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No question with TestDisk as an excellent open source/free recovery option.

It was the only thing I found (freeware or pay) that relatively easily restored a couple of NTFS logical partitions--and all data--after they were destroyed by an older version (8.0) of Diskeeper's "boot optimization" defragging. The last time I used Diskeeper or recommended it. I continue to use and recommend TestDisk. The author of TestDisk was also responsive to emails when I encountered a unique issue with the drives I ended up needing help with.

Note that TestDisk is only for recovering lost partitions and making non-bootable partitions bootable again. For those functions, there is no better program out there.

Its sister program included in its download--PhotoRec--can do file recovery. Its designed mainly for recovery of photos off all media, but it supports many different file formats. So the TestDisk/PhotoRec package may be all you need.

Other freeware/non-open source file recovery alternatives that are reliable and work well:

--PC INSPECTOR File Recovery. 100% free & full featured, many options. Been using it for years.

--Recuva. 100% free, by Piriform, the maker of the very popular CCleaner/Crap Cleaner system cleaner.

Somewhat less elegant than the above one. But the only freeware option I've studied that can do a "deep scan" of your drives for lost files. Which can take hours, but may turn up more missing data than the other non-PhotoRec options here.

--EASEUS Deleted File Recovery. A more limited version of their $70 "EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard", but very well designed for basic file recovery.

There are other freeware file recovery options I've studied, but they are all more limited than the above. Would recommend TestDisk (for partitions) and PhotoRec (for files) first, then the other three (for files) in the order given.

In all honesty, shelling out for a payware solution is very unlikely to "find" more deleted files on a NTFS partition than the above freeware solutions, unless you have special needs they don't cover. Which is rare. And again, there is nothing better than TestDisk--free or payware--for recovering partitions.

Hello,

Here is a list of data recovery programs I have put together. Some of them may be a little old, for floppies or optical media only, but should still be useful. Unless otherwise noted, they are all for Microsoft Windows.

A-FF Labs - NTFS Undelete and Partition Find and Mount
Access Data - FTK Imager
Acronis - RecoveryExpert
Advanced NTFS Recovery - NTFS Recovery (may handle FAT32 as well)
bitMART - Restorer Ultimate
Brant, Dmitry - DiskDigger
BriggSoft - Directory Snoop
CGSecurity - TeskDisk and PhotoRec
Convar - PC Inspector File Recovery
Digital Assembly - Adroit Photo Recovery (pictures only)
DiskInternals - NTFS Recovery
DIY Data Recovery - iRecover
DTI Data - Recover It All
DataRescue.Com - PhotoRescue (intended for flash RAM cards, which are typically formatted with FAT, may work with other devices as well)
EASEUS - Data Recovery & Security Suite
Fsys Software - DFSee
Gibson Research Corp. - Spinrite
Gillware - GillWare File Viewer
Higher Ground Software - Hard Drive Mechanic Gold
Kato, Brian - Restoration (also here)
LC Technology -
[Continued in next message, as for some reason, Slashdot would not let me post in its entirety (too many URLs?). AG]

The Auslogics free trial works for 30 days (uncrippled) if you can find it. I had this, but didn't use it.
The Data Doctor NTFS can be found as a demo only and I think is crippled. http://www.datadoctor.in/data-recovery-software/ntfs-data-recovery-software.html
I'm recommending Data Doctor as I've recovered important info of a few crashed drives. Worth the money. You could try your luck and torrent for it.
There are also a few via google: http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1 and maybe http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec - These are free.
Generally if the drive spins up, you've got a chance to recover files. Just make sure you can access the drive off another computer, and have enough space to recover to.
Also check some computer mags at newsagents. Many have free utilities included on disk that could be valuable.

(FYI, I run windows)

normally, I use "restoration"; it's a great application to recover deleted files. It supports all MS operating systems and all MS filesystems, it's small, free and required no installation so you can run it from a floppy, which is nice. I never had any problems with it on various HDDs, USBs, SD cards and XD cards - until:
My USB thumbdrive generated the following error in windows "The drive is not formatted" - oh bugger. But after trying many different applications (and buggering the drive further in the process - it ended up not even recognising that there wa drive there at all), I found PC Inspector File Recovery, which did manage to recover all my files. I still stick with Restoration for most of my needs - it's a cleaner looking app, but if/when it fails, I look to PCiFR.
The reason I don't use PCiFR all the time? As I said, I don't like the interface, you have to install it (and if you install something on the drive that you need to recover data from, you run the risk of overwriting the data) and Restoration is small. They're both free.

Restoration: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html
PCiFR: http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome .htm

I couldn't find active links for one or two of them myself, but here's an updated list -- in some cases these aren't the original sites, which have disappeared, so obviously it's worth being extra careful with antivirus software... apologies for the mess of links; the filter doesn't like short lines...

1by1 (play MP3s), AriskKey (recover passwords), AutoRuns (enumerate startup tasks), BurnCDCC (burn ISO images), CD (basic CD player), CDex (rip CDs + convert MP3/WAV), Copier [0X Copy Machine] (scan + print), CWShredder (clean spyware), DComBob (tame DCOM), DirLister (make quick file lists), Discover (force windows onscreen), DupeLocater (find and clean), FileRecovery [PC Inspector] (undelete), Folder2ISO (use with BurnCDCC), FoxitReader (read PDFs), GUIPDFTK (split/join PDFs), HijackThis (find spyware), HJSplit (split/join files), Identify_Boards (identify hardware), KatMouse installer (due to MS drivers), LCISOCreator (make ISO image from CD), Leaktest (test firewall), Microsoft keygen (people lose things), MultiRes (change res + force refresh), Multi Timer (stopwatch), NoteTab Light (text editor), NTest (test monitor setup), OnTop (pin windows to foreground), Process Explorer (task manager), ProduKey (recover passwords), Registry Commander (virus cleanup), ResHacker (examine executables), Rootkit Revealer (just in case) ShootTheMessenger (turn service off), Shred by AnalogX (simple filer shredder), TedNPad (unicode text editor), TFT (dead pixel locator), UNPnP (tame SSDP), UPX (compress executables), UnitConverter (what it says), utorrent (basic torrent app), VCdControlTool (mount ISO images),

I had to do this recently and found a not-overpriced utility: PC Inspector File Recovery. It's free (beer) and seemed to do a pretty good job. (Yes, it did slow down the system to a crawl.)

No, I'm not affiliated, yadda, yadda.

As a public service, links to three excellent, free, software based HDD wiping utilities. The first is even open source ...

Darik's Boot and Nuke
Active Kill Disk
PC Inspector

There should never be an excuse for selling or transfering ownership of a hard drive with pre-existing data when there are fast, free, and convienient utilities that can effectively remove all data without damaging HDD functionality. Physical destruction is of course, the most secure method of permanently wiping data, but for most folks good software based data destruction should be more than sufficient.

Obligatory disclaimer: I am in no way associated with any of the above products except as a satisfied user.

• A Win98 Boot Disk with
• CD of Windows 98SE
• Burned CD with Win98SE service packs/patches
• AVG Free Anti Virus (Free - as good as Norton IMHO)
• Winrar (Shareware - handles most archive formats)
• Ranish Partition Manager (Free - runs from bootable floppy)
• Pc Inspector File Recovery software (Free)
• Spybot search & destroy (Free - removes spy ware / Trojans ,ect)
• SpywareBlaster (Free - prevents most spyware, trojan, and "browser help objects(I.E. Gator and Lop.com) from ever being installed in the first place)

PC Inspector File Recovery