Recover Data from a Crashed HDD using Adriane Knoppix

You're probably wondering what's Knoppix Live Linux distribution doing in an article on data recovery? Well, we managed to recover data from a crashed hard drive that was simply not booting earlier, and thought it would be useful info for our readers. Here's what we did.

Recuva

Recuva is a free data recovery app that comes in both installable and portable versions. It can recover accidentally deleted files from hard drives, USB drives, memory cards, and even MP3 players, including the iPod. The wizard based user interface is very easy to use and all you have to do is feed the name of the file and the place from where it was deleted and you will have access to all the deleted files under the given type. It has advanced search options like deep scan, in case Recuva Wizard fails, which will then explore the entire drive to find the files.
Link: http://www.piriform.com/recuva

EaseUs Free Data Recovery Wizard

EaseUs Free data recovery wizard can recover data from formatted or deleted partitions with original file names and storage paths. Easus free tool can recover files emptied from Recycle Bin, or lost due to a software crash or formatted hard drive, virus attack, lost partition etc. It works with dynamic disk, RAID and EXT2/EXT3 file system, USB drive, SD card and memory cards. It is designed with a wizard mode which makes the data recovery process easy even for a beginner.
Link: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm


PC Inspector

PC Inspector is a free data recovery tool that can restore only video, audio and images based files and save recovered files on network drives, in case you want to. Pc Inspector recovers files with the original time and date stamp without a header entry. Its easy to use interface scans your drive and automatically make files that can be recovered available from a “Deleted” folder as in Windows Explorer. It supports data recovery from FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems and finds partitions automatically even if the boot sector has been erased or damaged.
Link: http://pcinspector.de/default.htm?language=1

PartedMagic

Parted Magic is a Live CD/USB Linux software created to partition hard drives and rescue drives from data lost due to partition errors. Hence the name Parted Magic. It is powered by GParted and Parted tools and works without requiring installation of the software or the new OS by booting from a CD or flash drive. Parted Magic supports reading and writing to a variety of modern file systems, including ext3, ext4, FAT, exFAT, and NTFS, and as such is able to access disk drives formatted and used with Windows and Linux OSes.
Link: http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

SystemRescue CD

SystemRescueCd is a free Linux based OS which does not need to be installed. Instead it boots up with a CD or a flash drive or from a network. It provides support to all important file systems (ext2/ext3/ext4, xfs, btrfs, ntfs, reiserfs, vfat), as well as network filesystems (samba and nfs). It also includes QtParted, a Partition Magic clone that makes editing partitons easy with its Qt graphical user interface. It can be used for Linux and windows based PC (desktops/laptops) as well as servers. It is meant to repair unbootable or damaged computer systems after a system crash and so despite being an OS, is not used for that.
Link: http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a file carver photo recovery software to recover lost files from digital camera based memory. It can also be used to recover MP3, and document formats such as Open Document, Microsoft Office, PDF and HTML, and archives including ZIP files from flash drives, hard disks and CD-ROMs. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, therefore it works with even the most damaged media file system. PhotoRec is a supplementary package to TestDisk, an open source tool for recovering lost partitions from wide-ranging file systems and making non-bootable disks bootable again.
Link: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec