Data Recovery Programs

[TPCEA]

What are the best free and paid choices?

I have a HDD (it's mine) that was quick-formatted, and I would like to recover the data. So far, I have tried EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, which only found about 60% of my files, Wondershare RecoverIt, which found about 70%, and Piriform Recuva, which found most of the files. The first two are not free and I don't know if the paid version will have better results. Recuva was exceedingly slow (104 hours+) to scan, but had found most of the files (i.e. file count only) at the very start of the scan. I did have it save my files to another drive because it couldn't just rebuild the directory, etc. but, although it knew what the directory structure was for most of the files, it dumped all 110k+ files into the root folder. I really do not like the idea of having to look at, rename and sort that many files, especially since I need some of those files right away.

[YoungBlade]

For free options, I've found Recuva to be the best choice, even if it does mean having to go through things manually. It saved my cousin's family photos and videos a couple of years ago, and although the project took him days to sort through everything, he and his wife were ultimately happy to just have them back. It also prompted him to make a backup drive, which he had been intending to get around to, but hadn't done yet. You should also do the same going forward - never just have one copy of important data, ever.

 

As for paid options, if you need things quick and you need it done right, I think a local professional recovery service is the way to go. They are very expensive, but if time is money, you aren't going to get a better solution from software alone.

[Radium_Angel]

I love ZAR and Recuva

[TPCEA]

33 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

For free options, I've found Recuva to be the best choice, even if it does mean having to go through things manually. It saved my cousin's family photos and videos a couple of years ago, and although the project took him days to sort through everything, he and his wife were ultimately happy to just have them back. It also prompted him to make a backup drive, which he had been intending to get around to, but hadn't done yet. You should also do the same going forward - never just have one copy of important data, ever.

 

As for paid options, if you need things quick and you need it done right, I think a local professional recovery service is the way to go. They are very expensive, but if time is money, you aren't going to get a better solution from software alone.

This is my storage drive to which I copied everything I didn't have space for on my computer.

[TPCEA]

34 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I love ZAR and Recuva

What is ZAR, the program, as opposed to ZAR, the acronym (Zero-Assumption Recovery)?

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

What is ZAR, the program, as opposed to ZAR, the acronym (Zero-Assumption Recovery)?

Sorry, one in the same. Zero Assumption Recovery. Great for drives that are really hosed, or broken RAID systems.

[TPCEA]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

Sorry, one in the same. Zero Assumption Recovery. Great for drives that are really hosed, or broken RAID systems.

So, I guess you don't know of one that would restore my folder system, too?

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, RevGAM said:

So, I guess you don't know of one that would restore my folder system, too?

Both Recuva and ZAR restore everything it can find.

If you want the folder structure restored as well that might prove more of a challenge. I *think* ZAR can do that...but I haven't tested that feature

[TPCEA]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Both Recuva and ZAR restore everything it can find.

If you want the folder structure restored as well that might prove more of a challenge. I *think* ZAR can do that...but I haven't tested that feature

Who makes ZAR?

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Who makes ZAR?

https://www.solvusoft.com/en/file-extensions/software/alexey-v-gubin/

 

[TPCEA]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

https://www.solvusoft.com/en/file-extensions/software/alexey-v-gubin/

 

He discontinued ZAR. Now he has Klennet Recovery.

[leclod]

I found this https://www.handyrecovery.com/data-recovery-with-original-folder-structure/

There are many answers from Goggle to "data recovery folder structure"

Edited March 3, 2023 by leclod

[Radium_Angel]

11 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

He discontinued ZAR. Now he has Klennet Recovery.

I saw that, but my copy of ZAR still does great, but I'll look into this new program

[TPCEA]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

I saw that, but my copy of ZAR still does great, but I'll look into this new program

I'm sure it does. He doesn't seem to be offering it at all, though. Let me know what you think of the new one.

[YoungBlade]

44 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

This is my storage drive to which I copied everything I didn't have space for on my computer.

If you have the funds, you should get another storage drive. HDDs are pretty cheap per GB these days. Often, you can find 4TB+ drives for $15 per TB on sale (so 1.5¢ per GB). Then do regular backups, even just once a month or once every other month is better than never at all.

 

That might sound like useless advice in your current circumstance, but it's important to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again in the future.

[TPCEA]

1 minute ago, YoungBlade said:

If you have the funds, you should get another storage drive. HDDs are pretty cheap per GB these days. Often, you can find 4TB+ drives for $15 per TB on sale (so 1.5¢ per GB). Then do regular backups, even just once a month or once every other month is better than never at all.

 

That might sound like useless advice in your current circumstance, but it's important to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again in the future.

I have more, thanks. I got 3 6 TB Seagate Expansions at Walmart for a song a year ago. I had a brain fart the other day that caused all the trouble.

[TPCEA]

I was checking the settings in Recuva and noticed that there is an option, unchecked by default (probably because it significantly increased the recovery time from 4 hours to 4 days), so I checked it and I'm hoping to see better results in 4 days.

[kokosnh]

If it’s quick format, them you can attempt to recover the partition ( with minitool 9.1 or so programs), or just run liveCD with ubuntu

[TPCEA]

11 hours ago, kokosnh said:

If it’s quick format, them you can attempt to recover the partition ( with minitool 9.1 or so programs), or just run liveCD with ubuntu

I have no experience with Ubuntu. Is minitool free? What are alternatives?

[kokosnh]

13 hours ago, RevGAM said:

Is minitool free?

The 9.1 free edition has that function ( partition recovery )

 

alternative like AOMEI Partition Assistant

[TPCEA]

https://www.diskpart.com/?utm_medium=company_profile&utm_source=trustpilot&utm_campaign=domain_click

2 hours ago, kokosnh said:

The 9.1 free edition has that function ( partition recovery )

 

alternative like AOMEI Partition Assistant

FYI, when I tried to get MiniTool 9.1 it downloaded the most recent version. It offered a free trial but didn't activate it - the free version of both apps don't allow partition recovery, so I tried to get the pro trial of AOMEI PA. Unfortunately, there are two AOMEI Partition Assistants, and I don't know which is legit. DiskPart.com and AOMEITech.com. Acronis warned me that the one from AOMEITech.com was trying to alter my MBR, so I had it block it - because I had only asked it to scan, not recover (yet).

[kokosnh]

well yes, the partition recovery is done by rewriting the MBR on the bad drive (or GPT depending what you had there), because there you have the partition information.
It should not touch the data part of the HDD.  

Did it find the partition and the data? there should be exploration option in there if I remember correctly. (at least that is how the minitool works) 
you scan, and explore, and then you can save it to MBR/GPT          

The MiniTool 9.1 free have the partition recovery function, the newer free version don't have it... they blocket it (I have the 9.1 free instalation file, but yes, it's not on the official site anymore, so... ) 

the https://www.aomeitech.com/ should be the legit one, will try it and update in a while.... 

EDIT, well the AOMEI Partition Assistant doesn't work on my test USB NVME drive...    

[TPCEA]

I need to reiterate that it was trying to write to my MBR at the START of the discovery phase, not during the rebuild. This is highly suspicious as it should not be writing to my MBR without me instructing it to do so.

 

Well, I guess that I'd have to pay for one or the other, but now I cannot trust AOMEI.

[TPCEA]

Recuva recovery with folder structure worked and seems to have done very well. Minus the files I removed from the process, it restored 102,548 in 45 hours and 9 minutes, with the folder structure (for most things). Keep in mind that the scan to find files was as stated previously - I simply altered the settings and that is why the duration of the recovery was increased 10-fold. Out of curiosity, I also ran Klennet recovery. It was able to find 106k but, if I understand the results at the end, which I don't particularly, it shows:

I really don't understand why so little was found in the end.

[TPCEA]

Well, Recuva didn't do a perfect job. Some of my folders were in the wrong place, especially the folders I needed the most (probably because of my directory structure, which can get a few layers deep), some folders were removed entirely but it looks like all the contents may (I'm still trying to figure it out) have been dumped into one "unknown" folder. Now, I feel like restoring the partition instead of what I did would probably have been simpler (and faster!), even if I have to pay for the software. Sigh.