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Top 10 Best Hard Drive Recovery Software in 2022
Thanks to hard drive recovery software, anyone can undelete lost files at home and without any special skills. In fact, the most difficult step is choosing the best hard drive recovery software because the number of available solutions can be a bit overwhelming. Fortunately for you, this article is here to help.
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Key features analysis
Hard Drive Recovery Software: What to Consider
Even though we all have different needs and priorities, there are certain things that you should always consider when selecting hard drive recovery software:
- Performance
The single most important quality of hard drive recovery software is its ability to undelete lost files from a crashed, malfunctioning, corrupt, or otherwise compromised hard drive. We recommend you pick a hard disk data recovery tool that can restore at least several hundred different file formats from all common Windows, macOS, and Linux file systems. That way, you’ll be able to solve all kinds of data loss scenarios.
- Speed
The best hard drive data recovery software applications support multiple recovery methods so that you can choose the one that best fits your situation and get your data back in the least amount of time possible.
- Security
The last thing you want is to download some obscure hard drive recovery software and infect your computer with dangerous malware or corrupt your entire hard drive, making it completely unreadable. That’s why we recommend you stick to more popular solutions, preferably those that have a substantial number of positive reviews.
- Compatibility
Even the best hard drive recovery software application won’t be able to help you unless it’s compatible with your operating system and can read your storage device. As a Windows user, you’re in luck because there are many fantastic applications that run on all recent versions of the operating system.
- Price
Hard drive recovery software is available at a variety of different price points. Some free solutions are surprisingly capable and can reliably solve basic data loss problems, but they don’t offer the same number of features and the same level of polish as paid applications.
When you manage to find hard drive recovery software that meets all the above-described selection criteria, you know that you’ve struck gold. Of course, you don’t have to look far for it because our selection of the best hardware drive recovery software features several such applications.
Top 10 Best Hard Drive Recovery Software
#There are many great hard drive recovery software applications that you can choose from in 2022. We’ve narrowed them down to just ten based on their features, performance, our personal experience with them, and reviews published online by real users.
1. Disk Drill
Top pick
3.84 • Best choice for Windows users – The Windows version of Disk Drill empowers regular users to reliably recover all kinds of lost data with a few simple clicks.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 500 MB for free
$89...$598
Disk Drill is one of the best recovery software applications for hard drive-related data loss because it masterfully combines usability with performance, delivering a solution that can reliably satisfy the needs of beginners and pros alike.
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Two for one
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Visualization of the scanning process
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Mount results as a virtual disk
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File previews
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Raw photo support
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Phone support
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Linux and Apple file systems
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RAID
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Bootable disks
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Recovery over a network
2. R-Studio
Popular among professionals
3.08 • Empowering professionals; intimidating home users – R-Studio for Windows is a powerful data recovery software application, but regular home users may struggle to master it and put its capabilities to good use.
Windows macOS Linux
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover files smaller than 256 KB
$49.99...$899
Unlike most other hard disk recovery software listed in this article, R-Studio is geared toward professionals and experienced users who can take advantage of its advanced features.
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Supports all major operating systems
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Compatible with many file systems
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RAID reconstruction module
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Good performance of file system scanners
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Network recovery
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Limited preview feature
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Complicated
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Unintuitive scanning process
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Very complex scan results
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S.M.A.R.T
3. Recuva
Popular among Windows users
1.75 • Good for basic data recovery jobs – Despite its age and lack of development, Recuva is still worth taking a look at—if only because it recovers an unlimited amount of data for free.
Windows
Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations.
None
$0...$34.95
If there’s one free hard drive recovery software tool that most Windows users are familiar with, it’s Recuva. Even though it no longer receives updates, it still offers a decent enough performance to occupy the second-best spot in our ranking.
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Completely free
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Chances of recovery
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Two operating modes
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Secure file erase
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Multilingual capabilities
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No Enterprise license
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Scanning/creation of images
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Recovering structure and names
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Recovery odds accuracy
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Updating the list of drives
4. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
Decent recovery results
3.01 • Popular for its trial recovery capabilities – Easy to use and capable of delivering solid results, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is good at what it does.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 2 GB for free
$69.95...$499
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is an attractive hard drive recovery software application with a not-so-attractive subscription-based pricing model, which prevents us from placing it any higher.
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Scan results
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Scan speed
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Free recovery
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Support
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Labeled results
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Pop-up ads
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Inaccurate time estimations
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Limited preview capabilities
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Limited preview size
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Recovery speed
5. TestDisk
Open-source solution
0.69 • Ugly file system repairman – TestDisk offers an excellent value, but its real-world file recovery performance is limited.
Windows macOS Linux
Free All features are provided free of charge, and the software can be used, studied, and modified without restriction.
None
Free
TestDisk demonstrates the power of open-source software by providing a completely unlimited alternative to paid hard disk data recovery tools.
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Completely free
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Open source
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Portable
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Lightweight
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Supports raw and dismounted disks
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Slow speed of scanning and recovery
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Complicated command-line user interface
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Manual step-by-step scanning process
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Destructive recovery
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No technical support
6. MiniTool Power Data Recovery
2.15 • Does it have the power to recover your files? – MiniTool Power Data Recovery for Windows makes recovery easy for any user, but its price tag may not justify its abilities.
Windows macOS
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest
Recover up to 1 GB for free
$69...$499
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a popular HDD data recovery solution known for its ability to dramatically shorten the amount of time it takes to recover lost data by scanning only a specific folder.
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Interface
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Creating a bootable disk
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Recover during a scan
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Scanning speed
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Support for soft RAID
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No HDPI support
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Paid option to fix corrupted video files
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Settings are not saved
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All file types are not selected by default
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No resizing of the main screen
7. Lazesoft Data Recovery
Open-source solution
2.1 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows macOS
Freeware All features are provided free of charge without any limitations.
None
$17.95...$159.69
The world needs more hard drive recovery software applications that make it possible to recover an unlimited number of files for free, and Lazesoft Data Recovery is one such application.
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The free edition offers unlimited recovery
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Can create a bootable recovery USB drive
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Recovers damaged or deleted partitions
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Outdated user interface
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Average performance
8. DiskGenius
2.87 • More than just regular data recovery – DiskGenius is a feature-rich data recovery solution that equips its users with a highly technical toolset to tackle complex data recovery situations.
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Only small files can be copied
$69.9...$699.9
DiskGenius makes hard disk management easy because it integrates several useful sets of features into one convenient package. As such, you can use it to recover lost data, edit partitions, back up and restore important files, and more.
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Two recovery modes
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Disk cloning
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Zero fill erase utility
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Speed
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Configuration
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Scanning methods
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No convenience with previews
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No thumbnail preview window
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Outdated interface
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No real-time view
9. Active@ File Recovery
2.1 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Recover files smaller than 65KB
$29.95...$995
Are you looking for an efficient and easy-to-use software to recover data from hard drive? Then Active@ File Recovery deserves your attention.
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Efficient and easy to use
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Virtual RAID re-constructor
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Can reorganize and rename files in bulk
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Doesn’t recover many file formats
10. DiskDigger
2.1 • Suitable for basic data recovery tasks – We’re still testing this software. Wait until we’re done for our final verdict!
Windows macOS Linux
Freemium Some features are provided free of charge, but money is required to unlock the rest.
Ads during recovery
$0...$14.99
DiskDigger is a member of a growing family of data recovery tools for Windows, Android, Linux, and, to some extent, macOS. Although its performance isn’t the best, its low price more than makes up for it.
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Two modes of operation
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Presents files as thumbnail previews
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Able to scan virtual disk image files
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Low price
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Average performance
Honorable Mentions
With so many hard drive recovery applications to choose from, we couldn’t possibly list every single solution that deserves your attention, describing their pros, cons, and data recovery performance. What we can do instead, however, is include them here in no particular order as honorable mentions.
Trusted by over 5 million users, Wondershare Recoverit is one of the biggest names when it comes to hard drive recovery. The application offers an intuitive three-step process geared toward beginners. More advanced users may dislike the lack of advanced options and features.
If it wasn’t for its somewhat inconsistent data recovery results, Stellar Data Recovery would definitely be among the top 10 applications hard drive recovery applications featured in this article. Why? Because it can recover up to 1 GB of data for free, including custom file formats.
The less than 2 MB large installation file should be enough to tell you that Undelete 360 isn’t a feature-packed software application. In fact, it’s as basic as hard drive recovery software gets, but it’s also completely free and officially compatible with Windows 7 (and usable with Windows 8 and 10).
Compatible with Windows 7 and later, Data Rescue is a straightforward hard drive recovery tool with a useful Clone feature, which lets you duplicate a potentially failing drive onto a healthy drive to prevent data loss from occurring in the first place.
If you’re looking for extensive file format support, then you can’t go wrong with Wise Data Recovery since it supports over 1,000 document, video, audio, email, and other file formats.
Don’t let the fact that Puran File Recovery looks and feels like a homebrew project of an aspiring software developer discourage you from giving it a try. The application is completely free and reliably recovers basic file formats. Just keep in mind that it was last updated in 2016.
This hard drive recovery application seems to be a clone of Wondershare Recoverit, but it’s a well-made clone, so there’s no reason not to give it a try, especially if you can find it at a discounted price.
Clearly inspired (or perhaps even based on) by EaseUS Data Recovery, this all-in-one hard drive recovery tool can address all kinds of data loss scenarios, including the recovery of RAW and formatted external hard drives.
Comparison table
#The comparison table below provides an overview of all data recovery software applications that have made our list.
| Feature | Disk Drill | R-Studio | Recuva | EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard | PhotoRec | MiniTool Power Data Recovery | DiskGenius |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Score Free Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque. | 100% | 80% | 46% | 78% | 60% | 56% | 75% |
| Requirements | Windows 7-11 | Windows 2000-11 | Windows XP-10, 11 (unofficial support) | Windows 7-11 | Windows XP-10, 11 (unofficial support) | Windows 7-11 | Windows 7-11 |
| Clever in-depth scan | |||||||
| Quick scan | |||||||
| Distributed as | Freemium | Freemium | Freeware | Freemium | Free | Freemium | Freemium |
| Trial version available | |||||||
| Trial version limitations | Recover up to 500 MB for free | Recover files smaller than 256 KB | Freeware. No limits | Recover up to 2 GB for free | Freeware. No limits | Recover up to 1 GB for free | Only small files can be copied |
| Starting price | $89.00 / Perpetual | $49.99 / Perpetual | Free | $69.95 / 1 month | Free | $69.00 / 1 month | $69.90 / Lifetime |
| See Plans & Pricing | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details | Pricing details |
| Raw photo recovery | |||||||
| Video formats recovery | |||||||
| Document formats recovery | |||||||
| S.M.A.R.T. | |||||||
| Helpdesk support | |||||||
| Live chat | |||||||
| Phone support |
For Beginners: What Is Hard Drive Recovery Software?
Hard drive recovery software comes to the rescue whenever you lose important files from your hard drive. The best hard drive recovery applications can recover data even from a hard disk that has been accidentally formatted, improperly unmounted, badly partitioned, or otherwise damaged.
There are many hard drive recovery software applications that are easy enough to use even for complete beginners, and we’ve described several of them in this article. In most cases, all you need to do is select your hard drive, begin the recovery process, and then retrieve all lost files.
Key Points for Successful Hard Drive File Recovery
You can pick the best hard disk recovery software available but fail to recover your data unless you keep in mind the following key points for successful recovery:
- Stop using the hard drive: As soon as you realize that data loss has occurred, you should stop using the hard drive. When the Windows operating system deletes a file or folder, it does not physically remove it from your hard drive. It simply marks the space occupied by the item as available for future use by the system. Until the OS reuses this space, the deleted data can be restored with file recovery software.
- Pick a safe installation location: If the file deletion occurs on your main hard drive, you should download, install, and run hard disk recovery software on a USB drive to avoid overwriting the deleted data.
- Use a reliable recovery tool: You might only get one chance to recover your lost data. Don’t risk it with an inferior recovery application. Use a hard disk recovery tool with a proven track record of successful data recovery and many positive user reviews.
- Recover your data to a new location: Don’t try to recover your data to the same disk on which it was originally stored. Doing this runs the risk of overwriting or corrupting files as they are being recovered, making them permanently unrecoverable. If the data was stored on your main hard drive, consider using a removable USB drive to ensure a successful recovery.
- Backup your files: You should follow best practices and regularly create backups of your hard drive so that you can easily recover all lost files should you experience data loss. In addition to backing up individual files, you can create byte-level backups and use them to recover your entire operating system, along with all installed applications, in the event of a catastrophic hard drive crash.
In Which Cases Should I Use an External Hard Drive Recovery Tool?
External hard drive recovery tools can be used to recover data that has become inaccessible for the following reasons:
- Accidental deletion
- Formatting
- Hard drive or partition corruption
- Malware attack
- Software error
However, you may encounter situations where even the best hard drive recovery software is unable to retrieve your data.
For example, it’s not possible to recover deleted files that have already been overwritten by new data. That’s because overwritten files are no longer physically present on the hard drive, so there’s no way to retrieve them.
Hard drive recovery software also can’t overcome physical damage, such as a sudden head crash, water ingress, power surge, or destruction of platters/memory chips caused by the hard drive experiencing a falling over or being dropped.
To retrieve data from a physically damaged hard drive, you need to contact a professional data recovery center with specialized equipment and clean rooms. Here’s a quick rundown of what to do if you need the services of a professional data recovery center.
- Search Google for a reliable recovery center.
- Contact the recovery center for an initial consultation. You will be asked to explain the problem and receive an estimate of recovery costs.
- Ship your device to the recovery center. On receipt, technicians will examine the device and give you a firm recovery price. A reputable service will not charge you if they cannot successfully recover your data.
- Upon completion of the recovery, your data will be returned to you on a new storage device.
If you have lost valuable data and cannot restore it yourself, a data recovery center may be just what you need. It is a more expensive option than recovery software, so you will have to determine how much your data is worth to you. Using a service is probably your last resort for getting data back from a damaged drive.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best data recovery software applications for Windows are:
- Disk Drill
- Recuva
- R-Studio
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
- TestDisk
- DiskDigger
- Lazesoft Recovery Suite
- DiskGenius
- Active@ File Recovery
- MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Hard drives can fail for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common ones include exposure to excessive heat or moisture, electrical power surges, faulty firmware, and mechanical errors. A hard drive can also fail due to file system corruption, which can be caused by a malware or virus attack.
The cost of hard drive data recovery can range anywhere from $0 to hundreds and even thousands of dollars—it all depends on which approach you choose. Professional data recovery services are typically the most expensive option, while backups and free data recovery software don’t cost anything.
Data recovery software scans an entire storage device sector by sector, looking for deleted files that haven’t yet been overwritten by new data. It then presents the user with a list of all recoverable files, allowing them to specify what they want to recover.
The broken hard drive must be readable in order to recover its data. If it cannot be read, then you can’t use data recovery software to restore your lost data. In cases where you cannot achieve access to the drive, you may be forced to send it to a professional hardware recovery service.
You will know if your hard drive has crashed or is about to crash if:
- Your computer will not start.
- You are experiencing unusually long wait times when opening files.
- Files are missing or corrupt and unusable.
- Strange sounds are emanating from your hard drive.
That depends entirely on how the hard drive failed. Hard disk data recovery software can recover files from logically damaged hard drives, but it can’t help you with the recovery of physically damaged hard drives, such as those that have experienced a close encounter with water, extreme temperatures, or concrete floor.
Absolutely! Hard drive recovery software and recover data from hard disks and solid-state drives that have suffered logical damage, such as unintentional file deletion, unintentional formatting, corruption, or malware infection, just to give some examples.
With a free HDD recovery tool! Such tools are readily available from several different software developers, and some are even open-source. While not always as feature-packed and capable as their paid counterparts, they are perfectly adequate for recovering commonly used image, audio, video, and document file formats.
Believe it or not, but professionals often use the same software to recover data from hard drives as home users. Sure, they gravitate toward more advanced applications and don’t hesitate to spend money on an enterprise license to unlock all features and get access to around-the-clock customer support, but that’s usually where the differences end.
Performing HDD data recovery on a system drive that refuses to boot is easy—it just involves one extra step: you need to disconnect the hard drive and connect it to a computer that boots properly and is capable of running external hard disk recovery software.
David Morelo is a professional content writer with a specialization in data recovery. He spends his days helping users from around the world recover from data loss and address the numerous issues associated with it.
When not writing about data recovery techniques and solutions, he enjoys tinkering with new technology, working on personal projects, exploring the world on his bike, and, above all else, spending time with his family.
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