Data Recovery: Freeware software

source: http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/datarecovery.shtml

• NTFS Undelete
  NTFS Undelete is a Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista program that allows you to locate and undelete files that you have accidentally deleted from an NTFS file system (which is the format of your hard disk for modern Windows systems).
  
  
• PCInspector File Recovery
  PCInspector File Recovery is able to find and unerase deleted partitions on your hard disk even if the boot sector or file allocation table (FAT) has been deleted or damaged. It can also recover files that have been deleted; the files are recovered with the original date and time stamps. You can also recover the unerased files to a network drive. It has specially written routines to recover deleted a variety of file formats including document files from popular programs, like Word's DOC and RTF files, Excel's XLS, database files (DBF), Adobe Reader's PDF files, as well as multimedia files like MP3, WAV, MID, AVI (video file), MOV (video file), picture files (BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, TIF), archive files (ZIP, ARJ, TAR, LZH), executable files (EXE), help files (HLP), web pages (HTML, HTM), etc, so that even if the headers of these files are missing, the program is able to reconstruct them. This is a Windows program.
  
  
• TestDisk and PhotoRec
  TestDisk is designed to recover lost partitions and make non-bootable disks bootable again. PhotoRec is a data recovery software that recovers lost files such as videos, documents and archives from your hard disks and CDROM, as well as pictures from your digital camera memory (the photo recovery function, as its name implies). PhotoRec ignores the file systems it works on, and is thus able to recover from a variety of file systems including NTFS, FAT, ext2/ext3 and HFS+. It specially recognizes certain file formats like ZIP, Office files, PDF, HTML, JPEG and other graphic file formats. Its photo recovery function is able to retrieve lost or deleted files from hard disks, CDROMs, Compact Flash memory (CF cards), Memory Sticks, SecureDigital cards (SD cards), SmartMedia, Microdrives, MMC, USB memory drives, etc. The program works under a variety of operating systems, including Windows 9x, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, DOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc.
  
  
• ISOBuster
  ISOBuster is a CD and DVD data recovery tool that allows you to recover from media failure by extracting your data / files / video / audio / photos / pictures / documents (etc) from a badly damaged or scratched CD or DVD. Unlike Windows, which gives up trying to read a scratched or damaged DVD/CD after a while, this optical media data recovery tool tries repeatedly to access the data. It is also able to access a variety of file systems and multiple sessions. Use of the basic features of this utility is free.
  
  
• Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery
  Recuva is a freeware Windows tool that you can use to restore files that you have deleted from your computer, or emptied from your Recycle Bin. It can also recover files deleted from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. The software works in Windows Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.
  
  
• DATA Unerase Personal Edition
  This unerase utility may be used to recover deleted files found on drives visible to Windows. It can recover files from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS hard disk, memory sticks, USB flash drives, memory cards, removal media, etc. It works under Windows ME, NT, 2000, XP and 2003. This program is for non-commercial use only. Note that it is NOT able to recover any type of graphic image or picture.
  
  
• SoftPerfect File Recovery
  SoftPerfect File Recovery can restore deleted files from NTFS, NTFS5, FAT32, FAT16 and FAT12 disks, floppy disks, USB flash drives, CF and SD cards and other storage media. It also supports compressed and encrypted volumes. No installation is required. The program works under Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP.
  
  
• Undelete Plus
  Undelete Plus allows you to retrieve accidentally deleted files from your hard disk (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5), network drive, and floppy disk. It is also able to perform a recovery of deleted images from your CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards. It runs under Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and 2003.
  
  
• FreeUndelete
  FreeUndelete recovers accidentally deleted files from your hard disk, whether your hard disk has a NTFS, FAT32 or FAT16 file system. This is a Windows program.
  
  
• Avira Unerase Personal
  Avira Unerase Personal recovers deleted files or data from your hard drive. It is for personal, non-commercial use only. This is a Windows program.
  
  
• RoadKil's Undelete and Unstoppable Copier
  RoadKil's Undelete is a Windows program that undeletes files from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. The Unstoppable Copier attempts to recover files from damaged disks (eg disks with bad sectors or scratches). It does this by copying available pieces of the file and assemble them.