[Thinkpad] Re: [OT] HD/File Recovery Tools

Hello,

I have had good luck recovering data from damaged FAT- and NTFS-formatted
hard disk drive volumes using Runtime Software's GetDataBack line of data
recovery programs for Windows. The programs are reasonably priced, and
you can download trial versions which will display--but not recover--files
from corrupt disks. Ontrack and Zero Assumption's data recovery programs
are supposed to be very good, too, but I have not used them myself.

For CDs I have used Naltech's CD Data Rescue software which comes in a trial
version as well. From looking at their web site I see they now have a version
for DVDs as well. I have also heard that Smart Project's IsoBuster software
is very good for recovering files from optical discs as well, but have not
used it myself.

If the data recovery programs are unsuccessful you can always try a sector
editor to search the disk. I have used Acronis Disk Editor and Kevin Solway's
Disk Investigator to do this in the past, in order to get portions of a file
back such as the body of text from a Word document, but it is not very
practical to do and is a time-consuming process.

URLs to products:

Acronis - http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/
Disk Investigator - http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html
GetDataBack - http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
IsoBuster - http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/
Naltech - http://www.naltech.com/
Ontrack Data Recovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/
Zero Assumption - http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

No affiliation with any of the above, other then being a customer where noted.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

At 10:00 AM 1/5/2005, you wrote:
>Message: 5
>Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 09:04:56 -0800
>From: "James H. E. Maugham" <James.H.Maugham@verizon.net>
>Subject: [Thinkpad] [OT] HD/File Recovery Tools
>To: <thinkpad@stderr.org>
>Message-ID: <AMEHLPNFBAPFIAAMCNIFEEBLCAAA.James.H.Maugham@verizon.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Once again I ask the list's deep wealth of knowledge to address a problem.
>
>I've got a client's desktop HD that took a dump over the weekend and is now
>bound back to Maxtor for a warranty replacement.
>
>Before I speed it on it's way I've been asked to attempt to recover as much
>as possible from it and my usual toolkit is coming up empty.
>
>Most of the files are still visible when I boot one of my backup desktops
>with a W98 BOOT disk, but all attempts to read the HD when attached to one
>of my XP or W2K systems fails utterly with a cryptic message that the HD
>isn't formatted.
>
>What I'm looking for is an XP/W2K compatible utility that could possibly
>recover some of the files off this HD, so I'm asking for suggestions as to
>what has been found to work by the list denizens.
>
>So far I've tried Acronis DiskEditor and Recovery Expert, an old copy of
>Disk Commander, PQ RescueMe and Lost and Found, all with no success.
>
>All suggestions are gratefully welcomed!
>
>Regards,
>
>James

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Received on Sun Jan 9 05:56:15 2005