One should never install free data recovery software on the drive that one is attempting to recover data from.

Always install and run free data recovery software from a separate drive, such as an external hard disk or flash drive.

Free Data Recovery Software

PC Inspector File Recovery

PC Inspector File Recovery is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. It has the following features:

  • Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged
  • Recovers files with the original time and date stamp
  • Supports the saving of recovered files on network drives
  • Recovers file contents, even when the file header is no longer available.

PC Inspector Smart Recovery

PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a data recovery program for Flash Card, Smart Media, Sony Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card, or any other data carrier for digital cameras.Free Data Recovery Software

If someone unintentionally deleted or formatted pictures, videos, or sound files on his/her data carrier or pulled it out during a write operation, PC Inspector Smart Recovery can easily, quickly, and absolutely reliably reconstruct the lost data.

PC Inspector Smart Recovery runs on Windows 95/98, ME, NT 4.0, XP, and Windows 2000 systems.

FreeUndelete

FreeUndelete is a freeware data recovery program for deleted files.

In case accidental file deletion occurs on an NTFS file system (used by default in Windows XP, 2000, and NT), FreeUndelete is the utility to help.

A deleted file is essentially an area on a disk that is designated as free and ready to accept data (such as some other file’s contents). Luckily, unless the area has already been overwritten, it still holds the deleted file’s contents. Due to this fact, it is possible to “undelete” files.

FreeUndelete is completely free. There is no charge, direct or hidden, to download and use a fully functional copy of the program. The program does not install any spyware or adware when it is installed. It does not populate the user’s desktop with pop-up ads or forcefully subscribe him/her to mailing lists.

Unstoppable Copier

Unstoppable Copier recovers files from disks with physical damage. The program allows users to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches, or that just give errors when reading data. This software attempts to recover every readable piece of a file and puts the pieces together. By using this method, most types of files can be made usable even if some parts were not recoverable in the end.

Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery

Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery is a freeware data recovery tool, specifically designed to work with digital images. It allows users to recover digital photos accidentally deleted from digital camera memory.

There exists a vast variety of digital camera and associated media types on the market, so it is virtually impossible to test the program with each and every hardware combination. Generally, the program should work with any media type (e.g. Compact Flash, Memory Stick, SmartMedia and so on) and is accessible via the operating system. One must use a camera or the appropriate card reader to transfer images from camera to PC.

Disk Investigator

Disk Investigator does the following:

1) helps users discover all that is hidden on their computer hard disk, 2) helps users recover lost data and previously deleted files, 3) displays true drive contents by bypassing the operating system and directly reading the raw drive sectors, 4) views and searches raw directories, files, clusters, and system sectors, and 5) verifies the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs.