Data recovery is a process through which you can restore and recuperate important information that either you have mistakenly deleted or you removed from your storage intentionally, only after to find out that it was in fact something you still needed. Also, data can get wiped off in case you become a victim of a malicious attack such as a virus or malware.
But wait! Did you know that, in fact, when files get deleted that information actually still exists on your hard drive or USB drive until there is something else to replace it? In other words, when you delete a file in Windows, the file information still exists on your computer until overwritten by other data or completely shredded. What does it mean? It means that at this stage you still have the possibility to recover that “lost” data. The process, however, is not straightforward and you cannot do it manually. For such a purpose you need specialized software to accomplish this task. This type of software are generically called “data recovery software”.
In this article, we are going to discuss one such software that you can use for data recovery in Windows. It’s called “Stellar Free Data Recovery Software”.
Overview
The software allows recovery of up to 1GB lost data and offers a variety of options for recovery such as the recovery of deleted documents, folders, email data files, media files, etc. Also, it can recover data from Windows PC, laptops, memory cards, CDs, DVDs, USB stick drives, etc. Of particular importance is the possibility to recover corrupt files or files you lost after you formatted the storage. Such a feature is rarely seen in other data recovery software!
Stellar Data Recovery has two scan modes – the quick scan and the deep scan. Both modes work pretty much the same, with the main difference that the quick mode does a rapid scan of the drive you select and it is less meticulous. On the other hand, the deep scan is more useful when you want to recover corrupt files. It analyses file signatures and it’s also able to retrieve raw information.
The software installation is straightforward and it does not require special skills.
Interface
After you have installed the software and run it for the first time, you are shown the recovery options as in the screen below:
From here you can select what you want to recover. The options are: All data, Office documents, Folders, Emails, Photos, Audio, Videos. Everything is simple and clear for a quick operation even by the most inexperienced users.
After you have selected what you need to be restored, click Next. In the next window, you can select the partition on which you want to do the scan and the type of scan – quick or deep. For the purpose of this review, we selected the Drive D: and did a quick scan.
The results appear in the next window and from there you can select the files you want to restore. If you didn’t find the data you needed, you can go back and do a deep scan which will also analyse the file signatures and corrupt documents.
Now hit Recover and you will be asked to browse for the location where the saved data will be stored. You can select whatever you want, locations such as My Documents or Desktop, for quick and easy access.
One important feature of the software is the preview option. It means that you can have a look at what you will recover – images, PDF files, DOC, PPT, and also audio files. This feature makes things much easier when it comes to making your choice on what you want to recover or not.
Licensing
For the purpose of this review, we used the free option which allows the recovery of max 1GB of data. However, there are 3 licensing options with different features you might need.
Conclusion
All in all, after using the software and putting it at work, we can say that it does a great job. The scan speed was very good (it took some 5 seconds for us to check the entire drive D). The effectiveness of the software highly depends on when you use it. The sooner you use it, the higher the effectiveness.
