Did somebody say free data recovery?

Free data recovery gets a lot of hype, but does it get results? Here’s my take from years of recovering data.

While free sounds great, in the real world, the term is mainly used as a sales pitch to something bigger and better that costs money. In reality, the extent of something being free that is even worth trying is a file undelete utility. There is the exceptional program that can recover the odd file or two, but most of the time, they’re not worth the time invested or the effort it takes to try them.

Let’s give it a try anyway

Have you just deleted a file? If so, before you go off searching and downloading a utility, have you tried the obvious free methods? You can recover deleted files out of the trash can that sits on the desktop. If you click it, all the files that have been thrown away should still be there – that’s if you haven’t emptied the recycle bin.

Have you tried using the free file search function? If not, give it a go. Here’s how: click the Start Menu on the Taskbar and you can find the word Search on the right side. The window will have a question asking you what to search for within all your folders. Just type in what you want, and the program will do the rest. MAC computers let’s you do the same function but the process is a little different.

Using Freeware

The best circumstance to try free data recovery software is in cases where files have been deleted, and when the backups didn’t exist or they have failed. Why? Because they probably haven’t been permanently erased from your computer yet; that’s if you have not been using your computer for a long time since the deletion. Even then you may get lucky, so move forward with the recovery.

For the technically-minded, you can no longer access deleted information from within its original folder because the file chain has been altered. When this happens, the deleted file is pronounced as garbage and is awaiting the dumpster. If you are quick enough to find a good tool, you may be able to recover the deleted data before it hits the incinerator – this is when data is written over the existing data.

When free data recovery fails

There is still hope in recovering your files if they are important enough to wager money for them. At this point free is out the window, and you are facing a pay or you don’t play situation. Don’t worry though, costs can start as low as thirty-dollars for a strong undelete tool, and average out to be about ninety dollars for the best file recovery downloads. That’s probably inexpensive relative to the time it will take you to do the work all over again. And don’t forget, they are try before you buy so the files are guaranteed before paying.

When you absolutely, positively must recover your files

Free data recovery may work in certain cases, but when you do not have time to play around, or if you cannot risk loosing the files, use a tried and tested utility or a data recovery service. To distinguish one company from another, a good place to start is by looking at ones that specialize in computer crime investigations and recovering data. And if you happen to find a free data recovery utility on the site, why not start with it.