which all data becomes inaccessible at once (the flash drive is detected with zero capacity or simply freezes when accessed).

In the first and last cases, most likely, you will have to remove the problematic drive from the computer and transfer it to data recovery specialists who have the necessary set of equipment, knowledge and experience. The portal recently covered their activities.

In other cases (and these are the majority), files can be restored directly at the workplace using special programs. It's faster, cheaper, and you don't have to worry about privacy.

⇡ How programs recover files

In OS Windows data all files on the disk are stored in a special table (in the NTFS file system it is called MFT, Master File Table). It can be somewhat simplified to be represented as a library catalog, which indicates where the book with such and such a title is located. When a file is deleted, it is not physically erased from the disk (for reasons of economy and performance). First, its “card” is modified: a mark is placed on it indicating that the file has been deleted and the disk area previously occupied by it is free. In the future, this space is used to write new files.

If writing over the old file has not yet occurred, then restoring it is easy. The program looks through records of all files marked as deleted and prompts the user to restore them. It’s worse if new information has already been written over the file, then most likely it will not be possible to restore it. If only part of the file is overwritten, then you can restore the remaining “piece” (for example, part of an image or document).

Programs act differently if the file system is damaged (or completely destroyed when formatting the disk), and also if required file I couldn't find the first way. Then they have to literally “probe” the disk in search of possible signs of files.

What are these signs? Various popular file formats (doc, jpg , avi and the like) there are headers characteristic of them - signatures. These are exactly what recovery programs look for, scanning the entire contents of the disk in a row. Each program supports its own set of signatures, which it “knows” and can search for and restore. The breadth and sophistication of this set is one of the indicators of software quality.

When restoring files in this way, information about their location (in which folders they were located), as well as the file name, is sometimes lost, so the file can only be identified by its contents. In this regard, the function of previewing a file directly in the program, even before saving it, is very useful. The more formats for which “preview” is supported, the better.

It should be noted that each software product has its own algorithms for searching for deleted files. Some heuristics work well in some cases, some in others. It is quite difficult to say in advance what kind of case is in front of you. Often, especially in cases of severe damage, the maximum amount of data is recovered not by the program that shows best result in most "normal" cases.

It follows practical advice: If one (“favorite”) utility was not able to save all the files you need, try several others - perhaps they will be more successful. Combining the results obtained different methods, will ultimately give the best effect.

Important warning: if the files have already been deleted and need to be restored, but the necessary program is not at hand, then you should download and install it to the wrong partition from which you want to recover data, so as not to inadvertently write new files over deleted ones and thereby worsen the situation. Of course, you need to save the recovered files to another drive. It makes sense to keep a set of proven “repair” utilities on an external drive (hard drive or flash drive), since their volume is ridiculous by today’s standards.

⇡ What programs should you use?

Below we will look at the main programs that are used for “amateur” data recovery. All of them are absolutely free(freeware class - do not require the purchase of a license and do not contain functional or time restrictions) and support the most common Windows file systems: FAT16/32 and NTFS. A number of programs have additional functionality that is useful in certain cases.

Recuva 1.40.525

This program has gained significant popularity as it was one of the first free file recovery utilities. Recuva is the brainchild of the British company Piriform, which is also known for its other “repair” utility - CCleaner. In addition to hard drives, the program can work with flash drives and iPods, as well as securely delete files.

By today's standards, Recuva is somewhat primitive and inferior in capabilities to more recent developments. But if you just need to “pull out” the file you just deleted, you can try it. At least it won’t take much time and you won’t have to rack your brains.

Recuva supports two file search modes: fast shallow and slow deep, which performs sector-by-sector analysis of the disk. The program interface is simple and clear. First, a wizard will launch that will prompt you to select the type of files to be restored and the location in which they were located (you can also conduct a full search for all deleted files). The wizard can be disabled and operated from the main program window - for many users this is more convenient.

All found files will be shown in the form of a list, but in the context menu you can also choose to view them in the form of a directory tree, which is convenient if there are a lot of files.

Recuva shows found files, their parameters and chances of recovery (the latter is determined by the “traffic light” color of the circle next to the name)

After clicking the “Restore” button, the program will ask where to save the checked files. To be on the safe side, it is recommended to write them to another disk, but often the files are successfully restored to their original location.

Recuva also has a “manual” operating mode.

"Manual" operating mode of Recuva

After clicking the “Analyze” button, the program will begin searching for either all files that have ever been deleted, or those that match the specified mask and path. In order to select an analysis method (deep or superficial), you need to go to the settings and select the “Actions” tab.

If the files were not deleted, but were damaged due to a disk failure or the action of malware, then to “repair” them in the settings, on the “Actions” tab, you need to select “Search for undeleted files.”

In addition to recovering files, Recuva can also securely erase them. This is useful, for example, if the disk contains important information and you wouldn’t want it to end up in the hands of criminals (or, say, the tax office). To do this, the program writes several times to the location on the disk where the file was located, so that it cannot be restored by any means. To select files for such deletion, you need to perform an analysis manually, select the files and select “ Reliable removal" The deletion algorithm can be specified in the settings, on the “General” tab (the default is the simplest and fastest one).

Recuva also supports portable mode. To do this, copy the folder with the program to external media, and then create a file inside this folder named “portable.dat”.

PC Inspector File Recovery 4.0

This utility was created by the German offshoot of the British company CONVAR. Its authors know first-hand about data recovery, since this is one of the main areas of the company’s work. The quality of file recovery in PC Inspector is slightly higher than in Recuva. The program will also take on lost disk partitions that are not recognized by the operating system (which happens, for example, after hardware failures).

The disadvantages of PC Inspector include its not very obvious interface. Certain difficulties also arise with the recovery of highly fragmented (scattered across the disk space) files, as well as disks with damaged file system.

When you start the program, a window appears in which you can indicate what exactly happened to your files. Listed on the right possible options and further action scenario. You need to select one of the three shortcuts on the left.

PC Inspector start window

After this, you should indicate which drive you want to recover data from. If it is not in the list, click the “Find” button logical drives" After selecting the drive, click on the green checkmark.

Disc selection window

After the scanning process is completed, you will see a window with the files found. If they were accidentally deleted, then you need to look for them in the “Deleted Items” folder. If the reason for their loss was problems with the disk or its formatting, then the found files will be located in the “Lost” folder. You can also use the file search option (shortcut with a magnifying glass on the left side of the window).

After the necessary files or folders are selected, they should be written to the hard drive (the “Save” item in the context menu). Let us remind you that it is highly advisable to do this on another section.

Window with found files. You can see their characteristics and recovery forecast

To recover files from memory cards of cameras and phones, CONVAR has developed a special (and also free) utility PC Inspector Smart Recovery 4.5.

It is tailored for various image formats (JPG, TIF, BMP, GIF, proprietary RAW files of major vendors), as well as audio and video recordings (WAV, AMR, AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP). The utility's interface is extremely simple and will not cause any difficulties.

R.saver 1.0

This is a very remarkable freeware product. R.saver often handles the most severe cases of data loss that others free utilities turn out to be too tough (serious damage to the file system, the disk is not visible to the OS, etc.). In many cases the program shows results at the level of the best commercial products, so we recommend keeping it on hand.

R.saver appeared in 2011 as a simplified version professional software UFS Explorer, as a result of cooperation between the Moscow data recovery company R.LAB and the Ukrainian company from Donetsk SysDev Laboratories, the developer of UFS Explorer. Only non-commercial use is allowed in the territory of the former USSR.

The program interface is simple, informative and does not contain anything superfluous. In addition, all the tips and detailed guide originally written in Russian. R.saver can find lost disk partitions that are not recognized by the operating system and automatically determine their native file system. So if your disk has failed and the OS no longer sees it, you should not start formatting - the program will find the partition anyway, and there will be a greater chance of data recovery.

When running, R.saver searches for both traces (headers and tails) various formats files, as well as all available information in the remnants of the file system. In fact, we have a hybrid of the methods described at the beginning of the article, which determines the higher efficiency of the program - its ability to find and restore files.

In addition to recovering data from familiar Windows file FAT and NTFS systems (including those saved as a disk image), R.saver allows you to read files from many file systems from other OS families (Mac OS, Linux, Unix, BSD, Novell, CD/DVD). Here they are full list, taken from documentation: HFS, HFS+/HFSX, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, ReiserFS, JFS, XFS, UFS, UFS2, NWFS, ISO9660, UDF. Impressive, isn't it?

When you launch the program, you will see a window with all detected disk partitions. If the partition you need is lost and is not displayed (you can navigate by the label indicated in the properties window on the right and the size), then select the physical disk on which it was located and click the “Find Partition” button.

R.saver start window

Having selected the desired section, click the “Scan” button (will appear in the right top corner). Once the scanning process is complete, you will see the reconstructed file system (what it would have looked like if no data loss had occurred). Deleted and presumably damaged files are also indicated separately in the relevant sections.

R.saver window with detected files

Taking advantage context menu, you can copy the desired file or folder to another drive. By double-clicking on the file, you can view its contents (the file itself is copied to a temporary directory). There is also a file search function (window " Quick search" in the upper right corner).

R.saver does not require installation as such - just download and unpack a small archive, and then run the executable file. This also sets the program apart from its competitors.

Pandora Recovery 2.1.1

This is another well-proven data recovery program (especially when it comes to lost images). It finds accidentally deleted files and can also recover data after formatting. The situation is more complicated with destroyed file systems - here the program will be of little use. When installing Pandora Recovery, do not forget to uncheck the additional (and unnecessary) utilities offered as a bonus.

When you start it, the first thing that will open is a very detailed and easy-to-understand wizard that will ask questions about what exactly happened to your files and suggest a suitable operating mode for the program.

If your files were accidentally deleted, you will see a window in which you can set the desired file attributes (mask name, date, size, etc.) and start searching.

Search window for deleted files

In case of more serious problems when scanning the disk is required, you will see a window with information about the files found, their characteristics and chances of recovery.

Scan mode in Pandora Recovery

File names are poorly restored in this mode, but for the most popular graphic and office formats it is possible to preview the contents, which allows you to correctly name files manually.

MjM Free Photo Recovery 1.0 RC

This small utility is designed exclusively for recovering JPG files from memory cards; With hard drives it doesn't work.

In recent years, such specialized software has begun to appear en masse to help photographers. As you know, pictures from cards quite often disappear as a result of incorrect removal of the card, power failures (the camera battery ran out at the wrong time), accidental deletion or formatting. During shooting, files of the same type are usually recorded sequentially without fragmentation, so a simple search for signatures when scanning the drive allows you to determine the boundaries of frames.

The program in question is quite old ( latest update published in 2008), but in some cases copes with the task better than its more modern counterparts. The interface is extremely simple and contains only two settings: the maximum file size (Maximum File Size, you need to select it large enough) and the checkbox switch for the Deep Scan mode. To start the scanning process, you need to click the “Search” button.

MjM Photo Recovery start window. This is real asceticism

Once the search process is complete, you will see a set of photos as icons. Original names files and their relative location (folder nesting) are not restored, but for cameras this is of great importance does not have.

Preview of found files in MjM Photo Recovery

AnyFound Photo Recovery 5.0

This utility also specializes in recovery graphic files. It understands many popular image storage formats (including source files Photoshop), as well as flash animation. The program can work with both hard drives and external drives, and its capabilities also include the recovery of damaged file systems that are not recognized by the operating system. The result is obtained quite quickly and with good quality.

AnyFound Photo Recovery does not support the Russian language, there is no help (the developers stopped developing the project in 2009, so its website is closed), but the interface is quite simple and there should not be any particular difficulties with it. First, you should select the appropriate mode: recovering accidentally deleted files (Deleted File Recovery), working with a damaged file system (PC Partition Recovery), or resuming previous work sessions (PC Resume Recovery).

AnyFound Photo Recovery start window

The “PC Partition Recovery” mode should be launched in the case when the disk partition is not visible by the operating system, or after the “Deleted File Recovery” mode did not work. By selecting any of the modes, you will see a list of physical or logical drives (they differ by icon - logical drives are marked with a Windows checkbox). In the list, you need to select the drive from which the data was lost. After that, in the lower left corner, click the “Recovery” button.

The scanning process will begin, upon completion of which you will see a window with all deleted files(for the “Deleted File Recovery” mode) or a list of all detected partitions indicating their sizes (for the “PC Partition Recovery” mode). In the latter case, select the required section and click the “Show Files” button. As a result, a window will appear with all the found files.

Program window with found files

Having marked the files you are interested in in a particular window (the images are automatically previewed), click the “Save File” button in the upper right corner to copy them to another disk.

⇡ Conclusion

We reviewed several free and easy-to-use utilities for logical data recovery. All of them have gained well-deserved popularity, allowing thousands of non-professional users to recover their lost files with minimal time and effort. Of course, this is only the first step in the thorny field of Data Recovery. You will have to pay for further advancement - both money and time to master.

If the disk is physically faulty - it has multiple surface defects, periodically “falls off” or is not detected at all, knocks, creaks or is completely silent - heavy artillery comes into play in the form of a hardware and software complex specifically designed for reading data from such “half-corpses”. The APK works with problematic drives in an undocumented technological mode, which provides access to data in the most difficult situations.

Needless to say, such equipment is found only in specialized organizations professionally involved in data recovery. Giving the complex into the hands of an amateur is pointless and even dangerous - a powerful tool will most likely simply ruin the disk. And its price does not at all correspond to one-time use...

Therefore, all that can be advised to the owner of a faulty drive is to contact one of these organizations, where their data is read as completely and quickly as possible. And we wish him not to get into such situations at all, using the great paradigm called BACKUP. A well-organized backup of working and archive files protects against almost all problems with them.