How to choose the best data recovery software?

When you delete a file, it is not yet permanently deleted from your storage media. Windows simply hides the files, and space currently occupied by the deleted file can be overwritten.

If you perform actions quickly, it is perfectly possible to recover the deleted files intact. The data recovery software is designed to scan the entire storage media for recently deleted files.

The software should also be able to recover corrupted data files, inaccessible storage media, and lost partitions.

It must support any storage media, including hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, SD cards, and optical discs.

Accidental data loss could occur due to inadvertent deletion, inadvertent formatting, virus infection, software corruption, power outages, hacking attacks, and logical corruption.

If you plan to use data recovery software, here are important features to have:

Lost Data Recovery: When users press Shift + Delete in Windows, the files will be deleted directly and will not be moved to the Recycle Bin. Also, when you empty the Recycle Bin, the deleted files cannot be recovered using normal methods. Recovery of these lost files is the basic feature of any data recovery software.

Recover formatted drive: You can format the drive intentionally or accidentally. When you format a drive it will be cleaned and the files it contains will be lost. The ability to recover the formatted drive is another basic feature that you should get. The software must support hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards.

Recover Portable Storage – It’s quite annoying if your external hard drives become inaccessible, corrupted, or damaged. With a good data recovery system, there is a good chance that it will recover files from inaccessible external hard drives, SD cards, and digital cameras.

Partition recovery: Partitions can be damaged or accidentally deleted when managing drives. This will make the partitions and files on them no longer accessible. Data recovery software should make the partition accessible again without loss of data.

Data protection: A data recovery software should not only ensure effective data recovery, but also the protection of important files. You must have comprehensive features in place to prevent future data loss and ensure speedy recovery in the future. Recently recovered files can be saved in the cloud-based recovery vault, so they can be protected against data loss in the future.

Optical media recovery: Despite more preferences towards USB flash drives, many people still prefer optical discs for long-term data backup. However, poorly maintained optical discs could be scratched and corrupted. Data recovery software must be able to perform recovery of CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray discs with damaged areas or bad sectors.

Robust file compatibility – Data recovery software must support any file, regardless of extension. This allows you to recover any type of file you have on the device.

User-friendly interface: The interface of the data recovery software must be very intuitive. Users should be able to use the software immediately with an acceptable learning curve. Some data recovery programs have a wizard function to guide people if it is their first time using the tool. Some recovery programs have complex customization settings, but the basic interface must be easy to understand. If users want to quickly recover some lost files, they should be able to do it with a few clicks.

Good performance: It should take only a few seconds to scan and recover lost files on a USB flash drive when using data recovery software. Scanning an SSD should be relatively quick, but it can take a long time with a large mechanical hard drive. Regardless of storage media, scanning and recovering lost files shouldn’t take long.

Emergency data recovery: For businesses, data loss can be a catastrophic disaster that paralyzes operations. An emergency data recovery system is needed to quickly recover lost files intact, so businesses can resume operations immediately. Serious data loss could be caused by boot failure, unexpected system crash, virus attack, and hacking.

Pause and resume: Large drives will take longer to scan and recover. Data recovery software should include the ability to pause, resume, and schedule activity. This will make the data recovery session more flexible and customizable.

Advanced Scanning Algorithm – For quick recovery of some deleted files, the software must have a quick scan function. If there are many files that need to be recovered, the Deep Scan function should effectively search every byte of the drive to get buried files. The Deep Scan feature should be able to dive deep into the media to retrieve the missing files, even though no partition is found. It could reconstruct lost files from scattered pieces on a hard drive with a high degree of fragmentation. It would be a condition that would otherwise be considered impossible. You can recover files like work documents, music, images, and videos that were deleted a while ago. It can take a long time to scan on a large, slow hard drive. It should be possible to scan files based on the file type to significantly speed up the process.

Recover during scan: To speed up the process, files discovered during the scan can be recovered immediately. This should significantly save time.

Repairing damaged files: The recovered files may be damaged or corrupted. If the integrity of the recovered files is ruined, the data recovery software should be able to perform the repair operations. Damaged JPG, MP4, DOC, and other common file types can be easily repaired.

Recover RAID Data Loss – RAID-based systems are quite common and a good data recovery system should ensure effective recovery of lost files from any RAID storage. The key skill is recognizing RAID metadata and modifying RAID settings if necessary. These utilities must be cross-platform with support for various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Recover NAS data loss – Data loss on a NAS (network-attached storage) may be due to improper storage configuration, problems with firmware updates, and accidental file deletion. NAS utilization is increasing in small businesses and large corporations. Highly effective tools are needed to restore lost files from such devices. The tool must compensate for the lack of technical skills among users. NAS models may have unique design quirks that must be supported by data recovery software.

In my opinion, EaseUS data recovery software offers comprehensive functions to recover deleted files on your system, portable storage, and network. You can try it with the free version.