Free programs will solve your problem on a large number of occasions — if your media is in good shape but has an error. We'd just like to tell you about these situations instead of doing the work. It's the ability to know when these situations occur and what limitations exist within the "free" versions of each that matter.
Almost all commercial recovery products will allow you to scan and find data before asking you for money, usually at the exact time when you cannot afford to leave. There are some that are completely free but have their own set of limitations.
While the specific limitations differ greatly from product to product, there are three primary categories:
This is typically anywhere from 500 MB up to 2 GB. This means that scanning and viewing your recovered files prior to purchasing can be done without limitation. Therefore, you can see exactly what is recoverable before deciding whether to pay. If you're recovering only a few documents, the cap isn't going to affect anything.
Some tiers let you get away with recovering documents and images, but will hold back videos and archives. Check it out to see if you really want those things.
Reconstructing arrays, doing forensic images and vendor-specific handling – they're mostly going to be paid features. That's because most of that work happens in there.
The best part. Almost every single one of these tools will give you a preview/scanner, so you can determine first off whether you have recoverable files before you spend money on something.
Two of which could probably mean you don't even need the software.
Both Windows File History and macOS Time Machine are on by default; they will save versions automatically, so go ahead and right-click the folder that contains your documents and take a look at them.
OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and even SharePoint will hold deleted files for a certain amount of time. When you use their web based interfaces you get access to much more than you do using the desktop sync clients.
If there's any kind of noise coming from it then stop immediately. If there isn't any noise, then use CrystalDiskInfo or DriveDx to view its SMART status — if either reallocated sector count or pending sector count continues to climb you can be sure that a full scan will only speed up its demise.
Before you begin recovering data you'll want another hard drive with enough room available as restoring back to the original source drive will wipe out all remaining unrecovered data.
There's no need for a ranked list because they don't remain current and rarely fit your needs.
Is it read-only? The single most important property. A tool that offers to repair, restore, or rebuild the drive is writing to it. Read only features such as scanning or carving would be best left as read only features.
Does it run portable? Being portable avoids self-inflicted failures by allowing you to operate off a USB drive without requiring an install. The most common type of self-inflicted error is when the installation process writes into the area where your deleted files were stored.
Does it preview before payment? Before you spend money on the software, if you can view your file listing and preview an example, then you know that the recovery function works. Software that requires payment prior to testing whether the recovery function works is essentially asking you to gamble with your time and money.
All other differences in reliable tools mean little compared to what users assume. They all perform the same two functions; either reading file system structures if those exist, or simply carving by signature when they do not.
Useful to know, so you don't waste your time going through download lists.
Mechanical faults. A clicking, grinding hard disk or one that won't even spin. There's no software fix for broken hardware. The sooner you stop scanning the better off you'll be.
Drives the computer cannot see. When a disk does not show up on the Disk Management screen then none of the programs can read anything.
TRIMmed SSD deletions. The blocks have been physically erased. There are no tools that can recover them.
Encrypted volumes without the key. Regardless of which tool you use the information will be unreadable.
If your case falls into one of these categories then spending time installing additional software will not help your drive. Single drives in Manchester are from £300 +VAT after a free 48-hour diagnostic — and should the diagnostic show that there is a job that could be done by any type of software we will tell you about it.
Yes — in some cases — for example recently deleted files, a missing partition, or formatting of a memory card using the quick format option, as long as both the mechanical integrity and media are intact. Limits are usually set as a maximum amount that will be recovered rather than a reduction in functionality, and typically all scans are allowed.
Most limit the number of bytes that can be recovered with caps usually ranging from 500 MB to 2 GB. Typically however scanning and previews are completely unrestricted. Some also place restrictions on specific file types. Reconstructing a RAID system is usually a fee-based feature. In most cases for a small group of documents the cap is inconsequential.
The three things that really make up a good data recovery tool are: is it read-only? Does it run portable from a USB stick without installing? Can you preview the file before paying? After that, all reputable tools are doing the same two things.
You should never put the tool you are using for data recovery on the drive that has lost its files. It is always better to use a portable version from a USB stick or install the tool on a completely separate physical drive (the tool installs itself, so it might over-write the area where your lost files are).
Mechanical faults, and the ones where the computer can't even detect the drive. The ones that are TRIMmed SSD deletions. And the ones that are encrypted but you don't have the encryption key. In these types of projects there isn't enough time to download additional software or tools.
Yes — if the hard drive is healthy and operating quietly. First, always review your cloud version history for free. Often that will be enough. No — if it makes a noise or has stopped showing up in your computer system.