Imagine you working on your PC or laptop and the operating system or hard disk crashes suddenly. You would certainly be worried about the loss of valuable data on the storage disk. You wished you had a data backup done earlier, which would save the information. In such a situation, the best solution that can be recommended is to consider using data recovery software. To ensure maximum data security and safety, these applications should be used along with antivirus and backup software.What is Data Recovery?
As the name suggests, data recovery is a process in which a software is used to retrieve inaccessible data from a storage device such as a hard drive, memory card, pen drive, etc. Retrieval of data may have to be done if the hard drive crashes suddenly, the data is automatically deleted due to a virus, unknowingly deleted by yourself, or the files are corrupted. The primary task of data recovery software is to scan the storage medium to find lost files.
How does Data Recovery Software Work?
When a new file is created, its location and details are stored in File Allocation Table (FAT) and Master File Table (MFT). When the file is deleted, its record from FAT and MFT also gets deleted, but it is physically present on the hard drive, unless it is garbage collected by the system. These software simply do the job of locating these files.
These data retrieval software work, provided that the data on the storage medium is deleted but not overwritten. When we save a file, it gets stored on certain 'sectors' of the storage medium. A deleted file is ready to be overwritten by any other replacement data. The sectors on which this file is stored is marked as writable by the OS. In case new data is stored on these sectors, the old data becomes irrecoverable. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to stop using the storage device as soon as possible, until you scan it with the software and recover all missing files.
Services Rendered by these Software
The plus point of these software is that it works with any kind of storage medium; from digital cameras, USB, MP3 players, to huge hard drives. A good thing about using these type of software is that the information can be retrieved in very less time. However, the time needed may even depend on the storage device to be searched. For example, more time may be required for data recovery from a hard drive of 2 TB. On a less capacity storage device, these applications just require few minutes. Any type of data can be recovered like audio and video files, emails, presentations, contacts, etc.
Best Data Recovery Software
These software are believed to be better than a data recovery service. It is not that a professional service is not useful, but the cost is generally not affordable. And you can go for a software, thinking that it is a one time investment. These tools are really helpful for small businesses with limited budgets. Today, due to an increased demand of these software, companies have started offering licensed versions online, which makes the purchasing these convenient. There is a wide range of software available according to the type of data recovery such as on a large database or home solutions. Moreover, those suitable for home applications are really affordable. Most popular software have lifetime warranty and service support; however, this may vary from company to company. Another advantage is that these utilities are not at all complicated to use. The following is a list which you can refer to know about these software:
- Digital Rescue Premium
- Data Recovery Wizard
- R-Studio
- Advanced Disk Recovery
- Total Recall
- Recover My Files
