Used "get data back" or "zero assumption recovery"?

Monkey34

Monkey34

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 11, 2003
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I'm looking at these as something I might really need in the near future, and was hoping someone has used one or both, or has seen a review of them, so I can have an idea if either one works/how well they work/etc.
 
I'm assuming this is related to your other thread, sorry you haven't had any luck so far.

Try Recuva, it's free, and I've been playing around with it and it seems to work really well so far.... Worth a shot before spending any money, it can't hurt...

Oh, and it's made by the same people responsible for CCleaner....
 
Well I haven't seen your other thread but I have used GetDataBack.

Basically this virus I didn't know I had did something to my HDD that caused it not to load windows.

I got this program and it's really the only data recovery program I've used since it was my first time ever recovering data.

This program worked flawlessly, all I had to do was hook up the drive to another computer and the program scanned the drive, created a backup and let me go in and recover everything. It was brilliant :)

I would highly recommend this program for data recovery, I don't think it's free but it's well worth it :)
 
Doing some testing just now with that Restoration app - damned thing is old, from 2002, wow. :)

It does work as advertised, but it's not picking up a TON of stuff that Recuva does - and once you install Recuva all you have to do is copy that single .exe file to a USB stick or wherever to run it from that point on, too. Nice to have such capabilities from both of these free apps in a single portable .exe format.

Doesn't seem to offer information about the status of the possible recovery like Recuva does either, like Excellent (full recovery), Poor (modest chance of some), or just flat out Unrecoverable period. Only really big downside I can see (aside from the non-resizable window - man I hate that) is it's only capable of 1 file recovery at a time. I tried several ways to select more than one file at a time but it simply won't do it. Ugh... but yeah, it's free, I know. :)

Had success recovering a few items that I was pretty sure were gone gone gone, however. Two ISOs deleted a few weeks ago. After a scan on a secondary drive I have attached (secondary physical drive, 80GB), they showed up so I grabbed 'em then did a quick test install in a VM and they seem fine - Recuva doesn't even show them as being recoverable; they don't even appear on the list of files whatsoever, soooo...

Looks like I might be using both of these apps from now on, as well as my R-Studio client I've had for years too. You can never have too many decent and useful recovery apps. If one doesn't get it, maybe another will, and in this case one didn't and another did. :)

Thanks for the heads up on Restoration, l3ender.

ps
I went back and re-ran the scan on that same drive a second time and the files showed up for Recuva so I did another recovery copy, the files are bit-for-bit identical by an md5 comparison. Wonder why they didn't show up the first time yet they did for Restoration. Bleh... who knows... I got 'em back, that's what matters. Neat...
 
Thanks for the options....I now have a few things to try - although I WILL give it a try in the next couple of days to boot into, and recover my install. I would probably be able to save more if it will load...maybe install it over itself.
For those who dont know, here's: the other thread - http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1260444
 
Just so you know, Recuva and restoration might work for files deleted off of an ok drive, but wont scan a drive thats in a condition like mine is. The drive is currently installed as a slave right now, and disc management sees it.......the partition (just the first-main one) is the right size, it has been assigned a drive letter, but it doesnt see the type of file system.
I downloaded the trial of GetDataBack, and it sees all the parameters....file sys type, size, both partitions, its active, it even says its bootable, but that might be just the fact that its not a failing drive. I'm scanning it (gonna take another hour), and see what comes up. It doesnt let you copy the files without paying for a key though.
 
I've used GetDataBack. It worked as advertised. Got everything back just fine. It's unfortunate it's so pricey... like $80 if I remember right... but less than several similar apps.
 
Hmm. I tried a bunch of free programs, and most of them will not work on a disk that isn't "all there". It has to be fully recognized by windows.
I tried out Photorec, and It started to pull photos off the disk. Testdisk is supposed to rebuild the boot, and mbr, but I think I wont touch them until I recover my data first. Get Data Back will do file copies or a complete image of the disk (for $80). Guess I'm into this for about $200 - the program and a new drive (as I dont have one big enough to put all the files/image) onto.
 
Actually, it looks like I have another option. Get data back was allowing me to create a disk image (just not a compressed one). I think I might buy the new drive, and create the image on it. Then try to recover my XP install. If I screw it up more, or it doesn't work...........THEN I can pay for the program and save the files. I potentially could be out of this for just a drive (I was thinking of buying one right before all this anyway).
 
Update :
Zero Assumtion Recovery allows you to recover 4 folders of data a scan for free (although it reported that it can recover 67gigs of data when Get Data Back reported it could recover all 71 gigs - could be that some would be recovered corrupted though?). I guess all I have is time;) 1 hour scan, copy 4 folders ad-nauseum. Of course everything I want is scattered in different folders. I think seperate OS and data partitions are in order for the next time.
 
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