What sets digital lives apart from real lives is that you can undo almost any of your actions in your digital world. Try burning a file in your real life and you will never get it back. But lose a file on your computer, you can almost certainly get it back. Data loss could be caused by any number of factors like intentional or unintentional deleting of files, hardware and software failures or viruses. Though sadly data loss is a common enough occurrence, there is no need to despair as there are some very good data recovery tools available for computer users. Though real-time backing up of data is the best way to avoid data loss, you can use these tools to recover any lost data.
1. Test Disk (Windows/ Mac/ Linux)
The best data recovery tool that works on all three operating systems. It not only un-deletes accidentally deleted files, but can also recover and rebuild whole boot sectors from backup. Could be a little confusing initially, as it does not come with a Graphical User Interface (GUI), and uses only command lines. But the menus and the documentation that comes with the download should help. PhotoRec is a companion program that can be used for recovering photos when deep disk recovery is not needed.
2. Recuva (Windows)
A user-friendly tool for recovering files from Windows systems, digital camera cards or MP3 players. Has a very handy file-recovery wizard that automatically searches for lost files with a manual mode. The easy to use GUI uses a green/ yellow/ red light that will show how probable the recovery of a file is. And if you are trying to search for a deleted file so that you can securely and completely wipe it, it has a tool that does just that.
3. Undelete+ (Windows/Mac)
This file recovery software works on all versions of Windows and the latest OSX. It lets you sort files by type, and keeps folder structures intact when a recovery option is performed. Just like Recuva, it assigns recovery probabilities depending on how damaged a lost file is. Lets you recover files from hard disks, USBs, camera cards and even floppy disks.
4. Restoration (Windows)
The smallest of the lot. Though it lacks some of the advanced functions of the others, it does a decent job of file name search. It’s small enough to be stored on a USB.