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PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a companion program to TestDisk. This recovery tool won't mess with your partitions or help you rebuild your master boot record; it will, however, dive into your disks in a safe, read-only mode and ignore partitions and file systems in an effort to seek out your missing files. PhotoRec focuses on file types, is operating-system agnostic, and despite its name, isn't relegated to just photos and related media. Overall, PhotoRec is a powerful tool for quickly and safely copying your deleted files to another disk.

Recuva is a Windows-based tool and also very user-friendly. When you run Recuva, you can resurrect missing files using either the file-recovery wizard or the application's manual mode. The file-recovery wizard is handy when you're sure your data is gone but you're not quite sure where it went or how to get it back. The wizard lets you narrow your search type to pictures, music, documents, video, or all files, and you can set the search location to everywhere on your computer, removable media only, in My Documents, the Recycle Bin, or a specified location. Recuva also includes a tool to securely wipe files you find, handy if you're attempting a file recovery just to ensure the files are actually dead and gone.

Restoration is a tiny, no-frills, portable recovery tool. You can use it in all versions of Windows and Windows file systems. It lacks some of the advanced functionality of other nominees but does have basic file-name search and the ability to sort by file parameters such as size and filename. Despite its tiny size, it performed just as well as the other systems when tasked with restoring files from our test disks. Restoration weighs in at a mere 406k and would make a great addition to any Windows-based USB toolkit.

Undelete Plus used to be commercial software but has gone on a lengthy "limited time offer" freeware run. This file recovery app works on all versions of Windows. Like Recuva, Undelete Plus assigns a recovery probability to files it finds based on how damaged the file is. You can sort files by type, set filters based on time and size to avoid sifting through every deleted file on your disk, and keep folder structures intact when you perform your recovery.

Digital rescue

Data Rescue PC3 is effective and powerful hard drive recovery software that is polished, accessible and surprisingly easy to use. The disk recovery software is ideal for recovering lost data on a hard drive and external or removable drives. Despite converting Office documents into zip files during the recovery process, it is still a highly recommended disk recovery software, especially for more advanced, computer-savvy users.

Advanced Disk Recovery

Advanced Disk Recovery scans your entire system for deleted files and folders and gives you the opportunity to recover them. Hard drives, partitions, external devices, and even CDs and DVDs can be scanned for recoverable files using Advanced Disk Recovery. Two types of scans are provided. The Quick Scan uses the Master File Table and the Deep Scan uses file signatures. Once the scan is complete, you can either preview the files or recover them to the location you want. It is as simple as that.

Stellar Phoenix

Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery Software is designed to recover lost, deleted digital pictures/ images on removable media. Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery software is the most powerful photo recovery software that can recover all the lost photos in case of an accidental deletion, interrupted writing operation or corrupted storage media. The software is capable of recovering lost or deleted photos from all the popular storage Medias. Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery software helps you to recover the digital photos in just three clicks, select, scan & recover. It’s simple and easy but focused on media and not comprehensive to other files.

Total Recall

Novice-friendly but still robust, this file recovery tool simply performs well. Total Recall Data Recovery's very basic interface is barely more than five buttons and a display window. The program's well-written online Help guide not only explains functions, but also best methods for file recovery. Total Recall Data Recovery's drive scans are quick, but less so when scanning solid media such as camera flash cards. Found files are displayed by name and size and can't be opened. Standard image files have an optional thumbnail display which helps choose files to recover.