File and Partition Recovery

When deleting a file (so it is no longer in the recycle bin), then most file systems just marks the space allocated for the file as now being available for new files. This makes the delete operation quick, but with the side effect that it is possible to recover the file again. There exist different utilities that can scan the file system for deleted files and recover the file fully, or partially if the space allocated have been overwritten by a new file.

  • Restoration - Supports file recovery from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS partitions.
  • File Recovery - Supports FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS and partition recovery.
  • TestDisk & PhotoRec - TestDisk can recover whole partitions while PhotoRec can recover files from partitions. Supports FAT, NTFS and EXT2/EXT3.
  • Undelete Plus - Supports file recovery from NTFS/NTFS5, FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 volumes.
  • Avira UnErase - Supports file recovery from FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS partitions
  • Recuva - Supports file recovery from FAT32 and NTFS partitions
  • DiskDigger - Supports any partitions accessible by Windows.
  • Roadkil’s Undelete - Supports any partitions accessible by Windows.
  • NTFS Undelete - Open source utility for file recovery on NTFS partitions. See also Google Code

Related Copying files when the DVD or CD is scratched