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Software

Five Apps: Recover your data

By Brien Posey November 8, 2013, 7:22 AM PST

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Five Apps: Recover your data

Five data recovery utilities

Image: Gary Stevens

Five data recovery utilities

Thisrngallery is also available as a TechRepublic article.

I’vernlost count of the number of times over the years that I have had friends,rnfamily, and even clients contact me because a hard disk failed and no backup ofrnthe data exists. In these types of situations the only option is often to use arndata recovery utility to try to get back some of the data. This articlerndiscusses five such utilities.

Image: Gary Stevens
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Five Apps: Recover your data

VirtualLab 1

VirtualLab 1

Five Apps

rnrn

1. VirtualLab

rnrn

VirtualLabrnis a utility for recovering various types of data. As you would expect, thernproduct features file level recovery and partition level recovery. What mightrnnot be expected however is that it also has support for Macintosh partitions.rnThe software also has dedicated functions for recovering CD / DVD ROMs, deletedrnE-mail messages, and photos. There is even a RAID recovery function. Best ofrnall, the interface is very clean and easy to use.

rnrn

VirtualLab sells for $39.95, but a free trial version isrnavailable for download. The trial version scans for recoverable data, but thernactual recovery is disabled.

rnrnCredit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

VirtualLab 2

VirtualLab 2

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

a3_Virtual_Lab_1.jpg
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Five Apps: Recover your data

VirtualLab 3

VirtualLab 3

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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a4_Virtual_Lab_1.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

VirtualLab 4

VirtualLab 4

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 1

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 1

2. File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility

rnrn

FilernScavenger Data Recovery Utility that is dedicated to file recovery. Thernutility itself is fairly simple. It scans the volume of your choosing, lets yournselect the file that you want to recover, and then that file is saved to arnlocation of your choosing.

rnrn

One thing that I really like about this utility is that itrnactively prevents recovered files from being saved to the volume where theyrnpreviously resided. This is important, because writing to the volume decreasesrnthe chances of being able to recover other lost data. Although File ScavengerrnData Recovery Utility is not as diverse as some of the other utilities that arernavailable, it does one thing and does it well.

rnrn

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility sells for $49.95, but arnfree trial version is available for download. The trial version is limited tornrecovering files 64KB in size or smaller.

rnrnCredit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 2

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 2

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 3

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 3

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 4

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 4

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 5

File Scavenger Data Recovery Utility 5

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 1

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 1

3. Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery u2013 Professional

rnrn

StellarrnPhoenix Windows Data Recovery u2013 Professional is a basic data recoveryrnutility. It has dedicated modes that allow for the recovery of drives (and filerndata), CDs and DVDs, photos, and E-mail messages.

rnrn

I particularly liked this utility’s advanced options. Itrnfeatures the ability to clone a drive so that you don’t risk further damagingrnyour only copy of the data. There is also a feature that lets you create a diskrnimage, which you can restore data from later on. A Drive Status function letsrnyou view detailed health information for a disk.

rnrnStellar Phoenix WindowsrnData Recovery u2013 Professional sells for $99.00, but a free trial download isrnavailable. The Save option is disabled in the free trial.

rnrnCredit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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c2_Stellar.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 2

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 2

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

c3_Stellar.jpg
c3_Stellar.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 3

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 3

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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c4_Stellar.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 4

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 4

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

c5_Stellar.jpg
c5_Stellar.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 5

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 5

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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c6_Stellar.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 6

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 6

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 7

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional 7

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 1

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 1

4. MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition

rnrn

MiniToolrnPower Data Recovery Free Edition is a free tool for recovering data from arnnumber of different sources. The software provides undelete recovery, recoveryrnof damaged or lost partitions, digital media recovery, and CD / DVD recovery.

rnrn

The best thing about MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreernEdition might be the fact that you can purchase a boot disk. Having a boot diskrnmakes it far easier to recover data from an unbootable, malware infected, orrnseverely damaged system.

rnrnCredit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 2

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 2

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

d3_minitool.jpg
d3_minitool.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 3

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 3

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

d4_minitool.jpg
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Five Apps: Recover your data

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 4

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 4

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

d5_minitool.jpg
d5_minitool.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 5

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition 5

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 1

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 1

5. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition

rnrn

EaseUSrnData Recovery Wizard Free Edition is a free tool for deleted file recovery,rnpartition recovery, and complete system recovery. At first glance, it appearsrnthat the utility will only allow you to recover specific types of data such asrnpictures or E-mail messages. However, the interface does contain an Otherrnoption that you can use to recover files of any type.

rnrn

The free version of this tool will allow for up to 2GB ofrndata recovery. EaseUS also provides the option to purchase a Windows PE basedrnboot disk for $59.95.

rnrnCredit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Five Apps: Recover your data

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 2

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 2

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

e3_EaseUS.jpg
e3_EaseUS.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 3

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 3

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

e4_EaseUS.jpg
e4_EaseUS.jpg
Five Apps: Recover your data

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 4

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 4

Credit: Image by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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By Brien Posey
* 1988 - Started teaching myself about computers \ * 1992 - Mainframe programmer for an insurance company \ * 1993 - Network Administrator for a different insurance company \ * 1996 - Author for The Cobb Group \ * 1998 - Network Administrator
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