Have You Ever Done Real Data Recovery.

[DNose]

When you hear or need Data Recovery. What utilitys are at the top of your list and why.

What's the consensus. I.E Spinrite, R-Studio, Stellar Phoenix,

Plus what utilitys are not worth your time and why.

Has anybody ever used or heard of Stellar Phoenix.

 

[Bob Anderson]

Spinrite 6.

It works in just about any circumstance, but a badly hosed drive can take days to fix, according to user reports.

I use it in maintenance mode about once a month. It takes about 6 hours to completely check, read, and re-write every bit on my 80 GB Seagate.

-Bob

 

[Pabster]

SpinRite is as good as it gets.

 

[DNose]

Some of you saw this one coming.

I should have said this at first but the reason for more then one choice is that I as most of you agree that spinrite is the best.

It is the most affective & detailed utility out there, I bet it is what is used in most clean rooms.

BUT sometimes its more then what you want. I.E: the time it takes, and the fact that it wont run in windows.

I have used R-studio and it works great running in windows. but I was asked to demonstrate data recovery in a student chapter NPA group that I am in.

So I am checking my facts so when I am asked what utilitys are recommended by IT Pros most often.

I also can send this page to show the group how I got my consensus using anandtech.

So please give me your second or third choice too if you have one.

Thanks anandtech members...

 

[barney5]

My choice is #1 Spinrite I wish I knew a second one that runs in the OS that works.

I have seen some that don't work. They say that data is not recoverable then you use something else and it is.

Good ???

 

[RebateMonger]

I'm curious where you guys are using SpinRite?

In the "good old days", SpinRite and other disk repair and data recovery programs were often useful. Nowadays, though, most of the drives I see are either OK or they are totally trashed and not even recognized by the BIOS. I don't see much in between, which is where, I imagine, SpinRite would come in handy.

 

[DNose]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
I'm curious where you guys are using SpinRite?

In the "good old days", SpinRite and other disk repair and data recovery programs were often useful. Nowadays, though, most of the drives I see are either OK or they are totally trashed and not even recognized by the BIOS. I don't see much in between, which is where, I imagine, SpinRite would come in handy.

Some examples

I see external drives that are unplugged while writing this causes the drive to be corrupt.

People that throw there recovery disk in thinking it is not going to wipeout there files.

I see the forgot admin password so they reinstall then they still have the password problem then I get to fix the password issue and I offer to recover their data.

I also see upgrade mistakes resulting in data loss.

This is done using R-studio I have not had to use Spinrite that often but I do if R-studio cannot recover the files. I would use the analogy that it is the difference between using dictionary attack or a brute force attack it?s all about the time.

 

[DNose]

I forgot thumb/flash drives this is a big issue & viruses or malicious code/scripts that erase data from drives and thumb/flash drives.

I do not know why the thumb drives go bad but people think I am the genus because I am the only tech that can recover them, or take the time to do so.

To me it is just another drive.

One was a virus that attacked all the drives it just happened to be plugged in at the time.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: DNose
Some examples...

Thanks!

 

[barney5]

131 views and almost no replies. Is this because nobody has the experience with recovery utilities or never needs them. Do you guy just build them and never need to support them.

Forgive me, but now I'm more curious in why there's no interest in this topic.

 

[DNose]

Originally posted by: barney5
Forgive me, but now I'm more curious in why there's no interest in this topic.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

I dont get It.

 

[stevem326]

My vote would be for SpinRite. No, I've never actually used it to recover data but I have a copy that I use for maintenance purposes on my hard drive. I've heard dozens of testimonials from people who have recovered data off of damaged hard drives and that's what convinces me.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
I'm curious where you guys are using SpinRite?

In the "good old days", SpinRite and other disk repair and data recovery programs were often useful. Nowadays, though, most of the drives I see are either OK or they are totally trashed and not even recognized by the BIOS. I don't see much in between, which is where, I imagine, SpinRite would come in handy.

Same here too....the ones I can't get anything off of won't spin up at all. No software utility is going to fix that.

 

[redbeard1]

We bought this at work we liked it so well.

Quetek

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Chadder007
Same here too....the ones I can't get anything off of won't spin up at all. No software utility is going to fix that.

As pointed out earlier, there ARE scenarios where data recovery software is useful. But I think what I'm seeing is that drives are, in general, MUCH more reliable than they were fifteen years ago. And so are the operating systems, which used to scramble data regularly. Nowadays, it seems like you can pull the plug on an XP box all day long and never scramble the system files.

I remember tha late eighties, when SprinRite was king. You'd get a Seagate ST251 with all kinds of hard errors and Spinrite would map them out and move the data. Unfortunately, you'd have to do it over and over again as the Seagate drive continued to develop NEW errors.

Modern IDE and SATA drives take care of this stuff automatically, unless it gets really bad.

In the past two years, I've only seen ONE hard drive that I was able to fix with a software repair. It was partially booting and then doing a STOP error. I ran CHKDSK /F on it, and two hours later, all was well. CHKDSK had mapped out four damaged areas on the hard drive. I told the client that this was likely a temporary fix, and the "corredt" thing to do was replace the hard drive. But the client decided to take his chances and see how the drive behaves. If we have another incident, we'll replace the drive and re-install Windows.

I have seen a couple of drives that would still respond well enough to at least run the manufacturer's drive diagnostics, which would then show a failing drive. Since my long-term clients don't keep anything of value on their desktop hard drives (the data is on fully-backed-up Servers), we normally just swap out the drive and re-install Windows and their applications. No need for any data recovery in this case.

 

[barney5]

I just used the stellar phoenix program it seems to be alot like R-Sudio but I can't see the lost or deleted files unless I search for them and it take awile.

 

[TeeJay1952]

I used Unerace.exe to fix a hard drive that had a corrupted fat. I googled, dloaded and ran it and all missing information was back after being MIA for a week.

 

[EBH]

i use restorer2000pro

its kind of pointless to try using any data recovery software if the HDD does not show up in the BIOS or has a hardware issue like the IDE controller card

 

[dogmir]

i had a bit of a dilema a few months back when a client lost 3 years worth of data that was a very big deal (of course he didnt know how to use a floppy or cdburner) but i exhausted close to 13 different utilities from around the net...they would see the docs but not be able to open them or if they would open they would be corrupt...after 48 straight hours i was pulling my hair out and i took the drive to a friends office who has access to ontrack easyrecovery. we were pleasantly surprised it pulled all the data uncourrupted and did it in literaly 5 min as were other programs would fail after hours of scanning....i became a fan really quick...lol

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: redbeard1
We bought this at work we liked it so well.

Quetek

File Scavenger 3 is what I use also, works in windows.

 

[zikronix]

erd commander (by winternals) has a nice utility set, spinrite is good, for consumer level stuff

I have used encase whic is good too.

 

[Suture]

I've also only ever used SpinRite, and it's 3 for 3 on data recovery.

 

[xtknight]

Testdisk (free/open-source) has always saved me. Simplistic and it does the job. You got a corrupted MFT? You can have it search out your backup MFT or rebuild it. Most of the other software doesn't even tell you what's happening.

 

[oynaz]

Microsoft Wordpad (Yes, the one that comes with Windows) is surprisingly good at repairing damaged Word documents. Word itself just gives up. I have not tried it with the XP version, as my parents have learned the hard way that floppy discs is not a safe place to safe your documents ;-)