Best HDD recovery software?

D

DragonQ

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
351
I have a 500GB external drive (actually a WD internal drive in a caddy) in a single partition. A few days ago I tried to resize the partition on it to give me a fresh 5GB partition at the beginning so I could use it to install Windows when my new PC arrived. About 70% of the way through the "moving data" stage (after around 10 hours), I got a "read error" from EaseUS Partition Master. It told me to reboot, I did, and now the drive is corrupt.

I've used Power Data Recovery to restore some of the data but a lot of random audio and video files do not work. All of my important data is fine so I'm not too bothered but I've tried two different methods - the first is "advanced recovery", which I assume scans any bits of MFT it can find. This found all of my important documents as I said above but otherwise it did not find much else. The second, "deep scan" (which I assume scans the actual HDD instead of the MFT, which is obviously badly corrupt in my case) took around 8 hours to complete but it restored many files that the other method failed to recover. The only problem with this mode is that it's restricted to certain file types (for example, I've got all of my MP3 and WMA Lossless files but it cannot detect any MKV or MP4 video files).

So, my question: is there any other similar software package that can find a bigger array of different file types using a "deep scan" method?

Thanks for any suggestions. :)
 
My all time favorite recovery software is GetDataBack.

Try it for free.

I would also remove the drive from the caddy and connect it directly to the MB. ;)

Good Luck!
 
It's a laptop so I can't do that. ;)

Do you know what file types GetDataBack is able to recognise when reading the raw data from the disk?
 
TestDisk is free open source software that I've had excellent success with since using it for the past 18 months or so. For commercial software, Zero Assumption Recovery is relatively cheap, and does a fantastic job. Above that, Easy Recovery Pro from Ontrack Data Systems, then above that, R-Studio, the best of the best in my experience. Very pricey, but in terms of software-based recovery solutions, there's nothing I've used that can top it for absolute recovery if the data exists...

As for the laptop drive in a desktop situation, there are 2.5" to 3.5" ATA/IDE adapters and even SATA models now, most times under $20, that attach with a simple USB cable so yes, it's quite possible.
 
No, no, no, I don't have a laptop drive, I said I have a laptop. There is no way to connect this 3.5" drive to the laptop other than through my USB caddy.

I should have a new desktop by the end of this week but not yet. Thanks for the suggestions! :)
 
All I can find is this......
Raw Recovery will be useful to recover images, zip files, media files, sound files, ms office documents, graphic files and other file types using specific file header signature by choosing file extensions.
Click to expand...
.

It's a laptop so I can't do that.
Click to expand...
I C, says the blind Old Hippie!

Good Luck!
 
Another vote for GetDataBack. I have recovered data from several thought to be dead drives.
 
R-Studio, the best of the best in my experience. Very pricey, but in terms of software-based recovery solutions
Click to expand...

The R-Studio home versions are @ 50.00 and GetDataBack is 70-80 but when you get into the R-do-it-all-Technician series, that's 900.00.

IDK if the Technician series can do a better job of recovery but it includes all the optional recovery programs for every situation.
 
R-Tools - and it was actually cheper then all the other brand name ones when i had to get something about 4 years ago.

i tried all the well know commercial ones and they found nothing, or corrupted the found files or just didnt do jack

R-Tools is worth it's weight in gold (if it had a weight....)
 
^^^ i tried Ontrack, paid a small fortune for it to only come back and tell me i had nothing that it could recover, all that happened was a partition was deleted and converted to RAW, went and got R-Tools and it recovered all of my data!


Most software, only makes dead drives, more dead, often writing data and other things, making it worse to get your data back, pending how dead your drive is.
 
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