I've got some old hard drives and I'm looking for a way to recover files from them. Ideally, I want free software that I can run from a USB drive, preferably bootable. It seems like so many recovery programs claim to be free but then have hidden costs. Any suggestions would really help—thanks!
5 Answers
I've had success with a program called PhotoRec. It’s open-source and can recover files, but just a heads up, it assigns random names to your files when it does.
Don't forget about TestDisk! It's free and especially good for recovering lost partitions or making non-booting disks bootable again.
You should definitely check out Hiren's Boot CD. It has a suite of recovery tools built-in, making it super handy for these situations!
Just curious—why not try plugging the old drive into another computer? You might be able to copy the files directly, as long as they aren't deleted!
Yeah, I usually mount my old drives like that, just to grab what I need. Most times you don’t even need special software!
Have you tried Recuva? I used it a while back and it worked pretty well for recovering files. Just a heads up, it's older software, but it still gets the job done!
Totally seconding Recuva! It's saved my files multiple times in the past and still holds up.
That's a great idea! I’ll try that and see if I can access them directly.