Review: Top 5 data recovery software programs on Windows

Disk Drill is unquestionably a formidable hard drive data recovery software tool that ranks high in the information technology industry. This application, developed by CleverFiles, is uniquely tailored to scan both external and internal storage devices, from your local disk drive to portable USB drives and SD cards.

Disk Drill is rootedly powered by various data recovery algorithms aimed at a plethora of file systems, for instance APFS, HFS+, FAT32, EXT and NTFS.

Being available in several editions, Disk Drill recovery software accommodates users of multiple levels. The most popular is the freely available Basic package, tailored for personal use. The Basic package enables users to preview files that are recoverable as well as recover previously protected data. Free recovery of other deleted data is capped at 500MB per computer.

The PRO version provides full functionality, allowing a user to recover files on various media without any restrictions. The Enterprise version is a commercial license with extended features and permissions such as enabling multiple simultaneous users to run the data recovery software as a commercial service.

The two central features that maintain Disk Drill's supreme reign as an excellent data recovery software are its supplementary data loss prevention utilities.

Disk Drill adds a layer to the Recycle Bin denoted as Recovery Vault, to safely store a backup reference to all deleted files and media. Disk Drill keeps a copy of each recovered file using a unique featured known as Guaranteed Recovery.

For first-time users, working, downloading and installing Disk Drill is a walk in the park. Testers and laypersons alike assert that Disk Drill is an easy-to-install, user-friendly and intuitive software that is imbued with wizards and GUI tools to make for a successful recovery process.

When it comes to the actual data recovery statistics, Disk Drill is unmatched. Recovering lost documents from a lost partition or a reformatted drive, Disk Drill performed at an optimal 95% recovery rate which is impressive as this is 4% above the average.

Furthermore, Disk Drill performs exceptionally well when it comes to the recovery of images, at an average rate of 99%. This validates the supremacy of Disk Drill as the top data recovery software.

Disk Drill is a favorite among digital forensic experts as the software comes with features which allow users to generate binary data image files, enabling them to isolate the manipulation of data within the clone, protecting the original storage container.

Additionally, Disk Drill offers extensive technical support available through their website.

Our next recovery tool is an augmentation of Active@ Partition and Active@ File Recovery. This merger resulted in a compact and robust data recovery apparatus.

ActiveUndelete is the brainchild of Lsoft Technologies, a Canadian-based company with years of experience in the tech industry. This software is available in four license versions, namely DEMO, Standard, Professional and Ultimate.

The Professional and Ultimate versions have features that accommodate the recovery of data from unbootable PCs with the use of bootable CD, USB, and DVD, which successfully sets it apart from other recovery tools.

ActiveUndelete was mainly tailored to recover inadvertently deleted files, by only scanning the drives where they were deleted, filtering the results, finding, selecting desired data, recovering and then safely saving it in the desired location.

It's worth mentioning that ActiveUndelete, like Disk Drill, has a unique feature that helps users scan for files by their signatures. A binary signature is a unique identifier of a file that specifies its format; for instance .DOC for MS Word documents, .MP3 for an MP3 audio file or .CDR for a CorelDRAW image — all have their unique digital footprints.

Additionally, ActiveUndelete does pretty well when it comes to recovering files that other software cannot. This is attributed to the fact that, in some isolated cases, sought-after records from a particular drive don't seem to exist. This is either because the partitions have been overwritten or deleted. ActiveUndelete can locate deleted partitions, allowing users to scan them revealing lost data, and then safely and efficiently restore the lost data.

ActiveUndelete also supports various file systems such as FAT, NTFS, EFS and BtrFS. It also plays well with the Windows 10 OS, supports the recovery of data from a disassembled RAID array and large, more than 4TB sized, hard drives.

The bottom line is that ActiveUndelete is an elegantly programmed recovery tool. However, we wouldn't recommend it for first-time users. Commercial professionals best utilize its features.

The most harrowing data damage experience is losing an entire partition or drive. This may be attributed to an accidentally deleted partition or an overwritten one, an unfinished format procedure, etc. If this has happened to you, MiniTool Partition Recovery can help.

The functionality of MiniTool is pretty simple. As the name suggests, this application is available as a small downloadable file.

Upon installation, launch the application and select the drive on which your lost partition was located. The app will then prompt the user with a dialog box querying whether they want to scan the entire disk or just a portion of it. Proceed to select an option and specify the nature of the scan — whether it's a full or quick scan.

From there, the application will take a moment to run and then it will list the detected partitions on the drive. To restore the selected partitions, click Finish. The restored partitions allow a user to view the contained files to verify whether the restored partition is the desired one.

One shortcoming of MiniTool is it's random sluggishness, which results in the app's unresponsiveness once a user proceeds to scan a partition. Nonetheless, MiniTool is adept at recovering lost partitions efficiently without leaving Windows and has a simple interface.