If you accidentally delete files from your hard disk or memory card, then there is still hope to recover the deleted files back. When a file is deleted in Windows, it just removes the entry of that file from the filesystem but without removing the content of that file. This makes it possible for you to recover the deleted files using appropriate tools. This is security concern as anybody who has access to your hard disk can attempt to recover the files you deleted. But it is also a good thing because if you accidentally deleted an important file, then you can recover it back. 7-Data Recovery Suite is a collection of tools that can help you recover your deleted files.
7-Data Recovery Suite has four different tools that specialize in different areas of file recovery:
- Deleted Recovery: As the name suggests, this tool can help you recover deleted files. You can use it to recover the files you have lost when you accidentally emptied the recycle bin or used the Shift + Del hotkey to delete a file without putting it in the recycle bin.
- Complete Recovery: This tool can help you recover files from problematic partitions. It can be used to recover files on the partitions which are not recognized by Windows, RAW disk partitions, damaged or formatted partitions etc.
- Lost Partition Recovery: If you have accidentally re-partitioned your hard disk or your partition table has become corrupt, then this tool can help you recover data from these hard drives.
- Digital Media Recovery: You can use this tool to recover files, photos, videos, music etc., from the memory cards, USB keys etc. Usually these memory cards (like SD cards or microSD cards) are used in digital cameras, MP3 players and mobile phones.
You can download 7-Data Recovery Suite from its web site. It supports all versions of Windows starting from Windows 2000 to Windows 8. The download is available in form of a setup installer for both the 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. After the installation, you can run it from its desktop shortcut. The 7-Data Recovery Suite window shows four aforementioned tools that you can choose from, depending on your requirements.
No matter which tool you select, the process is pretty much the same. First you select the recovery tool. You can decide about which tool to select by hovering your mouse cursor over them and reading the information displayed. Then select the target disk drive (from which you want to recover deleted files). I selected the Digital Media Recovery tool to test it on one of the USB keys that I have. You can also adjust the Advanced Settings for that drive which control how and which type of files it is going to look for.
The scan is very thorough and takes many minutes (or hours if the disk size is very large) to complete. It lists the found deleted files in a list showing their names, sizes, file types, modification time and full path. If you want to see a preview of media files (like JPEG images), then you can toggle the thumbnail mode on – this will show you the preview of the deleted image files without actually first recovering them. There are options to search files files, find files, selecting or deselcting all the files. If you want to recover a file, you have to select it by checking the checkbox in front of its filename and then click on the Save button as shown.
It would ask you to choose a folder to save the recovered files. You should not choose the same disk drive to save the file as the disk drive from which you are trying to recover them. After saving the recovered files, it would give an option to open the destination folder so you can have a look at them. I tried to recover a PDF document file that I had deleted. The file recovery was extremely fast and 100% of the data was recovered.
7-Data Recovery Suite software is a freeware application to help you recover your deleted files. The free version can be used to recover a total of 1 gigabytes of data after which it stops working. But if you want to recover an unlimited amount of data from your devices then you can purchase their license which is available for 7 days, 1 year or lifetime use.
You can download 7-Data Recovery Suite from http://7datarecovery.com/. You can connect with 7-Data Recovery Suite on their facebook page at : https://www.facebook.com/7DataRecovery.