Eight Free Data Recovery tools

TestDisk

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software. It is primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again, These symptoms could be caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy. Download

Redo Backup and Recovery

An easy rescue system with GUI tools for full system backup, bare metal recovery, partition editing, recovering deleted files, data protection, web browsing, and more. Uses partclone (like Clonezilla) with a UI like Ghost or Acronis. Download

FreeRecover

FreeRecover is a free file recovery program for NTFS drives. It allows you to search and preview deleted files to find lost data. It also estimates the integrity of the deleted files, as well as retrieve their original file paths. Download

Parted Magic

The Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs. Download

Recuva

Accidentally deleted an important file? Lost something important when your computer crashed? Recuva recovers files deleted from your Windows computer, Recycle Bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player. Download

Undelete Plus

Undelete Plus used to be commercial software but has gone on a lengthy "limited time offer" freeware run. This file recovery app works on all versions of Windows and incarnations of the FAT and NTFS file systems. Like Recuva, Undelete Plus assigns a recovery probability to files it finds based on how damaged the file is. You can sort files by type, set filters based on time and size to avoid sifting through every deleted file on your disk, and keep folder structures intact when you perform your recovery. Download

Restoration

Restoration is a tiny, no-frills, portable recovery tool. You can use it in all versions of Windows. It lacks some of the advanced functionality of other nominees but does have basic file-name search and the ability to sort by file parameters such as size and filename. Download

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition

It recovers deleted files, even if you've emptied the Recycling Bin or deleted them directly (and provided they haven't been securely deleted with multiple passes). It can recover data from your hard drive, USB drives, memory cards, and other storage devices. It's compatible with dynamic disks and all Windows file systems, from FAT to NTFS and EXT, and can skip bad sectors automatically for quicker scanning. Easeus Data Recovery Wizard is fully functional freeware with 1GB recovery limit that serves as a trial for a paid upgrade. The latest version of Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition sports an improved user interface and Windows 8 compatibility. Download

Trinity Rescue Kit

TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues. The latest version 3.4 has an easy to use scrollable text menu that allows anyone who masters a keyboard and some English to perform maintenance and repair on a computer, ranging from password resetting over disk cleanup to virus scanning. Download