Businesses nowadays usually store their essential data on the Cloud or hard drives. But before you could do either of them, there’s a fair chance you can lose data. How? The major cause of data loss is an accidental deletion, which can happen at any time and by any person despite knowing they should back it up. After all, to err is human! So, did you just hit the “delete” button for the file containing all the information about the new project you were going to present tomorrow? If it is yes, I know, you must be in a dreadful situation and are looking for a way out to recover the data. So, are you thinking, is it even possible? Yes, it is! You can recover your data using data recovery software for your Windows computer. So, let’s understand the mechanism behind these tools and how they can help you.
What’s data recovery software?
Specialized software that helps restore files deleted from a digital storage device can be called a data recovery software. It works with the device’s raw data, goes deep down through its hard disk, and recovers files in their full integrity. Whatever be the case, the software can help you retrieve your important information if you are the one deleted it, a storm flooded your office, or a cyberattack stole them. Good software can restore files of different sizes and types, including video, audio, text, emails, contacts, compressed files, and more or the complete drive for that matter. To recover data, you just need to install the software on your PC without constantly performing backups.
How does it work?
On deleting a file on a Windows computer, it goes straight to its recycle bin. If you empty the recycle bin, your file won’t appear on your computer, and you assume the file is gone. In reality, the file becomes far less available or accessible to you. It means, when a file is deleted, the file system of your computer removes its access path while designating that space as available for use in the future. In fact, all the binary numbers making up your file or data are still available on your computer. But they remain hidden until another file overrides it. Some of the parts of this file may remain on the computer’s hard drive for years; however, other traces might get replaced in some hours. Hence, employing means to recover data as soon as possible is recommended. To this, data recovery software dives into the cores of your hard drive, and the advanced algorithms scan it sector-by-sector to resurrect recoverable data and pieces them back together in a correct format.
Advantages of data recovery software
Everyone knows how important data is for their business. Losing important files can become a huge issue if an important project is lined up or any other important scenario. Your entire business could be impacted if it is lost or stolen by any means. It could affect you in terms of revenue, customers’ trust, and could take a toll on your reputation if the data falls into the wrong hands. But don’t worry if you have installed a quality data recovery tool on your computer. So, let us take a look at some of the benefits it provides.
Saves time and money
As explained above, data restoration must be performed as early as possible to increase the chances of getting it back completely. But if you kill time by attempting restoration all by yourself, the chances begin to fade with the passing time. And you know time is money that you can’t afford to lose. To take care of time and money aspects, data recovery tools are designed to be prompt and efficient in performing the needful and bringing your data back so you can be ready for your next meeting with all the data perfectly in place.
Recovers data from various data loss scenarios
You can restore data from different loss scenarios such as data corruption, accidental deletion, from inaccessible files. Whether the deleted data is Windows BKF files, Outlook data, Word document, or other files, the tool covers all of them. Now, let’s check out some of the data recovery software for Windows and find out which one can work the best for you.
Tenorshare
Tenorshare 4DDiG allows you to recover the first 1 GB files deleted on your Windows PC for free, whether the version is 10, 8.1, 8, 7, or XP with a high recovery rate. Different data types it can restore are 1000+, including photos, videos, music, RAR/Zip, office documents like DOC/DOCX, PPT/PPTX, XLS/XLSX, and others. It can recover data from any storage media and even from formatted computers and raw partitions.
Apart from Windows PC or laptop, the tool also supports digital cameras, USB drives, memory cards, SSDs and hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and HD DVDs. After you have done scanning, you can select any of the files to preview before recovering them. The tool is easy to use, no matter if you are a newbie or experienced. You can recover corrupted volume files and save your data that was compromised due to a virus attack. Recover files from the recycle bin and system files such as exFAT, NTFS, and FAT. With the paid version of this software, you can even recover your data from a crashed system, deep scan partitions, repair corrupt videos and photos, and more. The pricing starts at $49.99.
Recoverit
Don’t lose hope while you have Recoverit by Wondershare with you. This ultimate expert can recover lost data and also repairs your corrupted videos. Perform restoration in simple steps to recover data from different media and thousands of file formats. It offers free scanning of your computer, and you can preview all your files before recovering them from seeing which ones you actually need. Recoverit has the capability to help you create bootable drives to start your crashed PC and access files. To restore videos in their full intactness, the tool scans collect all the fragments of corrupt videos and matches them by employing its exclusive patent technology. You can recover videos from DSLR and digital cameras, dash cams, drones, SD cards, action cameras, HDD, etc. The pricing for Recoverit starts at $59.95, and it includes 7 days money-back guarantee.
FonePaw
FonePaw Data Recovery is yet another fully-featured data recovery tool that helps you retrieve lost or accidentally deleted files from your Windows and Mac computers, external hard drive, and even SD memory cards that fit your camera. Once you launch the software, two scanning modes, Quick Scan and Deep Scan, are provided for you to select from. And respectively, you can scan a specific directory or the entire disk drive. In addition, the software supports recovering various file types including image, video, audio, email, and your archive file with .zip or .rar file extension. After the scanning process, the software program will generate a report and give you the option to preview and recover files that you need. To quickly find your deleted files, you can utilize the filter feature which will bring great convenience to you. The only improvement of this data recovery software is the scanning speed of the Deep Scan mode is somehow slow. This is due to the fact that the feature will technically search around every corner of your hard drive and provide almost all possible data that you are in need of.
Stellar
Are you worried about how to recover your deleted data from Windows? If yes, then it’s time you smile because you are in good hands with Stellar to recover valuable files from a USB drive or PC for up to 1GB, absolutely free. It can restore hundreds of file formats and recovers your documents, photos, videos, and more. The interesting thing is you will get the same file type and name for the retrieved files. It also facilitates file recovery out of RAW partitions. To retrieve data, download the free version, launch it, choose the file type and storage drive, scan your drive, and then save the recovered documents you needed. You can preview your files before saving them into any drive. If you are retrieving video files, then this tool allows you to play the video on the full screen when you preview them. The tool is also capable of retrieving data out of a BitLocker encrypted drive. Just enter the decryption key for BitLocker and then scan your decrypted file to retrieve your data. You may have come across situations where you lost your data accidentally while formatting SD cards, Windows partitions, or USB drives. The good news is you can easily recover those files by scanning your drive, partition, or card and then saving them. Sometimes due to some corrupted or damaged files, you cannot access any files on your storage system, or you may see a prompt message asking to format it. Before formatting, make sure to use this software for data recovery, and then you can format it. The premium editions gave you extra flexibility where you can repair corrupted image and video files. It can fix grainy, distorted, blurry, choppy, flickering, unplayable, stuttering, and out-of-sync video files. Some editions allow you to recover data through class-leading technology from broken or failed RAID arrays. For performing data retrieving procedures, the software exposes undiscovered RAID parameters and allows the repairing of virtual RAID. You get more options like recovering data from 4k drives, virtual drives, Linux and Mac drives, etc. This tool also supports dual monitors that allow you to multitask on dual screens. You can either download it for free or choose from different premium plans.
EaseUS
Offering consistent and quality services since 2004, the data recovery Wizard by EaseUS is handy for several data loss scenarios like virus attack, format, accidental deletion, sudden power off, system crash, etc. Just download EaseUS software for free to use on your computer as well as for iPhone and Android data recovery. In case you emptied your recycle bin, deleted, or permanently removed data from Windows 10, use the tool to retrieve all of them.
With EaseUS, you can restore your unsaved or deleted MS Word documents. It lets you recover files formatted or deleted from a hard drive with ease. Its interface is user-friendly, clear, concise, and clutter-free and has small range tools that are self-explanatory. Try it free to recover 2 GB of data or get a paid version at $99.95/year for 1 license for 1 computer and enjoy extended benefits and features.
Recuva
You might have come across this name, CCleaner, while looking for a PC cleaner. Recuva is one of its products that helps in data recovery from your Windows PC. It is efficient in recovering data from the recycle bin, MP3 players, digital cameras, etc. The tool can restore data of any type and support rewritable media like USB sticks, external hard drives, iPods, and more. Unlike most recovery software, Recuva can get files back from even a damaged disk or a formatted drive. Since not every file is easy to recover, Recuva has a sophisticated deep scanner capable of scouring your drives. This way, it can find traces of data you may have deleted and safely restore them into your PC.
Sometimes you may want a file to be gone forever for security, privacy, or any other matter. For this, Recuva offers military-grade deletion techniques for secure file overwriting to ensure the files can never be restored. Recuva helps you recover email trash from Microsoft Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, or Thunderbird. The tool can intelligently get data back from a crashed or unsaved Microsoft Word document. Use the Quick-Start Wizard of Recuva to get data back immediately. You have the flexibility of taking Recuva where you want with you by using its portable version. It supports all the Windows versions and more than 37 languages. Recuva is available both in free and paid versions. With free, you get all the advanced file recovery features while the paid version starts at $19.95 for additional features like automatic updates, premium support, etc.
Ontrack
The best-in-class and intuitive interface of Ontrack EasyRecovery allow people of any skill sets to recover their data with little or no effort. It performs file deletion precisely so that the file gets recovered completely unharmed and in a proper format. The SSD, conventional drives, USBs, memory drives, optical tools, flash drives, and the software cover you with all of them. It supports both external and internal drives and repairs corrupt and damaged videos and photos. The tool executes a comprehensive recovery by searching within logical volumes based on the file type or name.
According to your recovery needs, you have two options to choose from:
Deep scan to find data traces that are a bit hard to recover A quick scan to recover data fast from drives
Ontrack EasyRecovery allows you to get your data back from inaccessible or corrupt RAID 0, 5, or 6 volumes. Get it free to recover a maximum of 1 GB of data or pay $66.95/year for the paid version for 1 device.
Disk Drill
Restore any file type deleted from Windows, including media files, messages, Office documents, and more effortlessly using Disk Drill by Cleverfiles. It comes with a smart and user-friendly interface that makes the process a lot easier. You can recover data up to 500 MB for free using the tool and utilize Recovery Vault for free data protection. It provides byte-level data backups from various storage media. You can also preview files before initiating the process of recovery. It supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP, and Vista and storage media like internal hard disks, USB drives, SSD, SD & CF cards, digital cameras, memory cards, and more. The powerful scanning algorithm of Disk Drill can detect and reconstruct 100s of file formats to recover almost everything. Disk Drill works in various data loss scenarios, including accidental deletion, crashed hard disks, virus infections, RAW file systems, emptied recycle bin, formatted external drives, lost partition, and corrupt memory cards. The data recovery toolkit of Disk Drill includes partition recovery, data backups, S.M.A.R.T disk monitoring for free, raw and unformatted recovery, and allows you to mount the scanning results in the form of a disk so you can recover it at a location you want. The pricing of Disk Drill is $89 for a lifetime license.
Windows File Recovery
Whether you lost data accidentally, wiped your hard drives clean, or unable to figure out what you should do with a corrupted drive, the Windows File Recovery by Microsoft can help you.
It supports different file types and lets you recover data from an SD card or camera through the Signature mode that expands further than NTFS recovery. It supports so many different storage devices as well. Windows File Recovery performs a search by targeted file names, extensions, or keywords and supports file systems like exFAT, ReFS, and FAT apart from NTFS. You can use this tool on Windows 10 and higher.
Bonus tips to prevent data loss
Although you have installed quality data recovery software, don’t get too comfortable. It’s always better to be safe than sorry to reduce the chances of losing your data. Hence, try to avoid certain things and implement the tips mentioned below:
To reduce the likelihood of accidental deletion, be careful during file management. Refrain from using Shift + Del, which deletes data permanently. Use antivirus software and scan your PC regularly to prevent bugs and viruses. This way, you could eventually avoid data corruption. Data loss may happen if your computer turns off as a result of sudden power failure while you are saving a file or working on it. So, consider using a UPS device for your computer. Always protect your system with a strong password and set user permission for greater security. Besides, do not allow an unauthorized person to access your computer. Backup your files regularly.
Conclusion
Anyone can commit mistakes; cybercrimes can happen anytime, and no one can control a natural calamity. All we can do is to be prepared to face everything. If you have lost your data from your Windows, Android, or iOS due to any reason, don’t worry! Use data recovery software to restore any data that has been deleted.
