Professional USB Data Recovery Software

Recover Data - USB Data Recovery Software

Recover Data offers professional USB Data Recovery Software to recover lost or deleted data from formatted USB drives.
Recover Data - USB Data Recovery software is an Advanced Data Recovery Tools that allows you to rescue, salvage & recover lost or deleted files and folders from crashed, inaccessible and corrupted USB media including USB pen drive, zip drive, memory stick, USB flash drives including compact flash, multimedia card, secure digital card, smart media and other similar data loss.
Recover Data - USB Data Recovery Software is capable to retrieve data that has lost due to some common reasons as follows:

• Software Virus attacks
• Damaged file system
• Hardware malfunction
• Improper shutdown
• Human Errors
• Software corruption

Recover Data - USB Data Recovery software is an easy & simple to use Data Recovery Software which do not require any specialized skills. Software consists of simple steps while recovering lost or deleted data as follows:

• Plug the USB drive in your Computer System using USB Port.
• Install demo version of the software & run the software.
• Software displays your USB Disk or Drive.
• Select your USB Disk and proceed further.

To know more, just get clicked to our Product Demo for USB Data RecoverySoftware.

Important Data Recovery Checklist

Hardware Requirements

Minimum 64 MB of Space, and at least 5MB of Disk Space

File System Supported

FAT & FAT32 File System.

Runs On following Operating System

Win 95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003 and Windows Vista

ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro 2010 Reviews

We put ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro Software to the test and discovered that in most cases it passed with flying colors, or in other words it found the files that we were looking for and even found some we didn’t even know we had lost. We also found this recovery software extremely easy to use and it ran easily while we ran other demanding programs.

Sometimes losing data is not a big loss, like when you have to reformat your hard drive after being attacked by a particularly nasty virus. In this case, often remnants of uninstalled software are gotten rid of and your system will run faster. At other time however, certain data like important work documents, tax information or family pictures can cause real stress if they are lost. This is when a product like ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro Software can be a much welcome solution to an all too common problem.

ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro Standout Features:

• Recovers missing songs from iPod Shuffles, iPod Nanos and iPod Classics
• Can recover deleted email attachments
• Recovers files from a reformatted partition

Feature Set:

ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro has nearly all of the features we were looking for, including the abilities to recover a variety of data types from a variety of sources. It can recover most file types including encrypted files, compressed files and emails, and it has a file “preview” so you can get an idea of what the file is before your perform a full recovery.

Data Recovery Pro can scan for files on your hard drive, even reformatted partitions. It can also scan portable devices like iPods, portable hard drives, thumb drives, cell phones, memory sticks and cards and cameras. It only has a few weak spots in this area; it can not perform network recoveries (though few products can) and it cannot yet work with the new iPhone or the iPod Touch, but this functionality is in the works.

Ease of Use:

This kind of software can be a bit intimidating, but we found this ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro easy to use and we conducted several scans and viewed the reports without having to consult the help section. We also found downloading and registering the software incredibly easy, the installation process commenced quickly and we did not experience a single glitch.

We found scanning for compressed and encrypted files on the hard drive and an external hard drive surprisingly simple to perform and the scan went rather quickly. However, when we performed a scan for a file on a reformatted hard drive, it took quite a long time; but this could be for a variety of reasons, such as the size and system demands of the programs running and the system components and not necessarily due to the software itself.

Recovery Effectiveness:

When testing this software we performed three different recovery searches. The first was of an external hard drive, the second was an email search and the third was for a file on a reformatted hard drive. The first was for music files on an external hard drive and it found all of the files easily.

The second test was for an email in Outlook, this recovery was also fairly fast and successful. However, the last test for a file on a reformatted hard drive took quite a while and did not produce results. But to be fair, no data recovery product promises to be able to recover these types of lost files, sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not.

Search Capabilities:

ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro provides several types of scans and a variety of ways to look for files. You can easily perform a scan on your hard drive, including searches for reformatted partitions and corrupt hard drive sectors. You can even search mounted and un-mounted volumes.

You can also scan the recycle bin, Outlook type emails and just about any type of external drive including cameras, portable hard drives, BlackBerrys, MP3 players and memory cards. However, it is not yet able to work with the new iPhone, the iPod Touch or network files.

It can search for files by file name, by “text string,” by file type or it can even look for files that do not have names. It can look for compressed and encrypted files as well. We were actually quite surprised to discover how many files were on our test computer’s hard drive that did not have file names. Most of these no name files could be removed without being missed to increase hard drive space, lots of them were temporary files from videos and audio files that were viewed or listened to online.

Help/Documentation:

We found ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro’s embedded help section very useful, many of the help pages also include helpful visuals and screenshots to help you easily figure out how to use the features of the program. Online ParetoLogic offers FAQs and a knowledgebase or you can contact technical support by email. However, we would have liked to have seen telephone support offered.

Summary:

After three challenging test scans, we received two recoveries, which for this type of software is actually not too bad. We would have liked to have been able to recover some lost image files on a particular computer, but as mentioned no product of this type can guarantee 100% results, there are just too many variables to deal with.

Despite this one shortcoming we were pleased with the scan and recovery abilities of this software. And to add icing to the proverbial cake, this software is also very well priced and with the current deal it is much less than most recovery products and well worth trying out.

ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro Screenshots

Handy Recovery 2010

Another good data recovery software is Handy Recovery from SoftLogica LLC. This highly-effective data recovery software is fairly easy to use, allows you to search for deleted files by name and comes with all the help support you'll need to get you on your way.

Although Handy Recovery is good at what it does, the combination of a general lack of features and an inability to search by both name and extension are the reasons this software was beat out by our higher ranked data recovery software.

Feature Set:

Handy Recovery allows you to create images of your hard disk, which is something that neither our Gold nor our Silver winning software can do. This ability to create images of a hard disk allows you to save a copy of your files to another drive easily, so you can recover lost files whenever you need. This software also works on the majority of Windows operating systems.

However, Handy Recovery is missing a few of the features that we feel high-quality data recovery products should have, including its inability to recover deleted or lost emails, data over a network or even data that's located on removable media and RAID disks. These are the reasons why this software scored so poorly in this category.

Ease of Use:

When compared to our top products, Handy Recovery's design is simply not as user friendly for the novice user. However, once you've spent some time with this program, you'll find it quite easy to work with.

To recover files with this program, simply select the drive that you are trying to extract the data from and then click on the analyze button. The software then scans the drive and displays what's available on it. Once you've located the file you're looking for, simply press the recover button—the program will do the rest.

We didn't have any problems installing Handy Recovery—it was simple and easy to do.

Recovery Effectiveness:

Handy Recovery found and restored all the files that we tested it against. We found it extremely effective at data recovery.

Search Capabilities:

Handy Recovery's search engine is extremely good—giving you the ability to search for files by their name. However, this program does not allow you to search by file extension, size or its creation date.

Help/Documentation:

SoftLogica supports Handy Recovery in several different ways, including a built-in help section that expertly covers all the major questions one might have with this software, tips for using the program, a link to their support page, email support and a telephone support line.

Summary:

Handy Recovery by SoftLogica is good-quality data recovery software that combines above average search and support tools with some of the most effective data recovery capability we've seen. But, with an unimpressive feature set and screen designs that would stop most data-recovery novices dead in their tracks, Handy Recovery simply doesn't measure up to our higher ranked products.

Handy Recovery Screenshots

Recover My Files 2010 Reviews

Recover My Files from GetData Software Development Company has an easy–to–use interface and a robust, highly effective feature set. If you choose this data recovery software, you will be fortunate to have proficient help support available.

With Recover My Files you can search by keyword, file name or file extension. As a matter of fact, it can search by file content, so whether the file extension is labeled as JPEG, jpeg or jpg it can find it. This program now supports RAID drives, which it didn't in prior versions.

Standout Features

• Safe Recovery
• Full File Preview

Feature Set:

Offering one of the largest feature sets around, Recover My Files allows you to recover encrypted and compressed files, videos, photos and deleted emails. It can also recover data from camera cards, USB drives, zip drives, floppy discs, iPods and more. This software also attempts to recover files that have been deleted from the recycle bin, from a formatted hard drive and even files that have been lost due to power failures and virus attacks. Plus, you can choose to add a RAID drive to the scanning process, which is a feature we didn't see in previous versions of this program.

You can also recover a hard drive in the event of an accidental format, Windows reinstall, system restore or corrupt or missing drive letter. As with the file recovery options, you can choose for it to automatically recover your files or pick from a list of file types it can scan.

Ease of Use:

We had no problems using Recover My Files. The process couldn't be easier. All you have when you open the program is a screen that says "Recover Files" or "Recover a Drive." If you click on either one, you're sent to an easy to follow, step-by-step wizard to get that particular process done. Everything is explained in thorough detail to eliminate any potential confusion from inexperienced users.

Recovery Effectiveness:

Recover My Files found and recovered all of the files we tested it against. We found this product not only easy to use, but very effective at what it does. We were astonished at the sheer amount of files we had deleted days, even weeks earlier, that it located without a problem.

Search Capabilities:

With Recover My Files you can search by filename, date, size and keyword. We feel great software should offer both types of searches. Each option has two different search options, which are usually to have the program recover the files automatically or go to a list of file types and choose what you want it to find.

Help/Documentation:

GetData Software provides embedded help, an online FAQs page and email support. As we used this product, all of our questions were answered and we were able to figure out everything we needed to successfully recover our deleted files. They also provide telephone support in Australia and sales support by phone in the U.S.

Summary:

With Recover My Files you can stop panicking and start recovering your files immediately. Data Recovery even offers a free file detection download – so you really have nothing to lose, get your files back today. You won't regret taking a chance on this program.

Recover My Files Screenshots

DT Utilities Digital Rescue 2010 Reviews

For the best in data recovery, we recommend DT Utilities Digital Rescue Premium (formerly Migo). This data recovery software offers the unbeatable combination of a user-friendly design, a hefty feature set and one the most effective data recovery capacities we've seen.

DT Utilities Digital Rescue Premium also brings to the table one of the most extensive search capabilities we've seen, allowing you to search for lost files by name, not just by extension. And if email is your life, this program takes the cake by allowing you to easily find and recover emails that are prematurely deleted from your Outlook or Outlook Express program.

Feature Set:

Digital Rescue allows you to recover almost any type of deleted file you can imagine, including emails, photos, videos, music and more, as long as your computer uses one of the many, common file systems supported by this software (i.e. FAT 16, FAT 32 or NTFS).

A couple of lesser features that this software lacks include the capacity to recover files from a network and the ability to create image files.

Ease of Use:

Using Digital Rescue Premium is truly a snap; its opening screen provides you with three basic options to choose from: Recover Lost Files, Recover Lost eMail, and Permanently Delete Data. Each option then offers you additional instructions on the options available and is accompanied by a help button—all offering little room for error.

We also didn't encounter any problems or errors while installing Recover Lost Data.

Recovery Effectiveness:

We were impressed that Digital Rescue Premium found and recovered every deleted file that we tested it against. Although this doesn't guarantee it will work every time, we're confident in saying that it's easily one of the best we've seen.

Search Capabilities:

The program's search capability is one place where DT Utilities Digital Rescue really shines. To find a lost file with this program, simply type in the file name and click scan. Most other programs allow you to search by file extension only (i.e. .xls, .rtf and so on). Due to its expanded search features, we found Digital Rescue saved us both time and effort.

Help/Documentation:

Data Transfer does a fantastic job supporting Digital Rescue, offering help in the form of a built-in help section, tutorials, phone support, a FAQs page and email support.

Summary:

When it comes to recovering deleted computer data, Digital Rescue by DT Utilities is simply the best. With more search capabilities, an easy-to-use design, elevated effectiveness and some of the best help support around, this software gives you everything you need to recover your lost files efficiently.

DT Utilities Digital Rescue Screenshots

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery 2010

Even after taking all the right precautions—staying current with anti-virus software, regularly backing up data, and performing frequent maintenance on your computer—sometimes data gets lost, corrupted, or deleted. It’s an unfortunate fact of modern life. In extreme scenarios, a completely corrupted hard drive can be completely inaccessible. With Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery software, you can avert a personal or professional tragedy by recovering important data from even the most corrupt storage devices. While the full version of Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery is significantly more expensive than many of the competitors, its user friendly, intuitive interface and all-around efficacy make it a sound investment for users that cannot afford to lose crucial data.

Feature Set:

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery warrants its price tag by offering a thorough feature set. With Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery, you can recover data from hard drives, flash drives, USB flash drives, zip drives, fire wire drives, MMC and SD cards. Even if your drive has been formatted and partitioned, you can still expect to recover any data still contained on it.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery supports FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. That being said, however, many users will probably prefer to opt for one of Disk Doctors cheaper, less versatile programs. Disk Doctors offer separate versions for either FAT or NTFS formats that retail for about half the price.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery software provides the ability to make an image file of a hard drive. This function is an indispensable tool to ensure that no further data is lost in the case of drive corruption.

The three separate scan types available on Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery allow users to recover an entire drive, attempt to salvage damaged data, or recover specific file types.

Ease of Use:

Installation of Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery was painless and straight forward. We were up and scanning in a few minutes. A helpful wizard opens by default and assists you in deciding on which type of scan would be most useful.

After a scan is complete, the contents of your drive are displayed in an easily understandable format that mirrors that of Windows Explorer. Actually recovering files is a simple matter of selecting them, clicking the “save” icon, and selecting a target location.

Recovery Effectiveness:

On our test laptop hard drive, we were able to recover all information that had not been overwritten previously. The majority of deleted JPEGs, MPEGs and MS Word files that had been deleted via the recycle bin were nearly all intact. Because not all information is completely recoverable, some of overwritten and fragmented files we recovered were incomplete. None-the-less, Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery managed to uproot both recently lost and long lost files across two partitions.

Search Capabilities:

In addition to the three types of scan available—basic, "turbo" and "file tracer"— Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery allows you to search files by extension, name and size. Whether you’re looking for a .pdf, movie file, or spreadsheet, Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery provides search options that make it easy to find.

Help/Documentation:

Disk Doctors’ onboard help file is supplemented by FAQs, tutorials and an information center on their website. They also have video tutorials on hand for step by step demonstrations of how to use the software. A word of warning though, the English is often very convoluted and rich in jargon. Beginner users will be scared off by the clearly translated language. Users unable to figure things out for themselves or with the help of the wizard have recourse to phone and email support.

Summary:

While Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery itself does not recover network data, nor does it work on Mac or Linux, they have other products that do. Windows users willing to foot the bill for Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery will find it to be a good investment. On our test scans, the software met and exceeded expectations. We can comfortably recommend Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery.

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery Screenshots

Easily Get Back Windows 7 Hard Drive Data - Windows 7 Data Recovery Tool

Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft operating systems. Windows 7 provide highly advisable features for any windows 7 application users.

How to Recover Windows 7 Data?

Have you lost your important documents or by mistake emptied the Windows 7 Recycle Bin? So, what will you do if you have unintentionally deleted your vital files? Now, in such a circumstance – you have to to find the best windows 7 data recovery software that will do the data recovery job? You can smoothly use our windows 7 file recovery software.

Recover Data provides our best and affordable data recovery software for windows 7 users. Recover Data for Windows 7 is the best data recovery tool in this field. This data recovery tool for Windows 7 successfully recovers deleted files & folders from corrupted or formatted Windows 7 hard disk drive. Windows 7 files recovery tool can easily get back deleted files from any data storage media devices such as Pen drive, Hard Drive, Zip drive, Floppy Drive and many more. This File Recovery Software for Windows 7 provides four recovery modes such as Desktop Recovery, Raw Recovery, Images Recovery, Remote recovery. Every recovery mode uses different recovery techniques for providing trustworthy data recovery results.

Windows 7 Data recovery software helps to recover files in all major data loss trouble like accidental delete, hard disk formats, data deleted permanently from recycle bin, data loss by using shift + deleted, virus attack and other similar reasons. Software is design for recovering lost files and folders even if the MBR (Master Boot Recorder), MFT (Master File Table) or FAT (File Allocation Table) has been corrupted due to power outage. This Windows 7 recovery tools is fully compatible with all windows version such as Win95, Win98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista & Windows 7.

Easily Get Back Windows 7 Files from Windows FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS4 & NTFS5 file system with Recover Data for Windows 7 Data Recovery Software.

Windows 7 file recovery software is a fully capable and affordable windows 7 recovery tool. Software plays major role for recovering windows 7 hard drive data. You can quickly download our disk recovery software for windows 7 hard drives if you are fully glad with our demo version software then you have to purchase our Professional Windows 7 Data Recovery Software.

Some significant features of Windows 7 File Recovery Software:

• Recover lost data from deleted partitions.
• Recover lost data after software/hardware malfunction.
• Support recovery of compressed and encrypted files & folders.
• Recover lost data after corruption due to virus or Trojans attack.
• Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS4 & NTFS5 File System.
• Recover lost data after deletion of files using Shift+Del keys or after emptying the Recycle Bin.
• Software supports Win95, Win98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista & Windows 7 OS.

Difference Between Evaluation Version & Full Version of Recover Data for Fat & NTFS

1. Full Version of Recover Data for Windows 7 is fully featured with all the four Recovery MODES such as Desktop Recovery, Remote Recovery, Raw Recovery & Image Recovery. Evaluation Version is only limited to Desktop Recovery, other three types of Recovery are disabled in the evaluation version.

2. Evaluation Version restricted user to save restored files, Evaluation Version allows user only to see deleted files but not to save deleted files, Evaluation Version of the software is only for evaluating the recovery process of the software. Full Version is fully featured software and this will allow you to get back deleted files and recover your deleted files or restored files.

What is ATA?

(AT Attachment) The specification, formulated in the 1980s by a consortium of hardware and software manufacturers, that defines the IDE drive interface. AT refers to the IBM PC/AT personal computer and its bus architecture. IDE drives are sometimes referred to as ATA drives or AT bus drives. The newer ATA-2 specification defines the EIDE interface, which improves upon the IDE standard. (See also IDE and EIDE.)

There are several versions of ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee:

ATA: Known also as IDE, supports one or two hard drives, a 16-bit interface and PIO modes 0, 1 and 2.
ATA-2: Supports faster PIO modes (3 and 4) and multiword DMA modes (1 and 2). Also supports logical block addressing (LBA) and block transfers. ATA-2 is marketed as Fast ATA and Enhanced IDE (EIDE).
ATA-3: Minor revision to ATA-2.
Ultra-ATA: Also called Ultra-DMA, ATA-33, and DMA-33, supports multiword DMA mode 3 running at 33 MBps.
ATA/66: A version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by Intel, that doubles ATA's throughput to 66 MBps.
ATA/100: An updated version of ATA/66 that increases data transfer rates to 100 MBps.
ATA also is called Parallel ATA. Contrast with Serial ATA.
Data Recovery Wizard can recover data from ATA hard drive!

Laptop Disk Recovery - Hard Drive Data Recovery Software

With today’s mobile technology, more and more critical data are stored on Laptops The easy access and ability to work anywhere on laptops is now preferred more. But as data on desktop can get damaged, corrupt or lost similarly data and files saved on laptop can also get lost.

Our Specialized technicians at Disk Data Recovery can recover or salvage the lost or corrupt data from failed, crashed or damaged hard disks of Laptops. The common situations when there is a need of Laptop Data Recovery are as follows:

Hard drive failure
Laptop has been dropped
Accidental File Deletion or Human error(s)
Accidental re-partitioning
Physical damage from Fire or Flood
Overwriting of files
Software corruption and failure
Virus attacks and corruption
Blue Screen of death

If you are facing any of the above situations, our Data Recovery Technicians can help you recovering or salvaging lost or corrupt data from laptops.

Our Laptop Data Recovery Services Supports following Laptop Manufacturers:

• Dell,
• Toshiba,
• IBM Think Pad,
• HP Hewlett Packward,
• Sony VAIO,
• Compaq,
• Fujitsu,
• Fuji,
• Samsung and many other manufacturers.

Keeping you at rest, send us your Corrupt or lost Laptop Hard disks to our fully employed Data Recovery Labs to analyze the possibility of recovery of data for FREE!

Undeleting Files In Windows Xp

The majority of this article deals with recovering lost data from vanished partitions and accidentally wiped drives. This is all well and good, but what happens if you simply want a couple of files back that you deleted? Gone from the recycling bin? All is not lost. A variety of applications are available that can dig into your hard drives history and recover deleted items.

As you read earlier in this article, a file that is deleted from a Windows drive is not actually erased from the disk. Instead it is marked as having been deleted. The next time Windows is writing data
to the disk, it will regard these deleted files as free space that can be copied over. This is why it's important to keep disk operations to a minimum when you are trying to recover data. It's also why you should install and operate your data recovery software on a different partition than the files you
are trying to save whenever possible.

Undelete programs simply scan your drive for files marked with the delete symbol and offer you a chance to restore them. Simple and pretty much foolproof as long as too much time has not passed since the original file deletion. You'll likely be surprised at how far back the files you find with these utilities go.

Let's take a look at some freeware file restoration programs:

Restoring deleted files with PC Inspector file
recovery

This versatile freeware program is capable of many
recovery tasks, including retrieving deleted files. Let's take a look at how to
use it to recover those documents your toddler accidentally wiped out. Note that
PC
Inspector


can only recover files on a FAT file system,
and does not work with NTFS formatted drives.

Start PC-Inspector.

Choose the 'recover deleted files' option.

Highlight the logical drive (c:, d:, e:, etc.) that you
wish to look for deleted files on and hit 'ok.'

Now expand the 'deleted' entry. The right pane shows a directory tree from the root of the logical drive you are searching. The green files are deleted files that you can attempt to recover, while green folders are deleted folders. Look through until you find what you are looking for, or use the 'find...' command in the 'object' menu to search for specific files.

Once you have located the file or files you wish to recover, right click them and choose 'save to.' Enter a location on the disk and the file(s) will be restored to that location. For a really simple and effective way to recover deleted files, it doesn't get much better than Restoration, that's next.

TestDisk Backs Up Lost Data

Once this search is complete, hit enter again. It's a good idea to run the 'search!' option to do a more comprehensive search of the drive.

If you initially had no partitions shown, because of a damaged or wiped partition table, Testdisk will now hopefully have rediscovered the partitions.

Verify the information and select 'write' to save the new information onto the disk. If removing your partitions was the only damage you did, you should now be up and running again.

If you damaged the partition boot sector on your partition, (as I did) you should select the
'advanced' option, then 'boot.'

Testdisk will compare the boot sector to the backup boot sector. If they are identical, it can do nothing more, but if they are different it will ask you if you wish to overwrite the boot sector with the information from the backup.

This operation made my 'lost' partition with the articles on it accessible again. Testdisk is an extremely useful tool for partition recovery. Though it lacks a graphical interface and can only be run from DOS, it is capable of restoring lost information in minutes.

Freeware For Findntfs

FINDNTFS (available here ) is a rather effective free program to locate and recover NTFS (NT File System, The default method of storing files on Windows 2k/XP) files. It is available in several
versions, including one that will run from a DOS boot, and thus can be used when the Windows OS is not bootable.

FINDNTFS is capable of several things besides finding and
copying lost files, but that is what we will focus on for now.

To use FINDNTFS, boot your system into DOS using a boot disk with the findntfs.exe file on
it.

To obtain a list of NTFS files and directories on the drive you are attempting to recover from, type 'FINDNTFS # 1 1 1 c:\recoverlog.txt files' at the command prompt. The "#" should be replaced with the number of the hard drive you are reading from. If you have only one drive, it will be '1', if there is
more than one drive in the system the physical hard drive with the 'c:' logical drive on it will be '1'.

This command tells The FINDNTFS program to search the entire specified disk for NTFS files, and output the file list to a text file on the C: drive.

Note that you can save the text file under any name on any drive, as long as it has the '.txt' extension. Do not save the log file onto a drive you are trying to recover data from however.

Once saved to another drive you can view the log file, which should look something like this.

If everything went well, you should have a reassuring, if somewhat jumbled list of the available NTFS files on the drive you selected. Search the document for the filenames that are most essential, and then scroll up until you see the directory that they are in.

You will need to do this, since the directory order that FINDNTFS sees will not necessarily be the same as you had before the data was lost. Note down the number of the directory before proceeding on with the next step.

Ntfs Reader For Dos

To recover files using FINDNTFS, you need to use the 'copy' command. A limitation of the program
is that it will only save recovered files into the directory where the FINDNTFS executable is located, so make sure you have enough space available to hold your restored files.

Type 'FINDNTFS # (replace "#" with thr drive you are recovering from, as before) 1 1 1 copy #'. This is the directory number holding the files you wish to restore. You may enter up to 10 directory numbers. If you do not enter a number, the program will attempt to restore and copy all NTFS files on the selected disk.

FINDNTFS will copy the selected directories and files to the directory containing the FINDNTFS.exe file. Check the recovered files to make sure they are not corrupted.

Sadly, FINDNTFS has one major limitation. It cannot copy NTFS files onto DOS readable (FAT) partitions, and therefore is not able to recover files without an NTFS supporting operating
system running (Windows NT/2K/XP). Thus it is not possible to recover files directly with this program using a DOS boot disk.

NTFS reader for DOS Freeware

NTFS reader for DOS (available here ) can copy NTFS files onto DOS (FAT) partitions. In fact, that is the only thing it does, but what a useful thing... If your NTFS disk is unbootable, you can put this program on a floppy and copy files from the disk onto the floppy. Very good for rescuing essential documents that need to be completed.

The limitation of this program is that it cannot read from partitions that have damaged boot sectors, or from drives with damaged partition tables, as it needs to be able to see the NTFS partition before it copies data from it. The company that made this software, 'Active@ Data Recovery Service' (www.ntfs.com), offers a commercial version, 'Active@ Partition Recovery', which adds the ability to search the drive for lost partitions as well as copy data, making it a complete recovery tool.

Note that NTFS reader will also work under Windows 9x/ME but not on 2K or XP, due to restrictions these Operating systems place on accessing drives directly.

Steps to Data Recovery

The number one rule to follow when you have lost data is to not write anything more to the affected hard drive! This rule stands true for any situation...

If you have deleted a partition by accident, do not create another partition, just leave it blank.

If you have deleted files from the recycling bin that you realize you need, do not (if possible) save anything to the drive. The reason for this is that hard drives do not actually erase anything, not data or partitions. When you erase a file from the operating system, it is just marked on the drive as having been deleted. When the system needs to store more data on the drive, it will consider files on the drive marked 'deleted' as being empty space, and cheerfully copy over them. If that happens then you're in big trouble.

The same rule applies twice over for partitions; since partition information just presents the operating system with a way of addressing the space available on the drive. If you wipe out a partition everything from it will seem to be gone.

So if there is no partition information, no data can be read by the operating system. This does not mean that your data it is not there however, only that you can't see it. Data-recovery programs have no such handicap.

What I had done in my zeal was to allow FDISK to test the integrity of the drive, which it does by writing a pattern of data to certain areas. Of course, in my case, many of these areas contained partition information and/or critical system files. The result was one missing partition, due to a destroyed boot sector, and one unbootable (but still readable) XP installation. The good news? I got it (almost) all back.

Here's how.

The first, and best thing to do in a data-loss situation is to make sure no more data is written to the drive. Obviously, if you have just the one partition and it's fried, you can't boot normally to the operating system. The best option in this situation is to transfer the drive to another computer, preferably one using the same file-system as your damaged partition (i.e. the same operating system, or a newer version).

Transferring the HDD to another computer has the dual benefit of preventing the drive from being written to accidentally, and potentially allowing you to retrieve information from the disk just by using Windows Explorer to look through file structures.

If you have damaged or erased essential operating system files, but the partition information is still intact Windows will not boot. The HDD can still be read from a different operating system which is one way out of the doom and gloom.

This was the case with one of the two XP partitions on the disk I mangled, as I was able to fully access it after moving the hard disk physically to another computer.

Fixing Ntfs Partition

The first sector of NTFS partitions is reserved for the partition boot sector. This contains the information that allows the OS to read the partition. Without it, the partition cannot be accessed.

By its nature, NTFS keeps a backup copy of the boot sector on the last sector of the partition which can allow recovery programs to restore it. The FAT equivalent of this is also called the boot sector, and resides on the first sector of the partition. The difference is that FAT does not keep a backup
copy of this information, making recovery much more difficult...

The first file stored on an NTFS partition is the Master File Table(MFT) which is essentially a listing of the names, properties and locations of all the other files in the partition. This is referenced by the operating system to access individual files.

NTFS
stores a backup copy of this file. Data restoration software will attempt to access or restore
a copy of the MFT in order to access files on the partition.

FAT partitions use something similar, called predictably enough the File Allocation Table (FAT). The FAT is also backed up on the disk, and can be restored by software. The major disadvantage of the FAT as compared to the MFT is that it needs to be located on a specific area of the partition to function,
so if that area of the disk is damaged, recovery can be difficult.

When a
file is deleted (removed from the recycle bin within Windows), both file systems
simply mark the file as deleted. The data is not actually removed from the
drive, but rather the space it
takes up on the disk is now considered to be free. Consequently, if you delete a
file accidentally, you have an excellent chance of being able to restore it
provided you do not write more information to the disk.

In my situation, I had two NTFS partitions on the effected disk. When I ran FDISK, it wrote garbage information over certain areas of this disk, including areas of both partitions. As a result, the first partition (the one with my article on it) had lost its partition boot sector, meaning it could not be accessed normally by an operating system. The second partition had merely had crucial system files overwritten, and was unbootable, but still fully accessible once I transferred the disk to another computer.

Thankfully there is a way to fix all of this, and get the data back!

First, a small disclaimer: All the processes described from here on are strictly for resolving software issues with your data, like accidentally deleting partitions or files. If your hard drive has a physical problem, if it is making strange noises, shaking, rattling or smoking, nothing here will apply. Turn your
computer off, unplug the drive and call a data recovery service if your files are vital.

Attempting to self-service your hard drive it may only make things worse.