Data Recovery

Alqua

Hi,

Could anyone recommend free (or cheap) data recovery software that works for most file types? My USB is coming up completely garbled after an encounter with some work computers...trying to stay calm

Or would repair in disk utility do it just as well?

Any advice appreciated!

whiterebel

Unless things have changed a lot, you won't get one free. Last one I bought was about $100. Maybe things have moved on since

Janedoe10

I don't know about Free but this may help http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

Found this too http://www.cleverfiles.com/
Good luck

Stuxnet

try any Linux live cd, there are many free specialised disaster recovery distributions available, just burn onto a usb or cd, and run them, no need to install, and grab your data

something like knoppix

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/diy-it-guy/diy-rescue-and-recover-systems-with-the-knoppix-linux-distribution/

whiterebel

Stuxnet wrote: »

try any Linux live cd, there are many free specialised disaster recovery distributions available, just burn onto a usb or cd, and run them, no need to install, and grab your data

something like knoppix

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/diy-it-guy/diy-rescue-and-recover-systems-with-the-knoppix-linux-distribution/

Do they work on a Mac?

Stuxnet

whiterebel wrote: »

Do they work on a Mac?

Yes, Linux doesn't really give a toss what hardware your on, it generally will do what you need it to do, as you are running "live" not installed, thats another story.

I have ran ubuntu and fedora live images on my 2013 mac air, without issue, just dd the linux image to a usb, bobs your uncle, even those regular linux distros will do, if all you need is to take files off and transfer them to another connected hdd,

Alqua

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Useful to have. Actually got it sorted last night but in the stress/excitement didn't get back to the thread. Now to sort through all of the files!

Zcott

Care to share how you got it sorted?

Alqua

Absolutely - was this software Data Rescue: http://download.cnet.com/Data-Rescue/3000-2248_4-211375.html
but didn't exactly pay full whack for it - I figured discussing that would be against the charter..!

That said, I have yet to sort through the files to make sure they are all there, but it seems to have recovered a lot.

buttonsjunior

Hi All,

Can anyone help. my external drive was reformated as such lost all my data. I did not save anything to the drive. I got stella data recovery which done nothing and then i go icare data recovery but icare found all my files so when i went to recover which took days as i had of 2 gig of data to recover the software recovered the files i wanted but i am unable to open these files ie movies. does anyone know if this recovery tool is only finding the first level on the hard drive and blocking the space of each file. do you have any ideas what i should do? give up or look for a better data recovery tool?

whiterebel

buttonsjunior wrote: »

Hi All,

Can anyone help. my external drive was reformated as such lost all my data. I did not save anything to the drive. I got stella data recovery which done nothing and then i go icare data recovery but icare found all my files so when i went to recover which took days as i had of 2 gig of data to recover the software recovered the files i wanted but i am unable to open these files ie movies. does anyone know if this recovery tool is only finding the first level on the hard drive and blocking the space of each file. do you have any ideas what i should do? give up or look for a better data recovery tool?

I used Data Rescue before which recovered probably 80-90% of the files on the drive. Costs about $90 though, AFAIR.