Uses of Data Recovery Software:

1. Recover data that has been accidentally deleted, even when you have emptied the Recycle Bin
2. Retrieve files that have been corrupted or damaged
3. Extract files from damaged sectors of hard disks or CD-ROMs
4. Recover deleted e-mails
5. Retrieve compressed or encrypted files
6. Recover files that have been lost due to a virus or Trojan attack
7. Extract files that have disappeared due to power outages
8. Recover files which you accidentally closed without saving your work

Good data recovery software is easy to use and install, has a good search function and supports a range of hard drives, removable media and operating systems. If you have lost some critical data on your computer, it is better to first try off-the-shelf software to retrieve it rather than go to data recovery companies and pay hundreds of dollars. For all you know, they may also be using the same software to recover your data!

Data Recovery Software Available on the Web:

Recover Lost Data
Recover Lost Data by StompSoft scans a user’s hard disk to recover files and emails, even in cases where the hard disk has been reformatted by accident. It can also retrieve data from USB keychain drives and flash memory cards as well as emails within Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express-based clients. The program need not be preloaded on the computer. It can be run directly from a CD or a USB flash drive. Interestingly, the software has a unique feature that allows you to permanently delete data that has been recovered so that it is totally eliminated from the system. Updates to the software can be downloaded from the company’s website.


Recover My Files
Recover My Files data recovery software from GetData recovers files emptied from Windows Recycle Bin, as well as files lost due to virus, software failure and corruption, the format of a hard disk drive (even if you have reinstalled Windows!) or unexpected system shutdown. The software can be downloaded free from the company website for trial. You can run the program, scan the drive and view your deleted files using the “on-the-fly viewing” feature of its search engine. Once you view the deleted files, then their recovery is just a click away by purchasing the software activation key from the company. Apart from documents, Recover My Files can also retrieve photos video, music and email from a variety of storage devices like hard drives, floppies, zip drives, CD-ROMs and other removable media.


Handy Recovery
Handy Recovery from SoftLogica is designed to retrieve files deleted from hard disks and removable media like floppy drives. It can recover data destroyed by a virus, power outages, software corruption and deleted or formatted partitions. It can extract documents from emptied Recycle Bins and also from programs that do not use the Bin to delete files. With Handy Recovery, you can browse the content of the disk as you do in Windows Explorer and it allows you to see deleted files along with regular ones. For each deleted file, the software shows the probability of its successful recovery. You can also restore the full branch of the folders tree containing selected files and folders. Handy Recovery works with a variety of operating systems and supports all Windows files systems for hard and floppy drives. It can retrieve deleted images from media, like CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards.


Quick Recovery
Quick Recovery from Unistal Systems is automated and non-destructive data recovery software that retrieves lost files in two steps – Analyse and Select & Save. The former is the most important part which performs diagnosis and search operations for the missing files. The software looks for the file system information from the beginning of the hard disk and reverse-calculates the disk’s file structure. All its modes of data recovery are read-only and do not perform any write operations on the disk. Once the Analysis is over, all files and folders, including deleted ones, are displayed. You have to choose which ones are to be recovered and saved.


GetDataBack
GetDataBack from Runtime Software recovers data under the following circumstances: If the hard drive has been corrupted or formatted, fdisk was run, power outage crashed the system, software failed, a virus destroyed the data or if a file was accidentally deleted. The software retrieves files even when Windows no longer recognizes the drive or if all directory information – not just the root directory – has gone missing. The program is read-only and does not attempt to write any information to the disk you are trying to recover. It also allows you to recover files over the local network or a serial cable. This feature allows you to run GetDataBack on a computer while accessing the drives of another computer.