Freeware You Could Use To Recover Data From a Corrupted Hard Drive

The hard drive is considered the most important part of your computer. Since it holds all of your data, you must take good care of it or all of your files could disappear. However, like most devices, it eventually breaks down due to wear and tear. Its useful time is even shortened if it’s damaged internally or externally. It was reported that around 60% of hard drive failures can be attributed to mechanical failure and misuse which include:

• Physical damage to the computer itself.
• Increased heat due to clogging in the air intake filter and other problems with the filter.
• Sudden power failure in between an operation.

If you come across a corrupted hard drive, here are some tools you can check out to recover your files.

PC Inspector File Recovery 4

PC Inspector File Recovery is a free hard drive data recovery software. You should definitely give this software a try before you pay for a recovery software. Upon firing up the software, you are presented with 3 options: Recover Deleted Files, Find Lost Data, and Find Lost Drive. The first option enables you to recover permanently deleted files from your drive. The second option lets you restore files lost in a system crash; it might take a while to restore, depending on the size of your drive. Lastly, the third option is for when the drive doesn’t appear in My Computer; the software will try to gain access to the drive and to its data.

Here are some of the main features of the software:

• Works despite an erased boot sector or FAT
• Automatically finds partitions even if the boot sector or FAT is erased
• User-friendly GUI, similar to that of Windows Explorer
• Recovers files with original time and date stamp
• Works even if the header entry is not available
• Supports a variety of formats, including those from compressing and archiving programs.

Since the software is free, you have nothing to lose if ever you decide to try it out.

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free

Another recovery software with a friendly and accessible interface is Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free. Upon opening the program, you just have to choose which drive you want to be scanned to recover your data and simply click Scan. If you know what exact folder a file went missing from, you can select that folder to be scanned to hasten the process.

Some of the key features of Easeus Data Recovery Wizard include:

• Recover permanently deleted files
• Restores files after accidental formatting and reinstallation of Windows, - partitioning errors, hard drive crash, etc
• Faster scanning of lost files by skipping bad sectors automatically
• Supports a variety of file types and Windows OS

This software is free for the first 500MB of data you restore but it can be increased to up to 2GB within the program. However, after that, you are required to upgrade to the paid version if you wish to continue using Easeus Data Recovery Wizard. Although it’s not enough for a complete hard drive recovery, it should do if you want to recover your most important files.

Pandora Hard Drive Data Recovery Tool

If you need to find and recover deleted files from NTFS and FAT-formatted drives, Pandora Hard Drive Data Recovery could be the tool for you. It scans your drive and creates an index of existing and deleted files and folder after which you can choose which files are to be recovered and where you want them to recover to.

The key features of Pandora Hard Drive Data Recovery are as follows:

• Recovers archived, encrypted, hidden and compressed files
• Restores alternate data streams
• Recovers files to the local hard drive, network drive or flash drive
• Recovers Review File Properties and Drive Properties
• Supports a variety of file types
• Compatible with Windows.

It is considered to be one of the strongest recovery tools for damaged hard drives but unfortunately, this software is not free for long-term use. It has a free trial version that can recover up to 500MB of data but any further than that, you have to purchase the full version. However, the price you pay is still less than the cost of consulting and repairing from an s tech specialist.

Ask a Professional if You’re Unsure

If you’ve tried several recovery tools and you still haven’t successfully recovered your data, you might need to raise the white flag and come to a specialist. It is not advisable to try and repair things by yourself since you may just end up causing more damage than when you started. Since professionals actually know what they’re doing, they’re equipped to assess the situation, diagnose your drive for a successful data recovery.

It going to be a little heavy on the wallet but it’s a small price to pay to have all your important files lost and in comparison to purchasing a new hard drive.