Data Recovery Software?

[6 X 17 Feind]

Need recommendations for Data recovery Software? I have both Wondershare Recoverit and Ease US Data Recovery Wizard. I am trying to recover the data on an 8TB HHD that the root drive was accidentally deleted from. Neither program seems to be able to find all the files. one will find some the other some more.

Does anyone have any recommendations for better service than these?

 

[Lan]

LC Tech wrote the software that Sandisk bundle with their Extreme brand as "Sandisk Rescue Pro".

I have used Rescue Pro in the past to recover a deleted file from a memory card, and it did the trick, although that is one of the simplest things to recover.

Rescue Pro is supposed to work with flash media only, but LC Tech also have a product for HDD recovery, and there's a free trial available on their website:

File Recovery Software - LC Technology

Hard Drive FILERECOVERY® Software Retrieve lost photos, files, and data from any external hard drive. Missing files on your external hard drive? Don’t panic. Restore images, videos, documents, mail, music, and other media in a flash with our downloadable hard drive file recovery software...

lc-tech.com

The free trial will find finds, but not recover them. The paid version recovers them.

That's assuming you're using Windows or a Mac.

 

[Don Simpson]

I have used TestDisk and PhotoRec to retrieve files from formatted XQD cards and external USB disks. They are "free", but require using the Terminal (Mac) or Command (PC) windows.

In short, TestDisk is concerned with recovering partitions that have been lost from a disk, while PhotoRec allows for the recovery of photos and other files that have been lost due to deletion, formatting, or some other issue.

For instance, I formatted an 64GB XQD card later realizing I needed a file. By using these tools I retrieved about 800 files going back to when the card was new (2019). Most of the retrieved JPGs and MPEGs where valid.

So word of warning. If you've formatted an SD or XQD card thinking no one can get what was on it, not so.

Here's a review:

Testdisk / PhotoRec Review

 

[BillyBobSenna]

If the data is critical, you should consider sending it out for recovery. There are some reasonable services that can perform magic.

 

[Lan]

If the data is critical, you should consider sending it out for recovery. There are some reasonable services that can perform magic.

Agreed. Most are quite pricey though. My boss at a previous job could fix partition tables using a hex editor, he knew all the data structures from memory and could spot which values were wrong by eye (and fix them). His services were not cheap though. The really scary thing was data recovery wasn't his actual job... His daily rate was terrifying!

 

[BillyBobSenna]

If the data is critical, you should consider sending it out for recovery. There are some reasonable services that can perform magic.

Agreed. Most are quite pricey though. My boss at a previous job could fix partition tables using a hex editor, he knew all the data structures from memory and could spot which values were wrong by eye (and fix them). His services were not cheap though. The really scary thing was data recovery wasn't his actual job... His daily rate was terrifying!

I had a large laptop hard drive fully recovered and returned on an external hard drive for just under $1000. This was cheap compared to the potential loss of data.

 

[BlueGardenia]

i lost a HDD a while back and downloaded every free trial I could find.

If I recall correctly, Disk Genius helped more than the others.

DiskGenius: Data Recovery, Partition Manager, Backup & Disk Utilities

Recover files, resize partitions, back up data, and improve disk performance — all in one.

www.diskgenius.com

Depending on what the problem is, this one might help.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

Free Partition Manager Software for Windows 11/10/8/7 | AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

As one of the best free hard disk partition manager software for Windows 11/10/8/7, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard enables you to manage hard drives and partitions for peak performance, while ensuring the safety of your data.

www.diskpart.com

 

[Don Simpson]

Pictures are worth a thousand words, or in this case a $1.000.

So, take a look at these videos, one for Mac and one for Windows on how to recover files yourself - free. I don't know what kind of computer you have but the program is available for both.

How To Recover Files Using TestDisk on MacOS

Data Recovery on a Formatted Drive with TestDisk by Britec

There are many TestDisk videos other than these. I just did a quick search. Point is, if the disk still spins, you have a good chance of getting your files back yourself.

I've use it after trying some of the menagerie of $$ data recovery programs in the past. Good chance to learn some skills in the Command line interface as well.

Note it also works on formatted SD & XQD cards, USB thumb drives, etc.

Also, no matter how or by who recovered them, MPG files can appear not to play. Their headers can get mixed up. But there is another free program to fix that. I'll leave that for later if requested.

Good luck.

 

[yerogi2742]

These program will not recover deleted data if your old files has replaced with some new files. In case, if the data has been overwritten then, there is no possibility of data recovery. So, I will recommend you can try free demo version of all best data recovery software. If it will possible to retrieve lost data then, it will show preview of deleted files for free.

 

[Joep van Steen]

Pros regard the tools you propose 'toys'. For logical data recovery in most labs they use R-Studio (Google 'R-Studio file recovery' or you may end up with an unrelated programming tool), UFS Explorer, ReclaiMe PRO, DMDE.

For all of these 'home' version is available, DMDE which is excellent is only $20 for one year, single user license.

--
Joep

 

[Phcan]

R-Studio as mentioned above is one of the better if not best recovery programs at an affordable price. If a standard scan does not give you the results you want you can have it do a deep scan but that can take quite a long time on a big HDD, up to a few days on a large drive with lots of data but it will find more than most of the other suggested programs.

 

[Joep van Steen]

R-Studio as mentioned above is one of the better if not best recovery programs at an affordable price. If a standard scan does not give you the results you want you can have it do a deep scan but that can take quite a long time on a big HDD, up to a few days on a large drive with lots of data but it will find more than most of the other suggested programs.

Ah, missed that, my response was to OP. FWIW there's no "the best". For example I have seen ReclaiMe recover files from for example HFS+ where the others didn't. In a different scenario another tool may outperform ReclaiMe. R-Studio most definitely one of the best you can get if it will be your only tool.

All these tools can do a raw scan (some times referred to as deep scan because it's better to market). In general there's 2 ways you can 'detect' files:

1 Dig up file system meta data (directories, MFT entries) or,

2 RAW scan, scan for magic bytes to detect JPG, MP4 etc..

1 is nicest because it also allows you to recover filenames, folder structure etc., any info that's kept in the file system. Depending on file system it also allows you to recover fragmented files (NTFS). It is also almost always quicker.

2 is last resort and comes with disadvantages, no file names, no original folder structure, works for contiguous files only.

tools I mentioned outperform tools mentioned in OP when it comes to 1, file system reconstruction. For 2 you can even use a free tool like PhotoRec.

--
Joep

 

[Nixvis]

Need recommendations for Data recovery Software? I have both Wondershare Recoverit and Ease US Data Recovery Wizard. I am trying to recover the data on an 8TB HHD that the root drive was accidentally deleted from. Neither program seems to be able to find all the files. one will find some the other some more.

Does anyone have any recommendations for better service than these?

You need software that will work directly with damaged disk partitions. For example, Partition Recovery helped me a lot at one time when I had a similar situation. But I had a 2 TB disk.

 

[Joep van Steen]

Need recommendations for Data recovery Software? I have both Wondershare Recoverit and Ease US Data Recovery Wizard. I am trying to recover the data on an 8TB HHD that the root drive was accidentally deleted from. Neither program seems to be able to find all the files. one will find some the other some more.

Does anyone have any recommendations for better service than these?

You need software that will work directly with damaged disk partitions. For example, Partition Recovery helped me a lot at one time when I had a similar situation. But I had a 2 TB disk.

You're far better of with R-Studio or DMDE which are considerably less expensive.

 

[Simon Garrett]

Need recommendations for Data recovery Software? I have both Wondershare Recoverit and Ease US Data Recovery Wizard. I am trying to recover the data on an 8TB HHD that the root drive was accidentally deleted from. Neither program seems to be able to find all the files. one will find some the other some more.

Does anyone have any recommendations for better service than these?

You need software that will work directly with damaged disk partitions. For example, Partition Recovery helped me a lot at one time when I had a similar situation. But I had a 2 TB disk.

You're far better of with R-Studio or DMDE which are considerably less expensive.

Given that the OP never responded to this thread, perhaps he's already solved the problem, or simply didn't welcome any of the replies. Who knows?

 

[maltmoose]

Need recommendations for Data recovery Software? I have both Wondershare Recoverit and Ease US Data Recovery Wizard. I am trying to recover the data on an 8TB HHD that the root drive was accidentally deleted from. Neither program seems to be able to find all the files. one will find some the other some more.

Does anyone have any recommendations for better service than these?

You need software that will work directly with damaged disk partitions. For example, Partition Recovery helped me a lot at one time when I had a similar situation. But I had a 2 TB disk.

You're far better of with R-Studio or DMDE which are considerably less expensive.

Given that the OP never responded to this thread, perhaps he's already solved the problem, or simply didn't welcome any of the replies. Who knows?

--
Simon

Who knows, but i recently had my backup drive bay corrupt both backup drives...and windows not able to read them even when put into a new external bay. Windows showing not initiased and no partitions...

I used test disk and it was able to fix them both..without having to recover any data.

 

[Joep van Steen]

Who knows, but i recently had my backup drive bay corrupt both backup drives...and windows not able to read them even when put into a new external bay. Windows showing not initiased and no partitions...

I used test disk and it was able to fix them both..without having to recover any data.

If all that's wrong is partition table or boot sector then you can repair. Using Testdisk or another tool (DMDE is easier to use IMO). But in general, an unwritten rule in data recovery is not to write to the 'patient'. So in case I make in-place repairs, I first create a sector by sector disk image.

Risk is that people who don't have a clue about what's wrong with the drive at random start running all kind of repair tools such as Testdisk. Since I can not tell in advance how computer literate a person is, how well he understands disk structures, without having any background info about the actual case at hand, I'll never suggest Testdisk.

It's not uncommon for RAW file system, or Unallocated type situations, which in themselves are signals for a logical problem, have an underlying physical cause.

 

[maltmoose]

Who knows, but i recently had my backup drive bay corrupt both backup drives...and windows not able to read them even when put into a new external bay. Windows showing not initiased and no partitions...

I used test disk and it was able to fix them both..without having to recover any data.

If all that's wrong is partition table or boot sector then you can repair. Using Testdisk or another tool (DMDE is easier to use IMO). But in general, an unwritten rule in data recovery is not to write to the 'patient'. So in case I make in-place repairs, I first create a sector by sector disk image.

Risk is that people who don't have a clue about what's wrong with the drive at random start running all kind of repair tools such as Testdisk. Since I can not tell in advance how computer literate a person is, how well he understands disk structures, without having any background info about the actual case at hand, I'll never suggest Testdisk.

It's not uncommon for RAW file system, or Unallocated type situations, which in themselves are signals for a logical problem, have an underlying physical cause.

 

[Joep van Steen]

Who knows, but i recently had my backup drive bay corrupt both backup drives...and windows not able to read them even when put into a new external bay. Windows showing not initiased and no partitions...

I used test disk and it was able to fix them both..without having to recover any data.

If all that's wrong is partition table or boot sector then you can repair. Using Testdisk or another tool (DMDE is easier to use IMO). But in general, an unwritten rule in data recovery is not to write to the 'patient'. So in case I make in-place repairs, I first create a sector by sector disk image.

Risk is that people who don't have a clue about what's wrong with the drive at random start running all kind of repair tools such as Testdisk. Since I can not tell in advance how computer literate a person is, how well he understands disk structures, without having any background info about the actual case at hand, I'll never suggest Testdisk.

It's not uncommon for RAW file system, or Unallocated type situations, which in themselves are signals for a logical problem, have an underlying physical cause.

I did a bit of research and almost bought another drive to image onto but testdisk did a scan and found the partition and could list the files. I took the chance. I tried another program that identified the problem and could fix it for a cost and see the files but was limited functionality and big cost for a year licence.

Ill certainly check out some of the other tools if i get issues again. Its one of the reasons im posting so i can check back for any posts on this topic.

DMDE, the demo allows for this type of repairs (partition tables, bootsector).

 

[maltmoose]

Who knows, but i recently had my backup drive bay corrupt both backup drives...and windows not able to read them even when put into a new external bay. Windows showing not initiased and no partitions...

I used test disk and it was able to fix them both..without having to recover any data.

If all that's wrong is partition table or boot sector then you can repair. Using Testdisk or another tool (DMDE is easier to use IMO). But in general, an unwritten rule in data recovery is not to write to the 'patient'. So in case I make in-place repairs, I first create a sector by sector disk image.

Risk is that people who don't have a clue about what's wrong with the drive at random start running all kind of repair tools such as Testdisk. Since I can not tell in advance how computer literate a person is, how well he understands disk structures, without having any background info about the actual case at hand, I'll never suggest Testdisk.

It's not uncommon for RAW file system, or Unallocated type situations, which in themselves are signals for a logical problem, have an underlying physical cause.

I did a bit of research and almost bought another drive to image onto but testdisk did a scan and found the partition and could list the files. I took the chance. I tried another program that identified the problem and could fix it for a cost and see the files but was limited functionality and big cost for a year licence.

Ill certainly check out some of the other tools if i get issues again. Its one of the reasons im posting so i can check back for any posts on this topic.

DMDE, the demo allows for this type of repairs (partition tables, bootsector).