Free File Recovery Guide
To successfully undelete files, users should immediately install a file recovery utility. It is not recommended to use the computer a lot in terms of file management since the hard drive might be permanently damaging and overwriting the files that are supposed to be saved. Files which were emptied from the Recycle Bin recently have an almost 100% success ratio of recovery and full restoration.
Free file recovery software is capable of doing this quite quickly and effectively. Users should try a couple of different solutions at the same time. One tool might be able to save files that the other cannot.
Dedicated professional file recovery applications are most certainly the best thing that a seriously affected user should consider to acquire. Damage from file loss can cost companies as well as individuals a lot of money and many sleepless nights.
In case of an extreme emergency and potential monetary loss, calling in the professionals would be the best thing to do. Companies that specialize in data loss emergencies are equipped with the latest cutting edge recovery tools. They will follow the user's instructions and use the best possible technology that money can buy to recover and restore important files.
Backup - First Line of Defense
Backing up valuable data can be done on complete auto-pilot. Backed up files should be automatically placed onto removable storage devices such as flash memories, external USB hard drives or even mp3 players with higher capacity. Backup utilities are also able to immediately record them on CDs/DVDs after the backup sequence is completed.
Backups will then be used to fully restore original directory structures and files as well, minimizing the user's chance of being seriously damaged by a sudden file loss of any type.
Free backup tools are able to schedule and store backups wherever the user instructs them. The good ones are capable of performing incremental backups, which means that only the files that had changed since the last time, and new ones, are to be included in the backup package. Incremental backups save valuable space by not making exact copies of hundreds and even thousands of files.
Please see the backup utilities guide for more information on how to backup and manage important files automatically.
Recuva
Widely considered as the best free file recovery software on the market, Recuva is both easy to use and reliable. The application supports many advanced features like recovering files from USB hard drives, memory cards and even other devices which store files on themselves.
The software will run on most of the Windows versions, including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Both 32 and 64 bit versions are available.
The actual recovery process is very straightforward, fast and highly effective. Recuva is definitely a must have recovery application.
Official Website | Features | Download
Pandora Recovery
This tool has one of the cleanest and most user friendly interfaces. It is completely capable of scanning any drives in or out of the computer, with it's extraordinary recovery wizard. The application is fast and reliable but also completely free and effective.
Official Website | Features | Download
FreeUndelete
The last but not the least, FreeUndelete is as simple as it sounds. It undeletes deleted files for free. The tool can recover files from hard drives and any other storage devices that the user might have.
It is supported by all of the major versions of Windows. The installation is smooth and lightweight.
Official Website | Features | Download
It is recommended that you install and test all of these file recovery tools before deciding which one to keep and use. Even then, it doesn't really cost you anything to keep the installation files around in case that the main one fails to recover a specific file that you might want back.