#Best hard drive recovery software free how to
#Best hard drive recovery software free portable
#Best hard drive recovery software free professional

Sadly, Runtime does not cover both file systems in the one program, which is frustrating and expensive if you're running Windows on NTFS, but you want to undelete something from a FAT-formatted USB drive or SD card. For paid tools, we like Runtime's GetDataBack for either NTFS or FAT, which has proven itself reliable many a time. On the free side, Recuva is a good place to start for Windows users.

#Best hard drive recovery software free portable

Thankfully, there's a workaround: portable versions of the program can be copied to flash drives using another computer, avoiding potentially damaging writes to the hard drive. If you're reading this after a disaster, that puts you in a bad position. You really need that program installed before you need it. Playing a song may very well do it, as Windows remembers your most recent documents.Īnd so, ironically, installing an undelete program after you've deleted something has a chance of corrupting the data it was intended to undelete.

Browsing a website will write to your disk. So you want nothing writing to your disk at all. Here's the tricky bit: as Windows randomly writes to the disk, it could overwrite a portion of your deleted file, corrupting your data. The data is left intact, and the space is marked as 'empty' and to be overwritten in the future.

#Best hard drive recovery software free how to

You see, when you delete a file on Windows, the file isn't actually gone just the pointer that tells Windows how to find it. Still, there's one preventative measure that you should employ right now if you're running on a Windows system. Needless to say, this wouldn't be an issue if you backed up regularly, but, if you're reading this article, it means that you haven't. It should be said that there's an element of prevention here - if you perform some steps before the disaster ever occurs, then you'll be in a much better place.

#Best hard drive recovery software free professional

That said, if it's a simple file loss, rather than a hardware failure, then there are things that the user can do if they decide not to opt for professional recovery.

If the data is really important to you, then the highest chance of a successful recovery is with a professional data-recovery company. Don't use the device or let 'the IT-savvy friend' try to recover data. If you suspect data loss or a serious mechanical problem with a hard drive, the first thing to do is to turn the computer or device off. The first step of data recovery is really with the client. From Kroll Ontrack's Adrian Briscoe, general manager Asia Pacific: Whether you've accidentally deleted your files, run format on something you shouldn't have or, Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid, dropped a hard drive, there's still a chance that you can get your data back.įirst, a warning: to increase your chances of data recovery, it may be best for you to go for a professional data-recovery company.