recover

Freeware's cool, but some programs are worth paying for. Antivirus, graphics, and accounting tools justify their cost if they outperform their free competitors, but for our money, nothing beats top-quality backup software. And for our system, nothing provides the level of security, total restoration capability, and confidence like Acronis True Image Home Edition. Acronis automatically creates full, incremental, and custom backups; remote backups; and even optional Internet-based backups with file synchronization features. It also includes a variety of tools for cleaning disks and shredding files, creating bootable media and secure partitions, backing up settings, adding and cloning disks, sandboxing … Read more

Corrupt files can cause the database equivalent of a freeway pileup, leading to lost data and expensive, time-consuming recovery and rebuilding efforts. DataNumen's Advanced DBF Repair (ADR) can repair corrupt database (DBF) files in any version of dBASE, "xBASE," and compatible programs like Visual FoxPro. It can automatically split DBF files and tables when they reach predetermined limits, perform batch fixes, and fix DBF files stored on corrupted media, among other capabilities.

ADR opens as a tiny dialog packing all the essentials into a compact, efficient, tabbed layout with entry fields, selection boxes, and clearly labeled buttons … Read more

If you depend on Microsoft's Outlook, a good recovery tool can save the day if things go wrong. DataNumen's Advanced Outlook Repair 3.0 can recover email, folders, appointments, tasks, and anything else that holds your critical data in Outlook's Personal files (PST). AOR supports recovery of attachments, embedded objects, encrypted and password-protected PST files, and deleted Outlook items. It can handle immense files, which protects against obsolescence.

To use AOR, you must have Outlook installed as your default e-mail client. AOR's dialog-based interface is so intuitive that the fully indexed Help file seems almost superfluous. … Read more

There are lots of different data recovery programs out there. Arcksoft's RecoverPlus Photo Recovery 2.7.7 specializes in recovering digital photos and image files that have been lost or deleted on hard drives, removable media, and digital camera connections, even if the hosting media has been reformatted. It supports over 50 predefined file types, so it will recover data as well as pictures, and its Learning Engine makes it easy to add new file types to recover. It even displays high-resolution images as it works, so you don't waste your time recovering the wrong files.

The program'… Read more

FinalData Standard Demo by AOS Technologies America automatically recovers files that have been accidentally deleted from your Windows PC. It will also perform more complex operations, including recovering data from damaged Master Boot Record files, directories, file allocation tables, and hard-drive partitions. It works with all Windows files systems from FAT12 to NTFS as well as most portable media, including floppy, ZIP, and Jaz drives, so it supports legacy formats and hardware. It has some nice extras, too, such as the ability to place files in password-protected folders to prevent them from being accidentally deleted or deliberately tampered with.

FinalData … Read more

Over the weekend, I accidentally deleted all of my MP3s. Using SHIFT+Del, I wiped them from my hard drive without stopping at Go or the Recycle Bin. After running to go get the dunce cap, my initial reaction was to pull out the iPod and copy them back over. In some ways it would be the easiest solution, but it wasn't the most elegant. Wouldn't it be easier if I could just restore all those files to their original locations?

Recuva, from the makers of CCleaner, scans your drive for files you've deleted or damaged and … Read more

DiskDigger is a compact, self-contained utility that can recover lost, damaged, and deleted files from any media your PC can read, including hard, floppy, and optical disks, flash drives, and memory cards. It bypasses the Windows file system drivers, with built-in support for all file systems, so it can scan most media directly. It scans disks deeply, including reformatted, badly formatted, and wiped disks. It even handles disks with bad sectors and other damage, though it's not a repair utility, it's just an excellent file-recovery tool that happens to be free.

The entire application resides in just one … Read more

Hermetic Systems' Data Destroyer is a disk-wiping utility that can render data unrecoverable by overwriting it multiple times. It will scrub your hard disks, floppies, and ZIP disks clean. It will delete individual files, whole directories, or entire disks full of data. You can select the type and number of purges, or overwrites. Data Destroyer will even estimate how long it will take to perform the selected number of purges. It meets stringent U.S. Department of Defense standards for data disk sanitization, too. If it's good enough for the Pentagon, it'll probably meet your needs, too.

Data … Read more

A video posted recently on YouTube demonstrates, on an iPod Touch, a potential security risk for users of iPhone OS 3.0. The bug allows e-mails that have already deleted to be viewed by searching for the title of the deleted message.

The results of the search display two copies of the message. Selecting either one of these the first time will cause Mail to crash. The second time you select the messages, the iPhone may display the original message or you may get a warning that states: "Message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted.&… Read more