Data Recovery

[Division56]

Does anyone know of good data recovery software?

I downloaded some off download.com, let it scan the disk for 36 hours, and then after all my files are selected, I push the button to recover...

It tells me the going rate for 10GB is 150.00.

Fuck that. :rant:



Help please...

[Utopmk]

http://www.5star-shareware.com/Utilities/File-Disk-Management/handy-recovery.html

If that isn't what you are already using.

[Claverhouse]

I had hoped not to have to think of this for a while. Eventually the bitterness against 'PartitionMagic' will fade...

The very best tool is GetDataBack. Get a trial copy from
RunTime (www.runtime.org)

You have to choose the right zip-file for the disk, from Downloads, eg: FAT, NTFS, RAID etc.

Use it from another separate disk to save the saved files upon.
Do not use or do anything with the original disk beforehand.
After finding the files etc. you want to save, you can save the profile created, until you can afford to buy the key ( downloaded or sent through email ) which will register the copy of GetDataBack.

It costs about $69 ( for FAT) ( 80 euros ), and is a small download, about 1.5MB.

It is a steep learning curve and you may have to run the tests extensively until you have a profile that works; however it works on drives that other tools can't even see.

I append some quotes I made elsewhere in other fora to help:


Hi,
About the same time, but before I joined ****, I had the same trouble
(skip this bit if uninteresting: I had used partitionmagic to make separate partitions for data files, and insanely had placed my work files away from the C drive. It was a P60, and suddenly refused to recognise the 2gb drive which was only put in by fiddling with the bios. On the next computer, this a PII Compaq Deskpro 2000 ( which has it's own unique flaws: can't even get into the bios, and no utility can identify it for upgrade ) slave drives weren't welcome, but eventually got the old one on. It only saw the C drive on the old HD. Partitionmagic stop support if the purchase is over 6 months --- although if you buy a new product they support old ones --- help from Microsoft is help from Microsoft. Anyway, in the P60, Partionmagic emergency disks couldn't see the partition points, and Windows98SE refused to work because third-party partition software had been used: a sort of circle )
I downloaded lots of trial recovery programs, all very clever but in this case only the trial from GetDataBack worked. Most couldn't see all the C drive even, but this was excellent.

Even with the disabled version I was able to save the urgent files ( through a trick, they were document files ) just in case I couldn't get back to that point --- the program has a lot of options which can lead you to a wrong search; but unless you write to the old disk no harm is likely --- and have now put the old HD on one side until I buy GetDataBack and do a proper job.

Actually I still haven't bought it yet, o/w I could help you more, but I will when I can, and when I have a better computer to use it on... It does work, but as I said, it's not intuitive or obvious at first.


Also, read this ( & other stuff on the site ) about partitioning: it does help:
RADIFIED partition strategies (http://partition.radified.com/)


Claverhouse :ph34r:

[file cabinet]

Freeware solutions:
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm
or:
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html

the more you use the hard drive that you lost the data on, the more likely you won't be able to recover as much.