best hard drive recovery software?

[Morpheus]

OK, which software do you guys recommend to me as being the best/user-friendly setup?

TYIA
Morph.

[Mayhem]

Ive personally used O&O DiskRecovery but I used it mostly for SDCards and that was a long time ago.

You may want to look at these.

https://www.lifewire.com/free-data-recovery-software-tools-2622893

[Bizman]

I've tried Recuva as it seems to be highly ranked among the free ones. I've also bought EaseUs Data Recovery and RecoverMyFiles by GetData. Back in the day I also have used the Command line PhotoRec and some free and commercial products the names of I can't remember. They've all done the trick, more or less.

Now for the bad news: The TRIM feature of SSD hard drives is very effective in wiping data that's deleted! So if you've emptied or bypassed the Recycle Bin when deleting files you'd have to react fast to get them back even if said data is not overwritten. As the Support of GetData told me,

In many cases, once TRIM has been executed, the chances of recovering deleted data are slim to none. Wear leveling requires recovery tools to not only find but also accurately reassemble fragmented data, adding to the challenge.

[hazmatt]

I don't have any good advice on recovery tools; however, I have on 2 separate occasions put a hard drive that wouldn't spin up in the freezer overnight and managed to get them to spin up for long enough to get the data off them. I'm pretty sure this isn't a "best practice" and I have no idea why it worked but I figured it was worth throwing out there in the event that someone had the same issue and was willing to risk it.

[Bizman]

I don't have any good advice on recovery tools; however, I have on 2 separate occasions put a hard drive that wouldn't spin up in the freezer overnight and managed to get them to spin up for long enough to get the data off them. I'm pretty sure this isn't a "best practice" and I have no idea why it worked but I figured it was worth throwing out there in the event that someone had the same issue and was willing to risk it.

It works for hard drives that are stuck. The axles and bearings shrink in a different manner so they separate. Coagulated lubricant is a potential culprit. And obviously that trick works for HDDs only.

[hazmatt]

It works for hard drives that are stuck. The axles and bearings shrink in a different manner so they separate. Coagulated lubricant is a potential culprit. And obviously that trick works for HDDs only.

Nice to know the reasoning behind it. I knew it worked but didn't know why.

Ya, they were HDDs. I tend to run my OS on an SSD and keep my data on a HDD for some reason. I don't really have a logical reason for it other than I somehow have larger capacity HDDs and lower capacity SSDs. I think it was price related as I tend to buy whatever I find a good deal on and then use what I have instead of buying something specific for the application.

[Bizman]

Keeping data on a HDD is still a cost effective option especially for huge quantities. And as stated in my first post saving data from a failing HDD is much easier than from an SSD. Of course a backup would be the best option but I can't require others do things I don't frequently do.

[AKIron]

Internal HDDs are cheap. You can get an 8TB drive for $130. Buy an external case with fan for $25. Buy a Raspberry Pi 4 for $62 and case for $15. OpenMediaVault for free and you have a good NAS for a little over $200. I keep backups and long term files on mine.

[icepac]

Hard drives have experienced shrinkflation and aren't anything like an old 7200rpm western digital "JB".     

Sure, some manufacturers have generous cache to simulate better performance but they fail with sustained data transfer rate.

[AKIron]

Of course you can spend more and connect an SSD to your NAS but I find the typical cheapish HDDs work fine for my needs. This would probably be fine.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-Drive-Black/dp/B092R5KTT7/?th=1

[Morpheus]

Ive personally used O&O DiskRecovery but I used it mostly for SDCards and that was a long time ago.

You may want to look at these.

https://www.lifewire.com/free-data-recovery-software-tools-2622893

THANKS, guys for your helpful info! I'm using Windows 11 Pro. I tried to only restore the OS and keep the other personal files. But that wouldn't work for crap! I eventually had to just do a fresh install of W11. I know there are clouds out there for file recovery.


Mayhem, I've used Limewire in the past, and it worked great, but I can't find an effective spot to download it tonight. So, can you please tell me what site you downloaded it from?

[Bizman]

If you're trying to make a backup copy of your current setup, go to Control Panel and find a program called "Backup and Restore (Windows7)". Yepp, it's got such an archaic name. It's no longer supported and your version of 11 may not even have it left but if it's there you can create a system image from the left pane. If you have it on an external disk you can then restore it to, say, a new hard disk using the tools of a bootable Windows installing media.

[icepac]

Doesn't windows 7 have a shadow copy service?

[hazmatt]

Internal HDDs are cheap. You can get an 8TB drive for $130. Buy an external case with fan for $25. Buy a Raspberry Pi 4 for $62 and case for $15. OpenMediaVault for free and you have a good NAS for a little over $200. I keep backups and long term files on mine.

Going to look into OpenMediaVault. Thanks for sharing this.

[Shuffler]

I have a Buffalo TS3420DN that works nicely. It has 32TB storage. I also keep movies on it.