Recuva
Restore files that have been accidentally deleted


Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

Simple to use interface - just click 'Scan' and choose the files you want to recover
Easy to use filter for results based on file name/type
Simple Windows like interface with List and Tree view
Can be run from a USB thumb drive
Restores all types of files, office documents, images, video, music, email, anything.
Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5 , NTFS + EFS file systems
Restores files from removable media (SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MemoryStick, Digital cameras, Floppy disks, Jaz Disks, Sony Memory Sticks, Compact Flash cards, Smart Media Cards, Secure Digital Cards, etc.)
Restores files from external ZIP drives , Firewire and USB Hard drives
It's fast, tiny and takes seconds to run!

Portable version available here (1.8 MB)

Last Updated 29 March 2011
Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Eraser
Secure file deletion tool

Eraser is a secure file deletion tool that allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with sophisticated patterns (Gutman, USDoD and others).

You can simply drag and drop files and/or folders onto the on-demand eraser, use the convenient Windows Explorer right-click extension or use the built-in scheduler for automated wiping of unused disk space, browser cache files etc. Easy to use and secure!

Last Updated 09 November 2010
Win 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

File Shredder
Permanently deletes data

With File Shredder you can remove files from your hard drive without fear they could be recovered. There are quite a few software tools today for retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools, often referred to as "file recovery" software, are taking advantage of shortcoming of WIndows "delete" command that we all use regularly to delete files. Actually, the "delete" operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files so they appear deleted in OS. It is easy to retrieve those files using aforementioned specialized file recovery software.

In order to remove, or shred files permanently from your system you have to use a program that is capable of rewriting the files with random series of binary data multiple times. This process is often called shredding. That way, the actual content of the file has been overwritten and the possibilities to recover such a shredded file are mostly theoretical.

File Shredder has been developed as fast, safe and reliable tool to shred company files. The author of this program released it free under GNU licence and you are welcome to download File Shredder and use it without any restrictions.

File Shredder is simple but powerful program that surpasses manu commercial file shredders out there. The Author believes that such a utility should be available to anyone for free and that permanent and safe removal of confidential documents is a matter of basic right to privacy.

Win 98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Pandora Recovery
Find and Recover Deleted Files of Any Type

Pandora Recovery is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. And that does not mean restoration of a file from Recycle Bin. Pandora Recovery actually recovers files permanently removed from Recycle Bin, files originally deleted using Shift + Delete keys bypassing Recycle Bin and files deleted from DOS prompt.

Pandora Recovery is not a backup tool - it can recover files that have been deleted months before Pandora Recovery was installed. And while the likelihood of successful recovery is negatively affected by the time passed since the deletion of files Pandora Recovery users were able to recover files eleven years after deletion and more than five years after re-formatting a hard drive!

Last Updated 08 August 2008
Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista

PhotoRec
Digital Picture and File Recovery

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

PhotoRec is free - this open source multi-platform application is distributed under GNU General Public License . PhotoRec is a companion program to TestDisk , an app for recovering lost partitions on a wide variety of file systems and making non-bootable disks bootable again.

For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or memory card you are about to recover lost data from. Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your lost data. This means that while using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files to the same partition they were stored on.

Win NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7

ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools
Data recovery tools that supports a wide variety of drives

ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools contains a collection of DIY data recovery tools that supports a wide variety of drives and file systems.

The software incorporates extremely simple GUI with novice users in mind. The software zooms in to do only critical recovery functions with minimum complexity so one could recover the data easily. It gives you full control to undelete files, disk image back up, restore a backup image, copy files from hard disk with bad sectors, disk cloning, backup, edit and restore your boot parameters.

It is absolutely free! It is our pleasure to offer you the software without charge, direct or hidden, to download and use a fully functional copy of the program. The software will not install any spyware or adware. It does not gives pop-up ads or force any form of subscription to mailing lists.

The program is designed to be compact "green-ware" without any installation. In fact, the whole program is less than 130 kb and you could stuff it anywhere (such as a floppy) and run the program from there to recover data.

Win 95/2000/XP

PC Inspector e-maxx
Permanently delete all your files

PC INSPECTOR™ e-maxx is the new professional data deletion program from CONVAR. Using the new direct DMA support, data can be deleted from hard drives in high speed mode with speeds up to 3.3 GB per minute.

This high speed is achieved by PC INSPECTOR™ e-maxx through intelligent inspection of the PC motherboard and the hard drive controller. The software independently determines the fastest data transmission rate and achieves these exceptional speeds through optimal utilization of the DMA chipset on the motherboard of your PC.

PC INSPECTOR™ e-maxx can be started directly from a boot diskette. The deletion process is always based on the physical drive and is independent of the file system (e.g. FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, NTFS, Ext2, Reiser, etc.) or the number of partitions

Win 98/ME/NT/2000 /XP

Active@ Kill Disk
Hard Drive Eraser

Active@ Kill Disk is a powerful and compact DOS utility that allows you to destroy all data on hard and floppy drives completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders.

If you use FDISK, FORMAT utilities, or DELETE standard operating system command for data removal, there is always a chance to recover them and use against owner s will.

Active KillDisk works with any computer, that is capable of booting into DOS mode from a floppy drive.

It uses access to the drives data on a physical level via BIOS bypassing logical drive structure organization, thus it does not matter what operating systems and file systems are used on the machine.

To use the software, simply copy it to a bootable floppy and insert it when you boot - do not try this unless you want to wipe your drive!
An optional Pro version is available with even greater destruction levels.

Win NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

AbsoluteShield File Shredder
Secure file shredding

AbsoluteShield File Shredder (formerly CuteShield and SysShield) lets you permanently remove files and folders from your system easily without the possibility of data recovery.

The tool is integrated with the Windows shell and you can start shredding by right-clicking on the selected folders or files.

AbsoluteShield File Shredder allows you to choose between a quick two-pass or the standard seven-pass file wiping method.

Win 98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Unstoppable Copier
Recovers files from disks with physical damage

Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.

The program will attempt to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together. Using this method most types of files can be made useable even if some parts of the file were not recoverable in the end.

The program can be used as a daily backup system using its batch mode functions. A list of transfers can be saved to a file and then run from the command line to perform the same batch of transfers on a regular basis without having to use the GUI interface.

The program supports command line parameters which allow the application to be run from schedulers or scripts so it can be fully integrated into daily server tasks.

Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

SDelete
Secure file deletion

The only way to ensure that deleted files, as well as files that you encrypt with EFS, are safe from recovery is to use a secure delete application.

Secure delete applications overwrite a deleted file's on-disk data using techiques that are shown to make disk data unrecoverable, even using recovery technology that can read patterns in magnetic media that reveal weakly deleted files.
SDelete (Secure Delete) is such an application.

You can use SDelete both to securely delete existing files, as well as to securely erase any file data that exists in the unallocated portions of a disk (including files that you have already deleted or encrypted).

SDelete implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M, to give you confidence that once deleted with SDelete, your file data is gone forever.

Note that SDelete securely deletes file data, but not file names located in free disk space.

Win XP/Vista/7

PC Inspector File Recovery
Data recovery tool

PC Inspector File Recovery is a data recovery program with support for FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems.

It recovers files with the original time and date stamp, and can optionally restore them to a network drive and can recover many files, even when a header entry is no longer available.

On FAT systems, the programs finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged. PC Inspector File Recovery offers an easy to use interface that will scan your drive and automatically make files that can be recovered available from a "Deleted" folder in an Explorer Style navigation tree.

Win 98/Me/2000/XP

MjM Photo Recovery Software
Recover images from media cards

MjM Free Photo Recovery Software will recover images that have been deleted from a memory card, or from memory cards that have been formatted.

The easy-to-use interface will automatically detect the media card in the card reader and scan it, while displaying thumbnail images of the photos that are found during the scan. You can view each photos in full-size and recover them all or only save selected images.

During our review, we first deleted all images from the card the via Windows - the program found and recovered all of them.

We then formatted the card in the camera and restarted the search - and again it found them all (recovery results after formatting may vary depending on the formatting method used by the camera). Works with Compact Flash, SmartMedia, Memory Sticks and other media storage cards.

Win 98/Me/2000/XP

CopyWipe for Windows
Secure file deletion

CopyWipe is a utility for copying or securely overwriting (wiping/erasing) entire hard drives.

CopyWipe can ease and expedite the transition to a new hard drive by copying the entire contents of one drive to another. CopyWipe can also help prevent confidential or private data from being recovered, by securely wiping the contents of a drive.

A number of options are provided for wiping, most of which exceed governmental standards (such as DoD 5220.22-M, NAVSO P-5239-26, etc.); this allows the user to choose an optimal balance between security and duration of the wiping operation.

A USB 2.0-to-IDE adapter, along with CopyWipe, provides a convenient method to create and maintain a complete hard drive mirrored backup.

Win NT/2000/XP/Vista