Data Recovery Software Free Download: Where to Find It
Hello, I'm Brian, I know first hand what it is like to lose valuable data. It is a complete nightmare, and something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. If you are in that same boat, I sympathize, and that is why I put together this informational site on where you can find data recovery software to download for free for your computer. Now, I must mention that good quality software is difficult to find, and in some situations you are going to want to purchase it, but below I will give you some great tools and resources to look at when trying to decide what data recovery software with a free download you should use, and if you might need to graduate to a paid version.
Important Information on Data Recovery Software.... Free Download
Your stomach is turning because you just realized something terrible has happened and you have lost your computer files. Unfortunately you didn't back up your files and you are searching frantically for a way to restore them. It's actually quite common but nonetheless very disturbing. As long has your computer hard drive is not physically damaged there is hope in recovering some, if not all, of the files with data recovery software that is downloadable for free or software that is very inexpensive.
Now before I go on with my review there are a few things you must know right off the bat when using free data recovery software in order to retrieve your computer files.
1. If your computer hard drive is making strange noises or reports a CRC read IO error, DO NOT CONTINUE. Unfortunately, this signals a failure in your hardware and your data will not be able to be recovered with this type of data recovery software. If this is the case you will want to look into some of the paid software for data recovery.
2. As soon as you realize you have lost data or the files have been deleted immediately stop using your computer.
3. You must have access to another computer so you can find and download the data recovery software onto a flash drive and run it directly from there.
4. Lastly, for added safety, save the extracted data back onto the flash drive.
It's important to understand how your files were lost and also recogninze how important your computer files are. If you have lost your data to a software crash, virus infection, or damaged hard drive you really should consider a commercial brand software recovery tool. If you decide that the shareware or freeware software is the most appropriate choice for your data just make sure that it does not require that you install the software onto your infected computer. You must run the software from a floppy, flash, or CD or the new installed software will permanently overwrite the data you are ultimately trying to recover.
Where to Find Free Data Recovery Software
Top on the list would have to be Easeus - Deleted File Recovery. This particular data recovery software with free download has full support for both FAT and NTFS file systems and can run on all Windows platforms up to Vista. Deleted computer files can be retrieved from any mounted drive recognizable by the operating system. This software also has proven to work nicely from a second or portable drive, as I stated before you should refrain from installing anything onto the hard drive in which you are trying to recover files from. Lastly, another great feature of this version of data recovery software with a free download is that you can scan all deleted files allowing you to choose those you wish to recover. Many times we have polluted our computers with unwanted files and they give you the opportunity to only bring back those files that are most important.
The next to top the list of data recovery software free download is NTFS-Reader. Again, I like this particular software because you do not have to install it onto your computer. It runs straight from a boot disk that you must download from another computer. The software itself looks somewhat archaic but its MS DOS platform is actually a benefit since it is not running Windows that may cause problems when trying to restore files.
Lastly to make the list of useable and quality data recovery software that is free to download is the PC-Inspector File Recovery. This computer software is fast and free but requires installation. I know. So if you are going to go with this particular data recovery software tool you must have a separate working driver with a working Windows system. It too supports both FAT and NTFS file systems and can recover files even when a header entry is no longer available. It isn't my favorite out of the three but when it comes to free software it is one of the best.
All three of these software programs will get the job done if you are looking to restore deleted files but if your computer hard drive has crashed than you will need something a little more powerful. Read on to find what we recommend for a full restoration.
When Free Data Recovery Software is NOT Enough
What to Look For When Buying Data Recovery Software
While free downloaded software can definitely recover deleted files sometimes the damage has gone beyond what the free versions can retrieve. The best data recovery software offers a generous feature set, is easy enough for a novice to use, is extremely effective at retrieving lost data, offers a wide-range of search options and plenty of help support from the manufacturer. Below are the criteria used to evaluate purchased data recovery software.
Feature set Any well respected data recovery program will support a wide array of drives and external drives,as well as wide range of file systems such as data deleted from the recycle bin, damaged files, lost due to virus attacks, lost due to power outages, and partially deleted hard drives.
The software also must be easy to use. This should be easily adminstered by the novice not an IT expert.
Obviously the software needs to do its job. The recovery software should quickly and efficently find and restore data.
The lost ata should be easy to find. You should be able to locate the lost data via name, creation date, or extension.
Lastly, due to the technical nature of this type of software, you will want to choose a program that offers a lot of support via FAQs, manuals and even contact information to speak with a live person.
3 Top Data Recovery Software Programs
For the price and for all of its capabilities and ease of use our number one pick for best data recovery software would have to be DT Utilities Digital Rescue. One of the things I love about this software is its ability to retrieve lost emails. If you are like me, then email files are some of the most important files are your computer. This software does an incredible job restoring lost files from all mediums, with great support and is nicely priced at $49.99.
Second in line would have to be the Easeus Data Recovery Wizard. . The number one thing that sets this software apart from its competitors is the user friendly interface. It makes it very easy to locate, view and retrieve lost data. It can also be used all several different types of external entities such as USB drives, digital cameras, and IPODs. One disadvantage to this software is it doesn't support the retrival of emails. They do have an upgrade you can purchase if you need more option. Yet for the price of $69.99 its search capabilities and ease of use makes it worthy of being in the top three.
The final competitor for this review comes in third and is the most expensive data recovery software listed in our review. At $129.00, the Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery, is user friendly, has an intuitive interface and proves its efficacy making it a worthy investment for users that cannot afford to lose such significant data. Although a little pricey for some, I believe, Disk Doctors price is warranted with their extensive feature set. It allows for data to be recovered from almost anywhere including flash drives, zip drives, MMC and even SD cards. Even if your drive has been formatted and partitioned, you can be rest assured that you will be able to recover any lost data on it. To warrant the price even further, Disk Doctors software provides the ability to make an image file of your hard drive. As you may expect, this is a crucial benefit so that no further data is lost in the case of drive corruption.