Storage

Five data recovery tools that could save the day

By // February 13, 2012, 2:54 AM PST

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  • Introduction

    As IT pros, we've all gotten those panicky phone calls from friends and family members who want us to save their data after a hard drive crash. Since there never seems to be a backup, we have to reach for a recovery tool and hope we can salvage the data. Here's a look at some good choices.

    Note: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

    Photo credit: Copyright © iStockphoto.com/Krle

     

  • VirtualLab Data Recovery

    VirtualLab Data Recovery is an all-purpose data recovery utility. It supports the usual FAT, FAT-32, and NTFS file systems, as well as Mac HFS / HFS+ and even NFS. It also supports data recovery on devices such as USB flash drives and camera memory cards, and it lets you make a sector-by-sector copy of a failing hard drive. VirtualLab Data Recovery sells for $39.95.

  • File Scavenger - Data Recovery Utility

    Like most disk repair utilities, File Scavenger (which sells for $49.95) can retrieve data from corrupt volumes. However, its main emphasis is on recovering data that was deleted accidentally, including data residing on partitions that have been deleted or on disks that have been reformatted.

  • BootSuite 2012

    BootSuite 2012 is much more than just a disk repair utility. It does have a "super data rescue package," but that's just one of its eight primary features. It can also fix boot problems, recover from blue screen errors, and reset lost Windows passwords.

  • BootSuite 2012

    BootSuite 2012 retails for $99.95. A premium version (PowerSuite Golden 2012), which sells for $150.95, can even find your Windows and Microsoft Office product keys.

  • Recover My Files

    Recover My Files is a basic disk recovery utility whose niche is file recovery. Able to recognize more than 200 file formats, it can look at the fragments of data that remain on a corrupt volume and use file signature data to recognize things like Word documents and JPEG images.

  • Recover My Files

    There are three versions of Recover My Files, ranging from $69.99 to $299.99. The low-end version is designed for small office or home users, while the more expensive version is geared toward pros who recover data on a regular basis.

  • Windows Data Recovery tool

    Kernel Data Recovery offers a basic Windows Data Recovery tool for $69.00. It can recover missing, deleted, lost, and inaccessible data from FAT and NTFS volumes. While there is nothing particularly noteworthy about this tool, the thing that caught my attention was the variety of recovery products the company offers.

  • Windows Data Recovery tool

    When people ask me to recover a failed hard drive,  they're usually more interested in getting back a certain type of data (their pictures, spreadsheets, etc.). Kernel Data Recovery offers several products that are geared for specific types of data recovery. For example, there are tools for recovering email messages, corrupt PDF files, and corrupt OpenOffice documents. There is even a utility for repairing corrupt backups.

Introduction

As IT pros, we've all gotten those panicky phone calls from friends and family members who want us to save their data after a hard drive crash. Since there never seems to be a backup, we have to reach for a recovery tool and hope we can salvage the data. Here's a look at some good choices.

Note: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

Photo credit: Copyright © iStockphoto.com/Krle

 

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