The Best Pro Data Recovery Software - Review 2023

File recovery performance

Deleted partition

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Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 32 GB nway flash card, 32 GB FAT32 partition.

Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Note: Different programs have different options for performing a certain file recovery task. For each program, we initially used the option most suitable for this test. If it did not recover all the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	The flash card and a RAW partition of zero size were found. After Initial scan: All files and folders were found on the partition in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
R-Studio	6.0	Upon program startup, immediately the deleted FAT32 partition (DeletedPart1) was found: After Show Files: All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Disk: A FAT32 partition of the correct size was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
DMDE	6.0	The program found the deleted FAT32 partition. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost Files: The deleted FAT32 partition was found. All files and folders were found on the partition in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The deleted FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Summary: All but one program could successfully recover all files and folders. R-Studio, ReclaiMe file recovery Ultimate, DMDE, and WinHex were able to do this without long disk scan. Recovery Explorer Professional and Disk Genius required disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 64 GB Goldentec flash card, 64 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After initial scan: An exFAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names on this partition. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
R-Studio	6.0	Immediately an exFAT DeletedPart1 partition was found. After Show Files: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
WinHex	6.0	After opening the flash card: An exFAT partition of the correct size was found. It contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DMDE	6.0	Immediately an exFAT partition was found. After Open Volume: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost Files: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Recovery Explorer Professional	4.0	Initially, an Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: 3 similar ExFAT partitions were found. 2 of them contained files and folders in their original place with correct names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 flv and 16 mp3 files (17 files). Overall, most of files were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. 17 files were not recovered, either from the original folder structure or from raw files. Long disk scan was required.
Summary: All but 2 programs could successfully recover all files and the entire folder structure without a long disk scan. Only Recovery Explorer Professional and DiskGenius required a long disk scan. Recovery Explorer Professional could not recover 17 files.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Western Digital WD800AAJS, 32 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After Initial scan: The deleted exFAT partition was found without Deep Scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
R-Studio	6.0	The deleted exFAT partition was found as DeletePart1. After Show Files: All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Disk: The deleted exFAT partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DMDE	6.0	The program immediately found the deleted exFAT partition. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost Files: An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): 3 exFAT partitions were found. 2 of them contained all files and folders in their original places. On the other partition, those files and folders were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group10 ... 01/ $Folder0 ... 4 section. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Summary: All programs could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Recovery Explorer Professional and DiskGenius required long disk scan.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 Western Digital WD800AAJS, 20 GB NTFS partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After Initial scan: The previous NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
R-Studio	6.0	The previous NTFS partition (DeletedPart1) was immediately found After Show Files: All original files and folders were found in their original places with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Partition: The previous NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
DMDE	6.0	An NTFS partition was immediately found. After Open Volume: The found partition contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost File: The previous NTFS partition was found with all original files and folders. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan wasn’t required.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Only Recovery Explorer Professional and DiskGenius required a long disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 64 GB Transcend Memory Card, 64 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
R-Studio	6.0	Initially, an exFAT DeletedPart1 partition was found on the card. After Show Files: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
WinHex	6.0	Two FAT32 partitions of the correct size were found on the memory card. One of them contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	After Recover Lost Partition and disk scan: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost Files: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	Initially, an Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: Two similar ExFAT partitions were found. Both they contained files and folders in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	Immediately a partition marked as exFAT, NTFS, ReFS with a correct size was found in the unmounted basic (MBR) partitions section. After initial scan of this partition: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. A critical error occurred during file recovery.
Summary: All programs could successfully recover all files and the entire folder structure. Only Recovery Explorer Professional and DiskGenius required long disk scan. ReclaiMe crashed during data recovery, but was able to recover all files and folders.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
R-Studio	6.0	The previous exFAT partition was found as DeletePart1. After Show Files: All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Disk: The previous exFAT partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	After Recover Lost Partition and disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After Initial scan: The previous exFAT partition was found without Deep Scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost Files: An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Summary: All programs could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Recovery Explorer Professional and DiskGenius required long disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Kingston DataTraveler memory stick, 32 GB FAT32 partition.

Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
R-Studio	6.0	Upon program startup, immediately a FAT32 partition (DeletedPart1) was found: After Show Files: All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Disk: A FAT32 partition of the correct size was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	Initially, a FAT32 partition of zero size was found. After Search Lost Partition: A FAT32 partition of the correct size was found. After Partition Scan: All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost Files: All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	0.0	The stick and a RAW partition of zero size were found. After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: The program crashed and data recovery was impossible.
Summary: All but one program could successfully recover all files and folders. R-Studio, Stellar Windows Data Recovery, and WinHex were able to do this without long disk scan.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 20 GB NTFS partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After Initial scan: The previous NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
R-Studio	6.0	The previous NTFS partition (DeletedPart1) was found After Show Files: All original files and folders were found in their original places with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Partition: The previous NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was not required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	After Search Lost Partition: The previous NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long Deep Scan was not required.
DiskGenius	5.5	After Recover Lost File: The previous NTFS partition was found with all original files and folders. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Long disk scan was required.
Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Only Recovery Explorer Professional and DiskGenius required a long disk scan.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 20 GB NTFS partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure.

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Note: Different programs have different options for performing a certain file recovery task. For each program, we initially used the option most suitable for this test. If it did not recover all the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
WinHex	6.0	After Open Partition: The previous NTFS partition was found it contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	After Search Lost Partition: The previous NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After Initial scan: The previous NTFS partition was found it contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition was found without a disk scan. All files and folders with correct names were found in the $Root folder and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
R-Studio	6.0	After Show Files: The previous NTFS partition (DeletedPart1) was found with all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names without disk scan. Recovery Explorer RAID required disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 64 GB Transcend Memory Card, 64 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure.

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	mmediately a partition marked as exFAT, NTFS, ReFS with a correct size was found in the Unmounted basic (MBR) partitions section. After initial scan of this partition: All of folders and files were found and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
DMDE	6.0	Initially, an exFAT partition was found. After Open Volume: The exFAT partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
R-Studio	6.0	Initially, an exFAT DeletedPart1 partition was found on the card. After Show Files: All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
WinHex	6.0	Two exFAT partitions of the correct size were found on the memory card. One of them contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	After Search Lost Partition and disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Deep disk scan was not required.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	Initially, an Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: The exFAT partition was found with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Summary: All programs, except Recovery Explorer RAID, could recover all files successfully without disk scan. Recovery Explorer RAID required a disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Transcend Memory card, 32 GB FAT32 partition.

Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure.

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: Two FAT32 partitions were found without disk scan. One FAT32 partition contained all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
R-Studio	6.0	Upon program startup, immediately a FAT32 partition was found: After Show Files: Nothing was found After Partition Search: A FAT32 partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	Initially, a FAT32 partition was found. After Disk Scan: A FAT partition was found with all folders and files. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.5	After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: A FAT partition was found with all folders and files. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	Initially, a FAT32 partition was found. After Explore content of this partition: Noting was found. After Only index this file system (run quick scan): Noting was found. After Index this file system and then scan unused space: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and successfully recovered Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
WinHex	5.5	After Open Disk: A FAT32 partition was found. It contained only the root folder. After Scan For Lost Partitions: Another FAT32 partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Summary: All programs could recover all files successfully. R-Studio, DMDE, and Stellar Windows Data Recovery could recover all files and folders without disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure.

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
ReclaiMe File Recovery	6.0	After Initial scan: The previous exFAT partition was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Deep scan was not required.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous exFAT partition (with an incorrect size of 34.4 GB) was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
R-Studio	6.0	After Show Files: The previous exFAT partition was found as DeletePart1. All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
WinHex	6.0	After Open Disk: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Disk scan was not required.
Stellar Windows Data Recovery	6.0	After Search Lost Partition and disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. Deep scan was not required.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	After Scan for lost data: An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too.
Summary: All programs could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files and folders with correct names without disk scan. Recovery Explorer RAID required a disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Transcend Memory card, 32 GB FAT32 partition.

Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: Three FAT32 and one NTFS partitions were found without disk scan. One FAT32 partition contained all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor	6.0	After opening the disk: Two FAT32 and one NTFS partitions were found. The first FAT32 partition contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered.
WinHex	6.0	Two FAT32 partitions of the correct size were found on the memory card. One of them contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: Two FAT32 partitions were found. One partition contained all files and folders with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	Initially, an Unknown partition of the correct size was found. After Scan for lost data A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and successfully recovered
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	Initially, a FAT32 (CHS) partition of the correct size was found among Unmounted basic (MBR) partitions. After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan of the found partition: The root folder was found in Folder #0167 containing all folders and files, except files from the root folder. Those files were found directly in Folder #0167. All files were successfully recovered, with one thing: 6 mp3, 1 avi and 1 mp4 files, and two folders had truncated names with ~1 at their end. Overall, all files were successfully recovered, but the initial folder structure was recovered slightly incorrectly.
Summary: All programs could recover all files successfully. DMDE, GetDataBack, and WinHex could recover all files and folders without disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery recovered all files, but the initial folder structure was recovered slightly incorrectly.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous exFAT partition (with an incorrect file size 34.4 GB) was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor	6.0	After opening the disk: The previous exFAT partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
WinHex	5.5	After Tools/Scan For Lost Partitions…: The previous exFAT partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found as Recognized. All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	After Scan for lost data: An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	After Deep scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. All four folders from the root folder with incorrect names were found in the [Unclassified] folder. These four folders contained their respective sub-folders and files with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Files from the disk root folder were not found in these folders. They were found among raw files with incorrect names. They were successfully recovered.
Summary: All programs could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files. DMDE and GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor could recover the previous folder structure and all files without disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery could not recover names of the files and folders in the root folder.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 64 GB Transcend Memory Card, 64 GB exFAT partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The exFAT partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor	6.0	After opening the disk: Two exFAT32 partitions were found. The first FAT32 partition contained nothing, the second one contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered.
WinHex	6.0	Two FAT32 partitions of the correct size were found on the memory card. One of them contained all folders and files in their initial places. All were successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: An exFAT partition of the correct size was found. All files and folders were found in their original place with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	Initially, an Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: The exFAT partition was found with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	4.5	Immediately a partition marked as exFAT, NTFS, ReFS with a correct size was found in the Unmounted basic (MBR) partitions section. After initial scan of this partion: Nothing was found. After Deep scan of this partion: The previous exFAT partition was found. Some files with correct names were found in the Unclassified section in the /#0XXX folders. Some of them were successfully recovered. Many files were found in raw files with an incorrect name and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods. Partially recovered files: 1 mkv file.
Summary: All programs, except ReclaiMe File Recovery, could recover all files successfully. DMDE, GetDataBack, and WinHex could recover all files and folders without disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery recovered only some files, mostly as raw files.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 20 GB NTFS partition.

Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition was found without a disk scan. All files and folders with correct names were found in the $Root folder and successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.5	After Initial scan: Noting was found. After disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
WinHex	5.5	After Tools/Scan For Lost Partitions…: The previous NTFS partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor	5.5	The previous NTFS partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. DMDE could do that without performing a disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bitHDD: 32 GB Kingston Memory Stick, 32 GB FAT32 partition. Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zipThe partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate	6.0	After Open Volume: The FAT32 partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The FAT32 partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician	6.0	After Quick Recovery (Scan): The program immediately showed a zero-sized partition. Nothing was found after this partition was scanned. After Recover Lost Partition; The FAT32 partition was found. It contained all of the files and folders in their original places with correct names. All was successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The FAT32 partition was found. All of the files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and were successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	Initially, a 2TB Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: The FAT32 partition was found. All of the files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	After disk scan: The FAT partition was found containing all of the files and folders, mostly with correct names. 2 avi, 6 mp3 files, and one folder had truncated names with ~1 at the end. The name of another folder was changed to #0204. All files and folder were successfully recovered. All recovered files with damaged names could be opened in their applications after renaming.
Summary: All programs, except ReclaiMe File Recovery, could find the FAT32 partition and successfully recover all of the files and folders with correct names. ReclaiMe File Recovery did recover the files, but it could not recover some of the file and folder names. Active@ File Recovery, DMDE, and Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician could do that without long disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bitHDD: 64 GB Transcend Memory Card, 64 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The exFAT partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician	6.0	After Quick Recovery (Scan): The program immediately showed a zero-sized partition. Nothing was found after this partition was scanned. After Recover Lost Partition The FAT32 partition was found. It contained all of the files and folders in their original places with correct names. All was successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The exFAT partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	Initially, an Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: The exFAT partition was found with correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate	5.5	Initially, an Unknown File System was found. After Quick Scan (of the entire memory card): The exFAT partition was found. After Super Scan (of the found exFAT partition): all of the files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	4.5	Immediately, a partition marked as exFAT, NTFS, ReFS with a correct size. After scan of this partion: The previous exFAT partition was found. Some files with correct names were found in the Unclassified/#0XXX folders. Some of them were successfully recovered. Many files were found in raw files with an incorrect name and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods. Partially recovered files: 1 mkv file.
Summary: DMDE and Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician could recover all the files and the entire file structure without disk scan. R-Studio, Recovery Explorer RAID, and Active@ File Recovery required disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery could recover files only partially, and many - from raw files.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bitHDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zipThe partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate	6.0	After Quick Scan: The exFAT partition was found with all of the files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The exFAT partition (with an incorrect file size 34.4 GB) was found without a disk scan. All of the files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The exFAT partition was found as Recognized6. all of the files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	After Scan for lost data: An exFAT partition was found with all of the files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	After disk scan: The exFAT partition was found. All four folders from the disk root folder with incorrect names were found in the [Unclassified] folder. These four folders contained their respective sub-folders and files with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Files from the disk root folder were not found in these folders. They were found among raw files with incorrect names. They were successfully recovered.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician	2.0	After Recover Lost Partition and Disk Scan: Three partitions were found: NTFS 300 MB, FAT32 2.29 GB, and NTFS 14.01 GB. Only FAT32 2.29 GB contained the O_Docs folder with 5 docx and 2 xlsx files with correct names. They were successfully recovered. The rest of the files could not be found or recovered.
Summary: All programs, except Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician could find the exFAT partition and recover all of the files and folders with correct names, although ReclaiMe File Recovery could not correctly recover names of the folders in the disk root folder. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do so without disk scan. Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery could recover only 7 files.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bitHDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 20 GB NTFS partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zipThe partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate	6.0	After Quick Scan: Two NTFS (19.5 GB and 74.5 GB) partitions were found with all of the files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition was found without a disk scan. All of the files and folders with correct names were found in the $Root folder and successfully recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.5	After disk scan: The NTFS partition was found with all of the files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician	5.5	After Recover Lost Partition: The NTFS partition was found with all of the files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The NTFS partition was found with all of the files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Recovery Explorer RAID	5.5	After Scan for lost data: The NTFS partition was found with all of the files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Summary: All of the programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all of the files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without performing a disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Kingston Memory Stick, 32 GB FAT32 partition. Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The FAT32 partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: A FAT32 partitions was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and were correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	Initially, a 2TB Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and were correctly recovered.
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate	5.5	Initially, an Unknown File System was found. Nothing was found after Super Scan of this partition. After Quick Scan (of the entire memory stick): The previous FAT32 partition was found. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
Do Your Data Recovery	5.5	After Quick Recovery: Lost Partition-1 was found. After Advanced Recovery (scan) The Lost Partition1(FAT32) partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	After disk scan: A FAT partitions was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered, but it appeared that some recovered files and folders had damaged names. But all of them could be opened in their applications after renaming.
Data Rescue 5	0.0	After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Nothing was found. The program threw the Error 39 message.
Summary: All programs, except Data Rescue 5, could find the previous FAT32 partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery damaged the names of some recovered files. Data Rescue 5 could recover find nothing.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate	6.0	After Quick Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous exFAT partition (with an incorrect file size 34.4 GB) was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
Do Your Data Recovery	5.5	After Quick Recovery: Lost Partition-1 was found. After Advanced Recovery (scan) The Lost Partition3(EXFAT) partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found as Recognized1. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data: An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. All files and folders with correct names were found in the [Unclassified]/#0159 folder. All of them were correctly recovered, except one pdf file from the root folder. It was found in raw files with an incorrect name and successfully recovered.
Data Rescue 5	2.0	After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files (Reconstructed Files) were found with incorrect file names. Most of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: Most.
Summary: All programs, except Data Rescue 5, could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. ReclaiMe file recovery found one pdf file only among raw files and recovered it without original name. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan. Data Rescue 5 could recover only raw files, not all the original ones.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 64 GB Transcend Memory Card, 64 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The FAT32 partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate	5.5	Initially, an Unknown File System was found. Nothing was found after Super Scan of this partition. After Quick Scan (of the entire memory stick): The previous FAT32 partition was found. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: A FAT32 partitions was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and were correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	Initially, a 2TB Unknown partition was found. After Scan for lost data: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in this partition with correct names and were correctly recovered.
Do Your Data Recovery	5.5	After Quick Recovery: Lost Partition-1 was found. After Advanced Recovery (scan) The Lost Partition1(FAT32) partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.0	After disk scan: A FAT partitions was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered, but it appeared that some recovered files and folders had damaged names. But all of them could be opened in their applications after renaming.
Data Rescue 5	0.0	After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Nothing was found. The program threw the Error 39 message.
Summary: DMDE could recover all the files and the entire file structure without disk scan. R-Studio, Recovery Explorer RAID, and Active@ File Recovery required disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery could recover files only partially, and many – from raw files. Data Rescue 5 and Do Your Data Recovery Enterprise could not perform the test.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 20 GB NTFS partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate	6.0	After Quick Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe File Recovery	5.5	After disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
Do Your Data Recovery	5.5	After Quick Recovery: Lost Partition-1 was found. After Advanced Recovery (scan) The Lost Partition1(NTFS) partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
Data Rescue 5	5.5	After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: A Partition 0 (NTFS) partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without performing a disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 1 ТБ Seagate ST31000528AS cc37, 32 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery	6.0	After Quick Scan (opening the partition): The previous exFAT partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous exFAT partition (with an incorrect file size 34.4 GB) was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data: An exFAT partitions was found with all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found as Recognized1. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.0	After Search Lost Volumes: Nothing was found After Deleted Files Recovery: A zero-sized exFAT was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered with one exception: the mkv file was truncated. Incorrectly recovered files: the mkv file was truncated but playable.
ReclaiMe file recovery	5.0	After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. All files and folders with correct names were found in the [Unclassified]/#0159 folder. All of them were correctly recovered, except one pdf file from the root folder. It was found in raw files with an incorrect name and successfully recovered.
Summary: All programs could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 64 GB Transcend Memory Card, 64 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure. Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip.

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The exFAT partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
Active@ File Recovery	6.0	After Quick Scan: All files and folders were found with correct names. All files and folders were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: All files and folders were found in the previous exFAT32 partition with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data: The exFAT partition was found with all correct files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe file recovery	5.0	After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. All files and folders with correct names were found in the [Unclassified]/#0159 folder. All of them were correctly recovered, except one pdf file from the root folder. It was found in raw files with an incorrect name and successfully recovered.
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.0	After Search for lost volumes: Nothing was found. After Deleted File Recovery: All files and folders were found with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered with one exception. Partially recovered files: the mkv file was truncated.
Summary: All programs could recover all files and folders with correct names, except that FILERECOVERY Enterprise could not recover one file. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 32 GB Transcend Memory Card, 32 GB FAT32 partition. Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure

Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using a partition managing program.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The FAT32 partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered. The program also found an NTFS partition on the disk.
Active@ File Recovery	5.5	After SuperScan (disk scan): The previous FAT32 (status Excellent) partition was found. Also, three incorrect partitions were found: exFAT, FAT32, and NTFS. All files and folders were found with correct names on this FAT32 partitions. All of them were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: Three partitions were found: NTFS, exFAT and FAT32 All files and folders were found in the FAT32 partition with correct names and were correctly recovered
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.5	After Search Lost Volumes: 2 FAT32 partitions were found, one containing all correct files and folders. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe file recovery	5.0	After disk scan: FAT and exFAT partitions were found. The FAT partition contained all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered, but it appeared that some recovered files and folders had damaged names. But all of them could be opened in their applications after renaming.
Recovery Explorer Professional	4.5	After Scan for lost data: A FAT partition was found containing all correct files and folders with correct names. Almost all of them were recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 4 mp4, 1 mpeg, and 4 mts files.
Summary: All programs could find the previous FAT32 partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. DMDE could do that without disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery damaged the names of some recovered files. Recovery Explorer Professional could not recover all files. Since our last review: Active@ File Recovery now requires disk scan to recover data from a deleted FAT32 partition

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 1 ТБ Seagate ST31000528AS cc37, 20 GB NTFS partition. Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structure Files: 87 jpg, 40 png, 1 mkv, 22 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 5 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, 1 zip

The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Product	Rating	Test Results
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
Active@ File Recovery	6.0	After Quick Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered. The program also found 3 extra NTFS partitions (30 GB, 32 GB, and 39 GB). They all contained the same folders and files which were correctly recovered, too.
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.5	After Search Lost Volumes: The previous NTFS partition was found. After Explore Volume: All files and folders were found with correct names All of them were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
Recovery Explorer Professional	5.5	After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders. All of them were correctly recovered.
ReclaiMe file recovery	5.5	After disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found containing all files and folders with correct names. All of them were correctly recovered.
Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without performing a disk scan.

Deleted partition (NTFS)

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery	6.0	After Quick Scan (opening the partition): The previous NTFS partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered. After SuperScan (disk scan): The previous NTFS partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume (opening the partition): The previous NTFS partition was found without disk scan. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.5	After Explore Volume (opening the partition): File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Search for lost volumes (disk scan): The previous partition was found with the Unknown file system. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names after the Explore Volume command. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After Open Drive Files on the partition: File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery	5.5	After opening the partition: File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Recover lost data (scanning the partition): The previous NTFS partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit 1 TB Seagate ST31000528AS cc37, 10 GB NTFS partition. Data on the disk: Folders: Files (total: approx. 8 GB) root: 2 mp4 files, and a large pseudo-random file (3 GB) doc_docx: 6 doc and 6 docx files Video: 2 mts and 2 mov files mp3_video: 6 mp3 files, 12 video files (flv, m4v, 8 mp4, mpeg, avi) ods_odt: 1 ods and 1 odt files pdf: 6 pdf files pictures: 100 jpg files xls_xlsx: 6 xls and 6 xlsx files The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management. Summary: All programs could find the previous NTFS partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan.

Deleted partition (FAT32)

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery	6.0	After Quick Scan (opening the partition): The previous FAT32 partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered. After SuperScan (disk scan): The previous FAT32 partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume (opening the partition): 2 FAT32 partitions were found without disk scan, one containing all correct files and folders. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.5	After Explore Volume (opening the partition): File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Search for lost volumes (disk scan): 2 FAT32 partitions were found, one containing all correct files and folders. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After Open Drive Files on the partition: File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Scan: File and folder structure: All files and folders were found in the previous FAT32 partition with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery	5.5	After opening the partition: File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Recover lost data (scanning the partition): 2 FAT32 partitions were found, one containing all correct files and folders. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit HDD: 8 GB Kingston Memory Card, 8 GB FAT32 partition. Data on the disk: Folders: Files (total: approx. 7 GB) root: 2 mp4 files, and a large pseudo-random file (3 GB) doc_docx: 6 doc and 6 docx files Video: 2 mts and 1 mov files mp3_video: 6 mp3 files, 12 video files (flv, m4v, 8 mp4, mpeg, avi) ods_odt: 1 ods and 1 odt files pdf: 6 pdf files pictures: 100 jpg files xls_xlsx: 6 xls and 6 xlsx files The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management. Summary: All programs could find the previous FAT32 partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan.

Deleted partition (exFAT)

Product	Rating	Test Results
Active@ File Recovery	6.0	After Quick Scan (opening the partition): The previous exFAT partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered. After SuperScan (disk scan): The previous exFAT partition was found File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
DMDE	6.0	After Open Volume (opening the partition):: The previous exFAT partition (with an incorrect file size 34.4 GB) was found without disk scan. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
FILERECOVERY Enterprise	5.5	After Explore Volume (opening the partition): File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. After Search for lost volumes (disk scan): Nothing was found. A zero-sized exFAT was found after Deleted Files Recovery and Formatted Media Recovery. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
R-Studio	5.5	After Open Drive Files on the partition: File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found as Recognized1. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery	5.5	After opening the partition: File and folder structure: No files or folders were found After Recover lost data (scanning the partition): 2 exFAT partitions were found, one containing all correct files and folders. File and folder structure: All files and folders were found with correct names. Successfully recovered: All files were correctly recovered.
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit HDD: 1 TB Seagate ST31000528AS cc37, 32 GB exFAT partition. Data on the disk: Folders: Files (total: approx. 8 GB) root: 2 mp4 files, and a large pseudo-random file (3 GB) doc_docx: 6 doc and 6 docx files Video: 2 mts and 2 mov files mp3_video: 6 mp3 files, 12 video files (flv, m4v, 8 mp4, mpeg, avi) ods_odt: 1 ods and 1 odt files pdf: 6 pdf files pictures: 100 jpg files xls_xlsx: 6 xls and 6 xlsx files The partition was deleted using Windows Disk Management. Summary: All programs could find the previous exFAT partition and recover all files and folders with correct names. Active@ File Recovery and DMDE could do that without disk scan.

To test the performance of each program’s data recovery features, we ran a series of tests using a few common data loss scenarios. Each of these tests was run in Windows 7 32-bit. The same file set was used for each test and included the following files:

Archives: rar, zip
Audio files: acc, mp3
Documents: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods, pdf, txt
Video: files flv, mp4, mpg, avi, m4v
Images: jpg, png, tiff
Programs: exe

Data recovery from a disk with a deleted partition

For this very common scenario, we stored our test file set on two partitions and then deleted each one using Windows Disk Management. No new data was written to the disk after deleting the partition and the partition was not reformatted after deleting it.

Deleted partition

Disk 1 (NTFS) – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 500 MB

Disk 2 (FAT32) – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 500 MB

System damage: The partitions were deleted using Windows Disk Management

Product	Rating	Test Results
Restorer Ultimate	6.0	All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate	6.0	All files were found with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
Recover My Files	6.0	All files were found with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
R-Studio	6.0	All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery	6.0	All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo	6.0	All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
DMDE	5.5	All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan, with two exceptions: the avi and exe files appeared damaged on the NTFS partition.
Stellar Phoenix Technician	3.5	We could not find the deleted NTFS partition. The previously tested version (Version 5) could find the deleted partition and all files For the FAT32 partition, all files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise	3.5	Both the NTFS and FAT partitions were found. But all files were found only in the raw files without file names and several ones were successfully recovered.
Each program required a disk scan to find recoverable files, but nearly all the programs were able to successfully recover the files, folders, and file names and thus received a full 6 stars. Half a star was deducted from DMDE’s rating, as it was unable to successfully recover two of the files from the NTFS partition. Stellar Phoenix and Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise performed relatively poorly, which represents a degradation in performance since the last time we tested Stellar Phoenix.

Below are the results of the data recovery tests we performed with each of the software candidates. These tests were designed to recreate the most common data recovery scenarios faced by professionals. In each test, the operating system was Windows 7 32-bit.

For each test, the same set of test files were deleted from the disk. In instances where the file system was damaged or a partition was deleted, the files listed below were present on the disk prior to the damage or repartitioning.

Test File Set

Archives: rar, zip
Audio files: acc, mp3
Documents: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods, pdf, txt
Video: files flv, mp4, mpg, avi, m4v
Images: jpg, png, tiff
Programs: exe

Deleted Partition

For this test, partitions were deleted using Windows Disk Management.

Disk 1 (NTFS) – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 500 MB

Disk 2(FAT32) – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 500 MB

Product	Rating	Test Results
Restorer Ultimate	6.0	All files were found in their original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery	6.0	All files were found in their original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
R-Studio	6.0	All files were found in their original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo	6.0	All files were found in their original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan.
DMDE	5.5	All files were found in their original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan, with two exceptions: the avi and exe files appeared damaged on the NTFS partition.
Except for DMDE, all programs successfully found and recovered all files with their original folders and original names after disk scan. DMDE successfully recovered all files except the avi and exe files from the NTFS partition.

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Data Recovery Digest

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