I'm looking for free software that I can run from a USB drive to recover files from some old hard drives. It's a bit frustrating to find recovery programs that claim to be free but end up asking for money. I really want to retrieve files from these old drives, so any suggestions would be awesome!
5 Answers
Have you thought about just connecting the old drive to another computer directly? If the data isn't deleted, that might be the easiest route without needing special software.
Yeah, I've been doing that with my old drives too. Just mount them and you’re good to go, no fancy software required.
You might want to download Hiren's Boot CD. It has various drive recovery tools included that could really help you out. It's such a handy utility!
I recommend trying Recuva; it's an app I've used in the past and it worked pretty well. It's been a while since I tried it though, so I can't guarantee it'll work perfectly now. Still, worth a shot!
Totally agree! Recuva is a classic. It's saved my important files more than once!
There's also this open-source tool called PhotoRec. It can recover files but it may give them random names instead of the originals, so keep that in mind if you go that route.
TestDisk is another solid option for recovering lost files. It's open source and many folks have had success with it.
That's exactly what I was thinking! It’s often just a matter of plugging it in and accessing the files.