File recovery performance
Disk re-format
- 2023
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): 2 exFAT partitions were found. Each of which contained 4 folders of the $Folder00002A59 type in the $LostFiles/ $Group100...1 section. Those folders correspond to the original folders in the disk root folder. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. 2 jpg and 1 pdf files were found in the Raw recovery results section. They were also successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all but one files were successfully recovered, 3 of them as raw files. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
DiskGenius | 5.5 | After Recover Lost Files: An exFAT partition was found. It contained 4 folders of the Orphaned Files 1842 type in the Orphaned Files section. Those folders corresponded to the folders in the disk root folder. All found folders and files were successfully recovered. 3 files from the root folder (2 jpg and 1 pdf) were found among raw files (the Recovered Types section). They were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all but one files were successfully recovered with 3 of them as raw files. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found. It contained 4 folders of the $F00038 type. Those folders corresponded to the folders in the disk root folder. All found folders and files were successfully recovered. 3 files from the root folder (2 jpg and 1 pdf) were found among raw files. They were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all but one files were successfully recovered with 3 of them as raw files. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. Its Root folder contained some remnants of the original folder structure. The rest of the structure was found in folders of the $ROOT00017 type. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. 3 files (2 jpg and 1 pdf files) were found as raw files in the Raw Files (Extra Found Files) section. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all but one files were successfully recovered. The original folder structure was recovered only partially. | |
WinHex | 4.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Almost all lost files were found as raw files without their names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi, 3 mts, and mkv files (5 files). Overall, most files were successfully recovered, but as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 2.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect filenames. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi, mpeg, 4 mts, 86 mp3, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 2 ods, 6 odt, and mkv files (125 files). Overall, only raw files were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All but 2 programs were able to recover all but 1 files and most of the original folder structure. ReclaiMe file recovery Ultimate and WinHex could recover only raw files, ReclaiMe file recovery Ultimate showing the worst results. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in the #1125 folder. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: The $ROOT00001 folder was found. They 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. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 6.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The $Folder00000006 folder 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. | |
DiskGenius | 6.0 | After Recover Lost Files: All original folders and files were found in the Orphaned Files/Orphaned Files 6 section with correct file and folder names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The $F00010 folder was found. All files and folders were found in this folder, all with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Partition: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 3 mts files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, were able to recover all files and the entire original folder structure. WinHex could recover only raw files, that is, without their correct names. The entire original folder structure was not recovered at all. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
DiskGenius | 5.5 | After Recover Lost Files: 4 folders of the Orphaned Files 10841 type were found in the Orphaned Files sections. Those folders contained all respective subfolders and files with correct file and folder names. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder, except the avi file, were recovered from the Recovered Types section (raw files). That avi file was not found. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all files and folders, except 1 file, were successfully recovered. 3 files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and paths. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: 2 exFAT partitions were found. Each contained 4 folders of the $F00027 type. Those folders corresponded to the original folders in the disk root. All files and folders were successfully recovered. 2 jpg and 1 pdf files from the root folder were found among raw files and successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all files and folders, except 1 file, were successfully recovered. 3 files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and paths. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: All folders from the root folder were found with incorrect names like $ROOT00004. They contained all subfolders and files with correct names. All those files and folders were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder (2 jpg and 1 pdf files) were recovered from the Extra Found Files section (raw files). 1 avi file was not found. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all files and folders, except one file, were successfully recovered. Three files were recovered as raw files, that is, one without its name and path. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): All folders from the device root folder were found in the $LostFiles/$Group1000…001 section with incorrect names of the $Folder00002A59 type. Those folders contained all respective subfolders and files with correct names. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. The Raw recovery result section contained 2 jpg and 1 pdf files from the device root folder. They were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all but one file and folder were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the folders in the disk root. | |
WinHex | 4.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files, that is, without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 avi, 2 mts, and 1 mkv files (4 files). Overall, almost all files were successfully recovered as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 2.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: Only raw files were found. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 4 jpg, 18 avi, 1 m4v, 2 mov, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 2 ods, 6 odt, zip, and mkv files (156 files). Overall, only raw files were successfully recovered. The original folder structure was not recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex and ReclaiMe file recover Ultimate, could recover all but one files and the entire original folder structure, except that they weren’t able to recover the names of the folders in the device root. 3 files were recovered as raw files. WinHex could find and recover only raw files, and not all. ReclaiMe file recover Ultimate showed the worst result: it couldn’t recover 156 files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to NTFS)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: Some folders and files were found in the 3 folders of the $$$Folder12713985 type in the Extra Found Files section. These files and folders had correct names and were successfully recovered. After Disk Scan: Some remnants of the original folder structure with their files were found in $$$Folder2490369 in the Extra Found Files section. Many files were found as raw files in this section. Those files were successfully recovered, only 2 ods files were not recovered. Files that were not recovered: 2 ods files. Overall, all but 2 files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): An NTFS partition was found. It contained some remnants of the original folder structure in the $LostFiles/$Group10...01/$Folder100000026 section. Files and folders from this section were successfully recovered. Other files were found in the Raw recovery results section. They were also successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 1 doc, 1 docx, and 1 xlsx file (3 files). Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 3 mts, and 1 mkv files (4 files). Overall, most files were successfully recovered as raw files. The original folder structure was not recovered at all. | |
DiskGenius | 4.5 | After Recover Lost Files: A Recognized partition was found. Some remnants of the original folder structure were found in the Orphaned Files section. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Many other files were found in the Recovered Types section. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 2 ods and 6 odt files (8 files). Overall, most files were successfully recovered, most as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
DMDE | 4.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: 3 folders $F00017, $F00018, and $F00021 were found in the NTFS partition. They contained some remnants of the original folder structure with their respective files. They were successfully recovered. Some files were found in the Raw section and successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 17 mp3 files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.0 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: 3 deleted folders of the #0124 were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some remnants of the original folder structure and its files. Raw files (the RAW section) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 86 mp3, 6 doc, 12 docx, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files (119 files). Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could find some remnants of the previous file system, but nevertheless most files were recovered as raw files. Only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio could recover the largest number of files while ReclaiMe file recovery recovered the smallest number. WinHex could not recover any remnants of the original folder structure. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Western Digital WD800AAJS, 32 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT .
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 of the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | The program immediately found a deleted partition Reformatted1 After Show Files on the found partition: All files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. No disk scan was required. | |
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: An NTFS partition was found. All files and folders were found on this partition in their original locations with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. No disk scan was required. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The previous NTFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in correct place with correct names and were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were 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: The previous NTFS partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Almost all lost files were found as raw files without their names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that were not recovered: 3 mts and 1 mkv files. Overall, almost all files were successfully recovered, but as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could recover all files and the entire folder structure. R-Studio and DMDE could do that without disk scan. WinHex could find and recover almost all files but only as raw files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT .
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 of the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | The program immediately found a deleted partition Reformatted1 After Show Files on the found partition: All files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. No disk scan was required. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 6.0 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted NTFS partition was found. After Partition Scan: All folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure were found in the original places. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. No Deep Scan was required. | |
DiskGenius | 5.5 | After Recover Lost Files: The previous NTFS partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The previous NTFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in correct place with correct names and were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
WinHex | 3.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files, that is, without their names. Only a few of them were successfully recovered. Recovered files: 1 mpeg and 85 mp3 files. Files that could not be recovered: most of files. Overall, only a few files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could recover all files and the entire folder structure. R-Studio and Stellar Windows Data Recovery could do that without disk scan. WinHex could find and recover only some raw files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: One folder from the device root folder was found the Bin with subfolders and files with correct names. Some folders and files were found in the two folders of the $$$Folder12713985 type in the Extra Found Files section. These files and folders had correct names and were successfully recovered. After Disk Scan: Many files were found as raw files in the Extra Found Files section. Those files were successfully recovered, only two ods files were not recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 ods. Overall, all but two files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files, that is without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Partially recovered files: one mkv file. Files that could not be recovered: one mp4, three mts, one odt files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered as raw files. The original folder structure was not recovered at all. | |
DiskGenius | 4.5 | After Recover Lost Files: A Recognized partition was found. Some remnants of the original folder structure were found in the Orphaned Files section. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Many other files were found in the Recovered Types section. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 ods and 6 odt files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 4.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Two folders of the $Folder000000C2 types were found in the $LostFiles/$Group10...01 section. They contained some remnants of the original folder structure and many files with original names. Almost all of them were successfully recovered. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): Other parts of the original folder structure were found in the Bin. They were successfully recovered. Some other files were found in the Raw recovery results section. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 jpg, 17 mp3, 1 doc, 3 docx, 1 xlsx file. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 3.5 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted NTFS partition was found. After Partition scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: One folder from the device root folder and two folders of the Folder 194 were found in the Lost Folders section. They contained some folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw Data contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 2 ods, 6 odt files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.0 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: One folder from the device root folder and two folders #0125 and #0126 were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw files (the RAW section) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 86 mp3, 6 doc, 12 docx, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could find some remnants of the previous file system, but nevertheless most files were recovered as raw files. Only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio could recover the largest number of files while ReclaiMe file recovery recovered the smallest number. WinHex could not recover any remnants of the original folder structure. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). It contained the all files and folders in the correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
DiskGenius | 6.0 | After Recover Lost Files: All original files and folders were found in their original places and successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 4.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): Only raw files were found. Some were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, flv, m4v, 17 mp3, 2 docx, and 1 xlsx file. Overall, only some raw files were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was not recovered at all. | |
WinHex | 4.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files, that is, without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 42 jpg, 4 mp4, mpeg, 2 mts, 1 odt, and mkv files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 4.0 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted NTFS partition was found. After Partition Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files were found in the Raw Data section. Some were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 large avi file, flv, m4v, mpeg, 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 2 ods, and 6 odt files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect filenames. Some of them were successfully recovered. Partially recovered files: all mkv and mts files. Files that could not be recovered: 1 pdf, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, all doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, and ods files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: R-Studio and DiskGenius recovered all files and the entire original folder structure. The rest of the programs could recover only raw files. ReclaiMe file recovery Ultimate showed the worst result. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: All folders from the root folder were found with incorrect names like $ROOT00004. They contained all subfolders and files with correct names. All those files and folders were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder, except the avi file, were recovered from the Extra Found Files section (raw files). That avi file was not found. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file. Overall, all files and folders, except one file, were successfully recovered. Three files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and paths. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the root folders. | |
DiskGenius | 5.5 | After Recover Lost Files: Four folders of the Orphaned Files 10842 type were found in the Orphaned Files sections. Those folders contained all respective subfolders and files with correct file and folder names. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder, except the avi file, were recovered from the Recovered Types section (raw files). That avi file was not found. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file. Overall, all files and folders, except one file, were successfully recovered. Three files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and paths. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the root folders. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 5.0 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted exFAT partition was found. After Partition scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: Four folders with incorrect names were found in the Lost Folders sections. Those folders contained all respective subfolders and files with correct file and folder names. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Two jpg files from the root folder were found and recovered from the Raw Data section (raw files). Avi and pdf files were not found. Files that could not be recovered: avi and pdf files. Overall, all files and folders, except two file, were successfully recovered. Two files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and paths. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the root folders. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 4.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): All folders from the device root folder were found in the $LostFiles/$Group1000… section with incorrect names of the $Folder00002A5A type. Those folders contained all respective subfolders and files with correct names. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. Files from the device root folder were not found even among raw files, and therefore not recovered. Files that could not be recovered: two jpg, one pdf, and one avi file from the device root folder. Overall, all but four files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was also recovered, except the names of the root folders. | |
WinHex | 3.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files, that is, without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 47 jpg, 2 mts, and 1 avi file. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, most as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.0 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: The original folder structure was found scattered among 6 folders of the #1123 type in the [Unclassified] section. Those folders contained some files with correct names. Some other files were found and recovered from raw files. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 2 mov, 1 mpeg, 59 mp3, 5 doc, 3 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 2 ods, and 5 odt files. Overall, some files and folders were successfully recovered, many from raw files. Only some small remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex and ReclaiMe file recover Ultimate, could recover almost all files and the entire original folder structure, except that they weren’t able to recover the names of the folders in the device root folder. R-Studio and DiskGenius couldn’t recover only one file. WinHex could find and recover only raw files, and not all. ReclaiMe file recover Ultimate showed the worst result: it couldn’t recover 84 files. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in the #0122 folder. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: The $ROOT00001 folder was found. They 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. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 6.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Quick scan (index) the file system: Nothing was found. After After Scan for lost data (Do indexing of the file system and continue with the full scan): The $Folder0...6 folder 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 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted FAT partition was found. After Partition Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: All files and folders were found in the Folder 6 section, all with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
DiskGenius | 6.0 | After Recover Lost Files: All original folders and files were found in the Orphaned Files/Orphaned Files 6 section with correct file and folder names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Partition: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files, that is, without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 3 mts files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, were able to recover all files and the entire original folder structure. WinHex could recover only raw files, that is, without their correct names. The entire original folder structure was not recovered at all. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT.
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 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: All folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure were found in the #0173 folder in the [Unclassified] section of the exFAT partition. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found. All folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure were found in this partition in the $F00010 folder. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Show Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: All folders from the root folder were found in the $ROOT00004 folder. They contained all subfolders and files with correct names. All those files and folders were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 6.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Only index this file system (run quick scan)): Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Index this file system and then scan unused space): All folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure were found in the $LostFiles/$Group10... 01/$Folder0...08 section. 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 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted exFAT partition was found. After Partition scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: All folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure were found in the Lost Folders/Folder 8 section. All of them were successfully recovered. The disk scan and file recovery were unusually long. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. After Scan for Lost Partitions: for the entire disk: Nothing new was found. Files that could not be recovered: 47 jpg, 2 mts, 1 mkv files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, most as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could recover all files and the entire original folder structure. WinHex could find and recover only raw files, and not all. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The previous exFAT (18.3GB) partition was found. Its $F00009 folder contained all files and folders in correct places with correct names. They were successfully y recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). It contained the all files and folders in the correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Only index this file system (run quick scan)): Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Index this file system and then scan unused space): The program found an ExFAT partition with an incorrect size (15.69GB). The $LostFiles/ Group10...1 section on this partition contained four $Folder00002A5A folders with all contents of the folders in the root folder. All found files and folders were successfully recovered. The Raw scan result section contained 2 jpg and 1 pdf from the root folder. They were successfully recovered. Only 1 file (avi) from the root folder was not recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi file. Overall, all but one file were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was partially recovered. | |
WinHex | 4.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for Lost Partitions: for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 42 jpg, mpeg, 3 mts, 1 odt, zip, mkv files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 4.0 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted NTFS partition was found. After Partition scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files were found in the Raw Data section. Some were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, flv, m4v, mpeg, 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 2 ods, 6 odt files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect file names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Partially recovered files: all mkv and mts files. Files that could not be recovered: 1 pdf, 1 flv, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, all doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: R-Studio and DMDE recovered all files and the entire original folder structure. Recovery Explorer RAID could not recover 1 file, and recovered the original folder structure only partially. The rest of the programs could recover only raw files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: Some folders and files were found in the $$$2555905 folder in the Extra Found Files section. These files and folders had correct names and were successfully recovered. The other files and folders were found among the raw files. Almost all of found files were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 ods. Overall, all but two files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
DMDE | 4.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Three folders #0xxx were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw files (RAW) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 86 mp3, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 4.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Only index this file system (run quick scan)): Three folders of the $Folder00000027 types were found in the $LostFiles/$Group100...01 section. They contained some remnants of the original folder structure and many files with original names. All of them were successfully recovered. After Scan for lost data (Index this file system and then scan unused space): Some other files were found in the Raw scan results section. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 17 mp3, 1 doc, 2 docx, 1 xlsx, and 2 ods files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
WinHex | 4.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. After Scan for Lost Partitions: for the entire disk: Nothing new was found. Files that could not be recovered: 30 jpg, 3 mts, 1 mkv files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered as raw files. The original folder structure was not recovered at all. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 3.5 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted NTFS partition was found. After Partition scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Three folders of the Folder 194 type were found in the Lost Folders section. They contained some folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw Data contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. All of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 2 ods, 6 odt files. Overall, most files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.0 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Three folders #0xxx were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw files (RAW) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 86 mp3, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. Overall, only some files were successfully recovered, many as raw files. Only some remnants of the original folder structure were recovered. | |
Summary: Most programs could find some remnants of the previous file system, but nevertheless most files were recovered as raw files. Only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio could recover the largest number of files while ReclaiMe file recovery recovered the smallest number. WinHex could not recover any remnants of the original folder structure. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT.
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 of the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. No deep scan was required. | |
Stellar Windows Data Recovery | 6.0 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted NTFS partition was found. After Partition scan: All folders and files with correct names from the original folder structure were found in the original places. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. No deep scan was required. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Partition Search: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with an incorrect size (17.29 GB). All files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Only index this file system (run quick scan)): Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Index this file system and then scan unused space): The previous NTFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in correct place with correct names and were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
WinHex | 2.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for Lost Partitions: for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Only a few of them were successfully recovered. Recovered files: 1 mpeg and 85 mp3 files. Files that could not be recovered: most of files. Overall, only a few files were successfully recovered, and all as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could recover all files and the entire folder structure. DMDE and Stellar Windows Data Recovery could do that without disk scan. WinHex could find and recover only some raw files. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Transcend 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in the #0172 folder. All of them were successfully recovered. Overall, all files and folders were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was recovered, too. | |
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The $F00010 folder was found. They 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. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 6.0 | After Explore content of this partition: Nothing was found. After Only index this file system (run quick scan): Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data (Index this file system and then scan unused space): The $Folder0...6 folder 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. | |
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Show Files: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: The $ROOT00001 folder was found. They 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 | 5.5 | After Search Lost Partition: An unmounted FAT partition was found. After Partition scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Most files and folders were found in the Folder 6 folder. Some other files and folders were found in the Lost Folders/Folder153154/Folder 153155 folders. Filenames were correct, folder names were incorrect. Most files were successfully recovered. Some files were found in the Raw Data section. They were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 1 mpeg files. Overall, all but 2 files were successfully recovered. The entire original folder structure was partially recovered. The scan process was very long. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Partition: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 3 mts files. Overall, all files were successfully recovered as raw files. The entire original folder structure wasn’t recovered at all. | |
Summary: Most programs were able to recover all files and the entire original folder structure. Stellar Windows Data Recovery could not recover 2 files, and the original folder structure was recovered only partially. WinHex could recover only raw files without their correct names. The entire original folder structure was not recovered at all. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Transcend 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: The $ROOT00001 folder was found. They contained all files and folders with correct names, They were successfully recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.5 | After opening the partition: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The $Folder0...6 folder was found. It contained all files and folders with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The $F00010 folder was found. They contained all files and folders with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.0 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in the #0186 folder. All of them were successfully recovered, but it appeared that several recovered mp3 files and one folder had truncated names with ~1 at their end. All of them, however, could be opened in their applications after renaming. | |
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor | 5.0 | After opening the disk: Two FAT32 and one NTFS partitions were found. The first FAT32 partition contained files and empty folders from the root folder with correct names in the Lost & Found section in the [000006] folder. The files were successfully recovered. The other partitions were empty. After Fast scan: The same results were obtained. After Thorough file system scan and recovery: The same partitions were found. The NTFS partition was empty. Both FAT32 partitions contained the same results: Folder [000006] contained all folders and files with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Partition: Nothing was found. After Tools/Scan For Lost Partitions...: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 4 mts and 10 pdf files. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could not recover the name of the root folder, but the rest of folders and files were successfully recovered. WinHex could recovered only some raw files, that is, without their correct names. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor | 6.0 | After opening the partition: An exFAT partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). It contained all files and folders in the correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. Its $F00009 folder contained all files and folders in correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The program found an ExFAT partition with an incorrect size (15.69GB). The $LostFiles/ Group10...1 section on this partition contained 4 folders from the root folder. The folders from the disk root folder had incorrect names like $Folder00002A5A, the files from the disk root folder were not found. The other folders and files had correct names. All found files were successfully recovered. 2 jpg and 1 pdf files from the root folder were found in the Raw scan results section with incorrect names. They were successfully recovered, too. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi file from the root folder. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After disk scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect filenames. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, all doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, and ods files. Partially recovered files: all mkv and mts files. | |
WinHex | 3.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 4 mts, 10 pdf, 12 docx, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. | |
Summary: R-Studio, DMDE, and GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor recovered all files and folders. GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor could do that without disk scan. ReclaiMe File Recovery and WinHex were able to find and recover only raw files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT .
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 of the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: An NTFS partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor | 6.0 | After opening the partition: An NTFS partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with an incorrect size (17.29 GB). All files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were successfully recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in correct place with correct names and were successfully recovered. | |
WinHex | 4.0 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 7 mp3, 1 mkv, 4 mts, and 10 pdf files. | |
Summary: All programs, except WinHex, could recover all files and the entire folder structure. DMDE and GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor could do that without disk scan. WinHex could find and recover only some raw files. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found containing all the folders from the disk root folder. They had incorrect names like $Fxxxxx but contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. They were successfully recovered. The files from the root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: All folders from the root folder were found with incorrect names like #0170 in the [Unclassified] section of the exFAT partition. They contained all their respective folders and files with correct filenames. All of them were successfully recovered. The files from the root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the root folder. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Disk scan: All folders from the root folder were found with incorrect names like $ROOT00004. They contained all subfolders and files with correct names. All those files were successfully recovered. pdf and 2 jpg from the root folder were found in Extra Found Files (Raw Files) with incorrect names. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the root folder could not be found and recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Two exFAT partitions were found. One contained all folders from the root folder in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section. These folders had incorrect names $Folderxxxxxxxx but contained all respective files and subfolders with correct names. They were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder were not found. The other exFAT partition had the same data structure, but all files appeared damaged. Raw recover didn’t yield any results. Files that could not be recovered: one avi, pdf and 2 jpg files from the root folder. | |
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor | 5.0 | After opening the partition: Nothing was found. After Fast scan: Nothing was found. After Thorough file system scan and recovery: All folders from the root folder were found with incorrect names like [002A5A] in the Lost & Found section. They contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. All of them were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder were not found. After Complete disk scan, find any data trace, slow: The same results were obtained. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 1 pdf, and 2 jpg files from the root folder. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing new was found. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 1 avi, 1 m4v, 2 mov, and 4 mts files. | |
Summary: R-Studio, DMDE, and ReclaiMe File Recovery showed the best results: they successfully recovered all but one file. They also recovered the original folder structure most accurately. Recovery Explorer RAID and GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor could not recover four files from the root folder. WinHex could find and recover only some raw files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: Some folders and files were found in the Recycle Bin. These files and folders had correct names and were successfully recovered. The other files and folders on the partition were found in the Extra Found Files section. Some were orphaned files with correct names. Raw files contained the rest of the files with mostly incorrect names. Almost all of found files were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 ods. | |
WinHex | 4.5 | After Open Disk: Nothing was found. After File Recovery by Types: Many lost files were found as raw files without their names. Some of them were successfully recovered. After Scan for lost partitions for the entire disk: Nothing new was found. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 4 mts, and 10 pdf files. | |
DMDE | 4.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition): Nothing was found. After Full Scan (scanning the partition): Two folders were found containing some folders and files from the Photos folder ($F00017) and Video folder ($F00018). Some other files were found in the Raw files with incorrect names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 17 mp3. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 3.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Two folders with their files were found in the Recycling Bin. Raw files (Raw scan results) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Almost all of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 17 mp3, 1 doc, 7 docx, 2 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.0 | After Initial scan: Nothing was found. After Deep scan: Two folders #0xxx were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files from the Photos folder. The Recycling Bin contained the Video folder with all its files and subfolders with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw files (RAW) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Almost all of these files were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 86 mp3, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. | |
GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor | 3.0 | After opening the partition: The program found folders and files in their initial place. They had the x character instead of the first characters. They appeared damaged after recovery. After Fast scan: The [0000C2] and [0000F5] folders with some graphic files were found in the [Lost & Found]. Also the Recycle Bin contained the Video folder with all its files, all with correct names. They were successfully recovered. After Thorough file system scan and recovery: The same was found. After Complete disk scan, find any data trace, slow: The same was found. Files that could not be recovered: 49 jpg, 10 png, 86 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods, and 1 zip. files. | |
Summary: Most programs could find some remnants of the previous file system, but nevertheless most files were recovered as raw files. Only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio could recover the largest number of files while. WinHex could find only raw files. GetDataBack+RAID Reconstructor recovered the least number of files. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bitHDD: 32 GB Transcend Memory Stick, 32 GB FAT32 partition. Data on the disk: 292 files, approximately 9 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structureFiles: 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: Two folders $ROOT00003 and $ROOT00004 were found. They contained all of the files and folders with correct names, except for files from the root folder. Those files were found in the Extra Found Files section with incorrect names. Overall, all of the files were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.0 | After opening the partition: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Two folders $Folder10000… and $Folder00025285 were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section. They contained all of the files and folders with correct names, except files from the root folder. Those files were found in the Raw scan results section with incorrect names. Overall, all of the files were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate | 5.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: 4 folders of type Virt_Dir_00025281 were found in the Lost & Found! section. They contained all of the files and folders with correct names, except files from the disk root folder. All files were successfully recovered with their original names. After SuperScan: Files from the root folder were found in the raw files Signature Files section with incorrect names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all of the files were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician | 5.0 | After Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan Folder Folder 5 was found with 4 FolderXXXXXX folders. Those folders contained all of the files and folders from the folders in the root folder. All files were successfully recovered with correct names. Files from the disk root folder were not found. Those files were found in the Raw Data section with incorrect file names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all of the files were successfully recovered, but files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 4.5 | After disk scan: A FAT partition was found. All of the files and folders, except those from the root folder, were found in the Unclassified/#0166/#0188 folder. All of them were successfully recovered, but it appeared that some recovered files and folders had damaged names. All of them however could be opened in their applications after renaming. The files from the root folder were found in the RAW section, with incorrect names. They were successfully recovered. Overall, all of the files were successfully recovered, but some names were damaged. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
DMDE | 4.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: Two folders $00008 and $$00031 were found in the FAT partition. They contained all of the files and folders with correct names, except files from the root folder. Those files (except the pdf file from the disk root folder) were found in the raw files section with incorrect names. All files were successfully recovered All recovered files had their correct names, except for files from the root folder. Overall, all of the files (except the pdf file from the disk root folder) were successfully recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Summary: All of the programs could successfully recover all of the files, but none the entire folder structure, except for DMDE, which could not recover one pdf file from the root folder. Files from the disk root folder were recovered as raw files, that is, without correct names. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT (using a Mac OS X computer).
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: The folders from the disk root folder were found with correct names They contained all subfolders and files with correct file names. All of these files were successfully recovered. 1 pdf and 2 jpg were found in Extra Found Files (Raw Files). Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder could not be found or recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After disk scan: All of the folders with correct names from the disk root folder were found in the [Unclassified] section of the exFAT partition. They contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. All of them were successfully recovered. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician | 5.0 | After Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan Folders Folder XXXXX were found containing folders and files from the Photos, Video, Music and Documents folders. All of them were successfully recovered. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi file from the root folder. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the root folder. | |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found containing all the folders from the disk root folder. They had incorrect names such as $Fxxxxx but contained all of their respective folders and files with correct file names. They were successfully recovered. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: Nothing useful was found. The $!Lost & Found! section contained only empty folders like Virt_Dir_xxxxxx. After SuperScan: An exFAT partition of the correct size was found. It contained only raw files (Signature Files) with incorrect names. Most of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 5 docx, 2 xls, and 2 xlsx files. | |
Summary: R-Studio and ReclaiMe File Recovery showed the best results: they successfully recovered all but one file. They also recovered the original folder structure quite accurately. Recovery Explorer RAID, DMDE, and Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician also recovered all but one files but could not recover the names of the folders from the disk root folder. Active@ File Recovery could find and recover only raw files. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). All of the files and folders were found in the correct place with correct names and were successfully recovered. | |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. Its $F00007 folder contained all of the files and folders in their correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered, except for one mts file. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mts file. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 5.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi file from the root folder. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate | 4.0 | After QuickScan and QuickScan Plus: Nothing was found. After SuperScan: Only raw files were found with mostly incorrect file names. All of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 5 docx, 2 xls, and 2 xlsx files. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.5 | After disk scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect file names. Some of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, all doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods. Incorrectly recovered files: mkv and mts files | |
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician | 3.5 | After Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan Only raw files (Raw Data) were found with incorrect file names. Most of them were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi 1.35 GB, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 1 mpeg, 12 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods. Incorrectly recovered files: 1 mkv | |
Summary: Only R-Studio could find the previous exFAT partition and recovered all of the files and folders correctly. ReclaiMe File Recovery, Active@ File Recovery and Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician could only find and recover raw files, with ReclaiMe File Recovery showing the worst results. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bitHDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 GB NTFS partition.Data on the disk: 293 files, approximately 17 GB total size, scattered over a certain file structureFiles: 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT (using a Mac OS X computer).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 of the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). All of the files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were successfully recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 6.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate | 6.0 | After QuickScan: Nothing was found. After QuickScan Plus: Nothing was found After SuperScan: | |
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An NTFS partition (min. size 18.6 GB) was found. It contained all of the files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 6.0 | After disk scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all of the files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were successfully recovered. | |
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician | 6.0 | After Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan The NTFS Folder(s) section contained the correct folder structure and files with correct names. All files were successfully recovered. | |
Summary: All of the programs could recover all files and the entire folder structure. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: One deleted folder Video with all subfolders and files were found in its original place. These files and folders had correct names and were successfully recovered. The other files and folders on the partition were found in the Extra Found Files section. Three folders $$$Folderxxxxxxxx contained some folders and files from the Photos, Music and Video folders with correct names. Raw files contained the rest of the files with mostly incorrect names. Files which were found were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 4 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 doc, 4 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 1 odt, and 2 ods. | |
Recovery Explorer RAID | 3.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Files and folders on the partition were found in the $LostFiles/$Group1000… section only. Three folders $Folderxxx… were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files (Raw scan results) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Files which were found were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 21 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 doc, 9 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate | 3.5 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: Files and folders on the partition were found in the $!Lost & Found! section. Three folders Virt_Dir_xxxxxx were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. After SuperScan: The same !Lost & Found! was found. Raw files (Signature Files) contained some of the other lost files with mostly incorrect names. Files which were found were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 17 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 doc, 7 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 1 odt. | |
DMDE | 3.5 | After Open Volume (opening the partition): Nothing was found. After Full Scan (scanning the partition): Three folders $F000XX were found containing some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. All of them were successfully recovered. Raw files contained some of the lost files with incorrect names which were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 23 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 doc, 3 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 1 odt. | |
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technician | 3.5 | After Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan Folders Folder XXX were found containing some folders and files from the Photos, Music, Video, and Documents folders. All of them were successfully recovered (except for one docx). Raw Data contained some of the lost files with incorrect names which (most of them) were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 12 mp3, 4 pdf, 6 doc, 8 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.0 | After disk scan: Three folders #0xxx were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files (RAW) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Most of these files were successfully recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 86 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 doc, 12 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods. | |
Summary: All of the programs were able to find files mostly among raw files although only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio recovered the greatest number of files while ReclaiMe File Recovery recovered the least. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 80 GB Samsung SP0812C, 32 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT (using a Mac OS X computer).
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 of the data, we then used the most powerful recovery option in the program.
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). Almost all files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found. Almost all files and folders were found in correct place with correct names and were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 5.5 | After QuickScan: Nothing was found. After QuickScan Plus: Nothing was found After SuperScan: Two NTFS partitions were found with correct file names and folder structure. One of them contained only damaged files. The other partition contained almost all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
Do Your Data Recovery | 5.5 | After Quick Recovery: Nothing was found. After Advanced Recovery: The Lost Partition1(NTFS) partition was found with the correct folder structure and files with correct names. All but 3 files were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An NTFS partition (min. size 18.6 GB) was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After disk scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
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 recover almost all files with their file names, except 2 xlsx and 1 mp3. Data Rescue 5 could not recover anything. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 4.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: Files and folders on the partition were found in the Extra Found Files section only. Two folders $$$Folderxxxxxxxx contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained the rest of the files with mostly incorrect names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpg, 2 xlsx, 2 ods. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 3.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Files and folders on the partition were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section only. Three folders $Folderxxx… were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files (Raw scan results) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpg, 17 mp3, 1 doc, 7 docx, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods files. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: Files and folders on the partition were found in the $!Lost & Found! section only. Three folders Virt_Dir_xxxxxx were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. After SuperScan: The same !Lost & Found! was found. Raw files (Signature Files) contained some of the other lost files with mostly incorrect names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpg, 13 mp3, 5 docx, 2 xls, 4 xlsx files. | |
DMDE | 3.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition): Nothing was found. After Full Scan (scanning the partition): Three folders $F00014 were found containing some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained some of the lost files with incorrect names. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpeg, 18 mp3, 2 xlsx. | |
Do Your Data Recovery | 3.0 | After Quick Recovery: Nothing was found. After Advanced Recovery: A partition Lost Partition1 (NTFS) was found with some folders and files with correct names. All were recovered correctly. Some other files were found in the Special Lost Files (Label) and More lost files (RAW) sections, mostly with incorrect names. All were recovered correctly, except the mkv file. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpeg, 38 mp3, 6 docx, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods files. The mkv file was partially recovered (half of its size, but playable). | |
Data Rescue 5 | 2.5 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files were found (Reconstructed Files) mostly with incorrect file names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpeg, 1 mkv, 1 flv, 3 mts, 12 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 2 ods files. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 2.0 | After disk scan: Three folders #0xxx were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files (RAW) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Files that could not be recovered: 1 jpg, 2 pdf, all mp3, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods files. | |
Summary: All programs could find files mostly among raw files. Only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio could recover the largest number of files while ReclaiMe File Recovery recovered the smallest number. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). All files and folders were found in the correct place with correct names and were correctly recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 6.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The previous exFAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in the correct place with correct names and were correctly recovered. | |
Do Your Data Recovery | 6.0 | After Quick Recovery: Nothing was found. After Advanced Recovery The Lost Partition1 (EXFAT) partition was found with the correct folder structure and files with correct names. All files were correctly recovered. | |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. Its $F00007 folder contained almost all files and folders in correct places with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mts file. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 4.0 | After QuickScan and QuickScan Plus: Nothing was found. After SuperScan: Only raw files were found with mostly incorrect file names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 5 docx, 2 xls, and 2 xlsx files. | |
Data Rescue 5 | 3.5 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files were found with mostly incorrect file names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 1 flv, 2 mts, 14 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 2 xls, 2 ods, zip files. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 3.5 | After disk scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect file names. Some of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 pdf, 1 flv, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, all doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods. Incorrectly recovered files: mkv and mts files | |
Summary: R-Studio, Recovery Explorer RAID, and Do Your Data Recovery Enterprise could find the previous exFAT partition and recovered all files and folders correctly. ReclaiMe File Recovery, Data Rescue 5, and Active@ File Recovery could only find and recover raw files, ReclaiMe File Recovery showing the worst result. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 10 64 bit HDD: 32 GB Transcend 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
Do Your Data Recovery | 5.0 | After Quick Recovery: Nothing was found. After Advanced Recovery The Existing Partition (FAT32) partition was found with 4 folders DIR0, DIR1, DIR2, DIR3. Those folders contained all files and folders from the folders in the root folder. All files were correctly recovered with correct names. The Special lost files (Label) and More lost files (RAW) sections contained the files from the root folder with incorrect names. All those files were correctly recovered. Overall, all files were correctly recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
R-Studio | 5.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: Two folders $ROOT00003 and $ROOT00004 were found. They contained all files and folders with correct names, except files from the root folder. Those files were found in the Extra Found Files section with incorrect names. Overall, all files were correctly recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.0 | After Scan for lost data: Two folders $Folder10000… and $Folder00025285 were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section. They contained all files and folders with correct names, except files from the root folder. Those files were found in the Extra Found Files section with incorrect names. Overall, all files were correctly recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 5.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: 4 folders of type Virt_Dir_00025281 were found in the Lost & Found! section. They contained all files and folders with correct names. All files were correctly recovered with their original names. After SuperScan: Files from the root folder were found in the raw files Signature Files section with incorrect names. They were correctly recovered. Overall, all files were correctly recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: Two folders $00008 and $$00031 were found in the FAT partition. They contained all files and folders with correct names, except files from the root folder. Those files were found in the Extra Found Files section with incorrect names. All files were correctly recovered with their correct names. All recovered files had their correct names, except for the files from the root folder. Overall, all files were correctly recovered. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 4.5 | After disk scan: A FAT partition was found. All files and folders, except those from the root folder, were found in the Unclassified/#0164/#0186 folder. All of them were correctly recovered, but it appeared that some recovered files and folders had damaged names. All of them however could be opened in their applications after renaming. The files from the root folder were found in the RAW section, with incorrect names. They were correctly recovered. Overall, all files were correctly recovered, but some names were damaged. Files from the root folder were recovered with incorrect names. | |
Data Rescue 5 | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Deep Scan: Only raw files (Reconstructed Files) were found with mostly incorrect file names. Most of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 3 mts, 14 mp3, 10 pdf, 6 doc, 2 xls, 2 ods files. | |
Summary: All programs, except Data Rescue 5, cold successfully recover all files, but none the entire folder structure. ReclaiMe File Recovery recovered some files with damaged names. Data Rescue 5 could recover only some raw files. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT (using a Mac OS X computer).
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: The folders from the disk root folder were found with names like $ROOTxxxxx. They contained all subfolders and files with correct file names. All those files were correctly recovered. pdf and 2 jpg were found in Extra Found Files (Raw Files). Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder could not be found and recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: All folders from the root folder were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section in the ExFAT section. They had incorrect names $Folderxxxxxxxx but contained all files and folders with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Raw recover results contained 2 jpg and 1 pdf files from the root folder. They were also correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the root folder. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found containing all the folders from the disk root folder. They had incorrect names like $Fxxxxx but contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. They were correctly recovered. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
ReclaiMe File Recovery | 5.5 | After disk scan: All the folders from the disk root folder were found in the [Unclassified] section of the exFAT partition. They had incorrect names like #xxxx but contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. They were correctly recovered. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
Do Your Data Recovery | 4.5 | After Quick Recovery: Nothing was found. After Advanced Recovery: The Other lost files folder in the Existing Partition (EXFAT) contained sub-folders (with correct names) from the folders in the root folder. They and their files were correctly recovered. The other folder Other lost files contained the rest of the files which were correctly recovered. The files from the root folder were found in the Special Lost Files (Label) section with incorrect names, except one avi file from the root folder. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi file from the root folder. The folder structure was recovered only partially. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: Nothing useful was found. The $!Lost & Found! section contained only empty folders like Virt_Dir_xxxxxx. After SuperScan: An exFAT partition of the correct size was found. It contained only raw files (Signature Files) with incorrect names. Most of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 5 docx, 2 xls, and 2 xlsx files. | |
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: R-Studio, Recovery Explorer Professional, ReclaiMe File Recovery, and DMDE could recover almost all files with their file names. Do Your Data Recovery Enterprise could not recover the correct folder structure. Active@ File Recovery could find only raw files. Data Rescue 5 could not recover anything. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to NTFS)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 1 TB 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 re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 4.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Disk Scan: Files and folders on the partition were found in the Extra Found Files section only. Two folders $$$Folderxxxxxxxx contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained the rest of the files with incorrect names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 2 ods files. | |
Active@ File Recovery | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: Files and folders on the partition were found in the $!Lost & Found! section only. Three folders Virt_Dir_xxxxxx were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. After SuperScan: The same !Lost & Found! was found. Raw files (Signature Files) contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 13 mp3, 5 docx, 2 xls, and 4 xlsx files. | |
DMDE | 3.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition): Nothing was found. After Full Scan (scanning the partition): Three folders $Fxxxxx were found containing some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained some of the lost files with incorrect names. Files that could not be recovered: 18 mp3, 1 doc, 7 docx, 2 xls, and 4 xlsx. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 3.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: Files and folders on the partition were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section only. Three folders $Folderxxx… were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 18 mp3, 1 doc, 7 docx, 4 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods files. | |
ReclaiMe file recovery | 2.5 | After disk scan: Three folders #xxxx were found in the [Unclassified] section. They contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. Files that could not be recovered: all mp3, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods files. | |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 1.5 | After Explore Volume: Nothing was found. After Formatted Media Recovery: Files and folders on the partition were found in the NTFS lost at block section only. Three folders MFT xxx were found and contained some folders and files from the Photos and Video folders. Raw files contained some of the other lost files with incorrect names. The program crashed many times while attempting to recover raw files. That is why it was not clear how many files it actually recovered. | |
Summary: All programs could find files mostly among raw files. Only some folders could be recovered. R-Studio could recover the largest number of files while ReclaiMe File Recovery recovered the smallest number. FILERECOVERY Enterprise crashed regularly during file recovery, as it did in our previous tests. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 32 GB Transcend 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 re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: All folders and files from the root folder with correct file names were found in the $F00008 folder. All of them were correctly recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 6.0 | After Scan for lost data: All files and folders from the root folder were found with correct names in the $00000005 section. All of them were correctly recovered. | |
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: All files and folders (including their content) from the root folder were found with correct names in the $ROOT0000 folder. All of them were correctly recovered. | |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 6.0 | After Explore Volume: Nothing was found. After Formatted Media Recovery: All files and folders from the root folder were found with correct names in the Block32768/ Orphaned Folders/ Cluster 5 section. All of them were correctly recovered. | |
ReclaiMe file recovery | 5.0 | After disk scan: All files and folders (including their content) from the root folder were found with correct names in the #0160 folder. 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. | |
Active@ File Recovery | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After SuperScan: Only some raw files with incorrect names were found and recovered. Files that could not be recovered: many. | |
Summary: All programs, except Active@ File Recovery and ReclaiMe File Recovery, could recover all files and folders. Active@ File Recovery could recover files only as raw files, that is, without file names. ReclaiMe File Recovery damaged the names of some recovered files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 1 TB Seagate ST31000528AS cc37, 32 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 re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT (using a Mac OS X computer).
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 | 5.5 | After disk scan: An NTFS partition was found. It contained all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were correctly recovered, except 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 files. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx, and 1 mp3 files. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous NTFS partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). Almost all files and folders were found in their original locations with correct names and were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The previous NTFS partition was found. Almost all files and folders were found in correct place with correct names and were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An NTFS partition (min. size 18.6 GB) was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were correctly recovered, except 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 files. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
Active@ File Recovery | 5.0 | After QuickScan: Nothing was found. After QuickScan Plus: Nothing was found After SuperScan: Two NTFS partitions were found. One of them contained garbage. The other partition contained almost all files and folders in correct place with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 5.0 | After Explore Volume: Nothing was found. After Formatted Media Recovery: An NTFS partition (TNTFSVolumeItem, 0 (0.00B)) was found. Its MFT 37 section contained all folders and files with correct names, except Documents – it appeared empty. Almost all files and folders were correctly recovered, except one mp3 and one avi were damaged and one mp3 had an underscore as its first character in its name. The MFT_42 section contained all files and folders from the Documents folder. They were correctly recovered, except 2 xlsx files. The avi file was found among raw files with an incorrect file name. It was correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 2 xlsx and 1 mp3 | |
Summary: R-Studio, Recovery Explorer Professional, DMDE, and ReclaiMe File Recovery could recover almost all files with their file names, except 2 xlsx and 1 mp3. Active@ File Recovery and FILERECOVERY recovered the same number of files, but they recovered the folder structure less correctly. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to exFAT)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 1 TB 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 re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT (using a Mac OS X computer).
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
Recovery Explorer Professional | 5.5 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: All folders from the root folder were found in the $LostFiles/ $Group1000… section in the ExFAT section. They had incorrect names $Folderxxxxxxxx, but contained all files and folders with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Raw recover results contained 2 jpg and 1 pdf files from the root folder. They were also correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the root folder. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found containing all the folders from the disk root folder. They had incorrect names like $Fxxxxx, but contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
ReclaiMe file recovery | 5.5 | After disk scan: All the folders from the disk root folder were found in the [Unclassified] section of the exFAT partition. They had incorrect names like #xxxx, but contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. The files from the disk root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder. | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition: Nothing was found. After disk scan: The folders from the disk root folder were found with names like $ROOTxxxxx. They contained all subfolders and files with correct file names. All those files were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder could not be found and recovered. | |
Active@ File Recovery | 3.0 | After Quick Scan: Nothing was found. After Quick Scan Plus: Nothing useful was found. The $!Lost & Found! section contained only empty folders like Virt_Dir_xxxxxx. After SuperScan: An exFAT partition of the correct size was found. It contained only raw files (Signature Files) with incorrect names. Most of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 5 docx, 2 xls, and 2 xlsx files. | |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 2.0 | After Explore Volume: Nothing was found. After Formatted Media Recovery: An ExFAT (0 (0.0B)) partition was found containing all files and folders from the Documents folder in the Orphaned Folders section. Some files were found among raw files. The program crashed many times when attempting to recover these files. Files that could not be recovered: 40 png, 1 mkv, 1 avi, 1 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, and 13 mp3 files. Due to constant program crashes, this is a very approximate result. | |
Summary: R-Studio, Recovery Explorer Professional, ReclaiMe File Recovery, and DMDE could recover almost all files with their file names. Active@ File Recovery could find only raw files. FILERECOVERY Enterprise crashed regularly during file recovery as it did in our previous tests. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit. HDD: 1 TB 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 re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS.
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 | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files: Nothing was found. After Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with an incorrect size (17 GB). All files and folders were found in the correct place with correct names and were correctly recovered. | |
Recovery Explorer Professional | 6.0 | After Explore file system: Nothing was found. After Scan for lost data: The previous exFAT partition was found. All files and folders were found in the correct place with correct names and were correctly recovered. | |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 5.5 | After Explore Volume: Nothing was found. After Formatted Media Recovery: The previous exFAT partition was found (exFAT (Size 0 (0.0 B), Volume class TExFATVolume)). There almost all files and folders were found in the correct place with correct names and correctly recovered. Incorrectly recovered files: the mkv file (truncated). | |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume: Nothing was found. After Full Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. Its $F00007 folder contained almost all files and folders in correct places with correct names. They were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 4 mts files. | |
Active@ File Recovery | 4.0 | After QuickScan: Nothing was found. After SuperScan: Only raw files were found with incorrect file names. Almost all of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 5 docx, 2 xls, and 2 xlsx files. | |
ReclaiMe file recovery | 3.5 | After disk scan: Only raw files were found with incorrect file names. Some of them were correctly recovered. Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 1 flv, 1 mpeg, 86 mp3, all doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods, zip files. Incorrectly recovered files: the mkv and mts files. | |
Summary: R-Studio and Recovery Explorer Professional could find the previous exFAT partition and recovered all files and folders correctly. ReclaiMe File Recovery and Active@ File Recovery could find and recover only raw files. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to NTFS)
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 4.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition:
After disk scan:
| |
Active@ File Recovery | 4.5 | After Quick Scan (opening the partition):
After SuperScan (disk scan):
| |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 3.0 | After opening the partition:
After Recover lost data (scanning the partition):
| |
DMDE | 3.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition):
After Full Scan (scanning the partition):
| |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 2.5 | After Explore Volume (opening the partition):
After Formatted Media Recovery (scanning the partition):
The program crashed many times when browsing the files and attempting to recover them. | |
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit Data on the disk:
The partition was re-formatted from NTFS to NTFS. Summary: All programs could find files only among raw files. R-Studio and Active@ File Recovery could recover the largest number of files. FILERECOVERY Enterprise crashed regularly during file recovery. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS)
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition:
After disk scan:
| |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition):
After Full Scan (scanning the partition):
| |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 4.0 | After Explore Volume (opening the partition):
After Formatted Media Recovery (scanning the partition):
The program crashed many times when attempting to recover the files. | |
Active@ File Recovery | 3.5 | After Quick Scan (opening the partition):
After SuperScan (disk scan):
| |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 3.0 | After opening the partition:
After Recover lost data (scanning the partition):
| |
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit Data on the disk:
The partition was re-formatted from exFAT to NTFS. Summary: R-Studio, FILERECOVERY Enterprise, DMDE found the previous exFAT partition and recovered all files and folders correctly. Except DMDE, that could not recover 1 xlsx file. FILERECOVERY Enterprise crashed regularly during file recovery. |
Reformatted disk (exFAT to exFAT)
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition:
After disk scan:
| |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 5.0 | After opening the partition:
After Recover lost data (scanning the partition):
| |
DMDE | 5.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition):
After Full Scan (scanning the partition):
| |
Active@ File Recovery | 3.0 | After Quick Scan (opening the partition):
After SuperScan (disk scan):
| |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 3.0 | After Explore Volume (opening the partition):
After Formatted Media Recovery (scanning the partition):
The program crashed many times when attempting to recover the files. | |
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit Data on the disk:
The partition was re-formatted from exFAT to exFAT (using a Macintosh computer). Summary: R-Studio, DMDE, and UFS Explorer Professional could recover almost all files with their file names. R-Studio did that most correctly and with the largest number of recovered files. FILERECOVERY Enterprise crashed regularly during file recovery. |
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT)
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | After Open Drive Files on the partition:
After disk scan:
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UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 5.5 | After opening the partition:
After Recover lost data (scanning the partition):
| |
DMDE | 5.5 | After Open Volume (opening the partition):
After Full Scan (scanning the partition):
| |
Active@ File Recovery | 5.0 | After Quick Scan (opening the partition):
After SuperScan (disk scan):
| |
FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 4.5 | After Explore Volume (opening the partition):
After Formatted Media Recovery (scanning the partition):
| |
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit Data on the disk:
The partition was re-formatted from NTFS to exFAT (using a Macintosh computer). Summary: R-Studio, DMDE, and UFS Explorer Professional could recover almost all files with their file names. |
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32)
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 6.0 | After Open Drive Files on the partition:
After disk scan:
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FILERECOVERY Enterprise | 6.0 | After Explore Volume (opening the partition):
After Formatted Media Recovery (scanning the partition):
| |
DMDE | 6.0 | After Open Volume (opening the partition):
After Full Scan (scanning the partition):
| |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 5.5 | After opening the partition:
After Recover lost data (scanning the partition):
| |
Active@ File Recovery | 4.5 | After Quick Scan (opening the partition):
After SuperScan (disk scan):
| |
Test description: OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit Data on the disk:
The partition was re-formatted from FAT32 to FAT32. Summary: R-Studio, FILERECOVERY Enterprise, and DMDE could recover all files and folders. Active@ File Recovery could recover files only as raw files, that is, without file names. |
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 after disk quick reformat
For this test, we performed a quick reformat on two partitions and then attempted to recover our test file set. For each file found, we previewed the file or attempted to open it in a native application to determine if it was recovered correctly.
Disk Reformat – NTFS to FAT32
Disk 1 - Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk 2 – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 500 MB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
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. | |
Stellar Phoenix Technician | 6.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. | |
Recover My Files | 6.0 | Partition size 1 GB: Two NTFS partitions were found, and all files were found on one partition in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. Partition size 500 MB: An NTFS partition was found and all files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. | |
DMDE | 5.5 | Most files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan, with the following exceptions: — The avi and exe files in the root appeared damaged. — The avi and mp3 files in a folder appeared damaged. | |
Restorer Ultimate | 5.0 | After disk scan, successful recovery for files and file names starting at second level (i.e. files and folders had to be within a folder). Files at the root level were corrupted. | |
R-Studio | 5.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. When the files were in the root folder, the recovered files appeared damaged. | |
Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise | 5.0 | Partition size 1 GB: Most files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan, with the following exceptions: — The avi and rar files could not be recovered. — Several file names appeared damaged. Partition size 500 MB: All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 3.0 | Partition size 1 GB: Two NTFS partitions (700 MB and 1 GB) were found and all files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. Partition size 500 MB: Two NTFS partitions (850 MB and 1 GB), but no file could be recovered. | |
For the both disk setups, all programs performed well, with UFS Explorer Professional Recovery, GetDataBack, Stellar Phoenix Technician, and Recover My Files getting the highest ratings. These programs recovered all the files with their original file names. Active@ File Recovery received the lowest rating, because it could not recover any files from the 500 MB partition. |
Disk Reformat – FAT32 to FAT32
Disk - Disk 1 size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk – Disk 2 size: 2 GB, Partition size: 1 MB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo | 6.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and were successfully recovered after disk scan | |
DMDE | 6.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and were successfully recovered after disk scan | |
Restorer Ultimate | 6.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and were 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 | 5.5 | All files, except rar, were found in the original folders with original names and were successfully recovered after disk scan. | |
Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise | 4.0 | For the 1 GB disk: All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. The folders were in the upper folder Cluster. For the 2 GB disk: All files were found among raw files without their file names after disk scan. | |
Recover My Files | 3.5 | For the 1 GB disk: All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan For the 2 GB disk: We could find only few files among raw files without their file names: avi, docx, xls, jpg. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 3.0 | All files were found among raw files without their file names. | |
Stellar Phoenix Technician | 3.0 | All files were found among raw files without their file names. The previously tested version (Version 5) didn’t find anything. | |
For the both disk setups, most programs performed very well. R-Studio, GetDataBack, DMDE, and Restorer Ultimate successfully recovered all files with their original names. These programs all received 6 stars. UFS Explorer almost received a full 6 stars, but it failed to recover one file (rar). |
Disk Reformat – NTFS to NTFS
Disk 1 – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk 2 – Disk size: 2 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
R-Studio | 5.5 | Most files were found in the Extra Found Files and successfully recovered after disk scan. Not found files: acc, exe, m4v, doc. Incorrectly recovered files: mp3, txt, mpg, avi. | |
Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | Most files were found in the Lost Files and successfully recovered after disk scan. Files not found: acc, exe, m4v, doc. Successfully recovered files: mp3, txt, mpg: Recovered but corrupt: avi. | |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 4.5 | Most files were found successfully and several files were successfully recovered after disk scan using IntelliRAW. Incorrectly recovered files: zip, acc, doc, docx, xlsx, odt, ods, txt, flv, mp4, m4v, exe. The avi file appeared with double size, but it could be played correctly. | |
Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise | 4.5 | Most files were found and successfully recovered after disk scan for raw files. | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 4.5 | Most files were found and successfully recovered after disk scan for raw files. | |
Stellar Phoenix Technician | 3.5 | We could find only a few files in raw files and even fewer were successfully recovered after disk scan. Found and successfully recovered: avi, jpg, zip. Found with incorrect file size: pdf. | |
Recover My Files | 3.5 | We could find only a few files in raw files and even fewer were successfully recovered after disk scan. Found and successfully recovered: avi, docx, xls. | |
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo | 3.0 | Only a few files were found in the Lost Files and even fewer were successfully recovered after disk scan. Correctly recovered: jpg, doc. Incorrectly recovered files: mp3, zip, avi. | |
DMDE | 0.0 | We could not recover any files. | |
Results varied widely for this particular test. For each program, we had to use a raw file search to find most of the files. UFS Explorer was able to find a few files without performing a raw file search, but it recovered a number of files incorrectly. For most programs, file and folder names were irrecoverable for files found with the raw file search. However, R-Studio and Restorer Ultimate were able to recover most files with their files names. DMDE scored zero stars, since it does not support raw file search and thus found no files. It is worth noting that, although R-Studio and Restorer Ultimate were able to recover the most files, some of the lower rated programs were able to recover files that they could not find. For example, Stellar Phoenix Technician and Recover My Files were the only programs that could recover the avi file without issue. |
Disk Reformat – FAT32 to NTFS
Disk 1 – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk 2 – Disk size: 2 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
Stellar Phoenix Technician | 3.0 | We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: zip, jpg, mp3 Found with incorrect file size: pdf. | |
Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise | 3.0 | Disk size 1 GB: We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mpg, avi. Disk size 2 GB: We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mpg, avi, mp4 and m4v | |
Active@ File Recovery Ultimate Corporate | 3.0 | Disk size 1 GB: We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mp3, avi. Disk size 2 GB: We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: avi, mpg, mp4 and m4v | |
Recover My Files | 2.5 | Disk size 1 GB: We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: avi. Disk size 2 GB: We could find only a few files in raw files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: avi. | |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 2.5 | We could find only a few files in the IntelliRAW after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mpg, avi | |
R-Studio | 2.0 | We could find only a few files in the Extra Found Files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mp4 Incorrectly recovered: mpg, avi | |
Restorer Ultimate | 2.0 | We could find only a few files in the Extra Found Files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mp4 Unsuccessfully recovered: mpg, avi | |
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo | 0.0 | We could not find any files. | |
DMDE | 0.0 | We could not find any files. | |
All programs showed quite poor file recovery results in this test. Even for the best results, we could recover only few files using Stellar Phoenix Technician, Ontrack® EasyRecovery™ Enterprise, and Active@ File Recovery. We were unable to successfully recover any files using DMDE and the GetDataBack package. |
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
Disk reformat
For this test, a partition was reformatted to a new partition of the same size using quick format. Each test uses a different before and after file system.
Disk Reformat – FAT32 to FAT32
Disk - Disk 1 size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk – Disk 2 size: 2 GB, Partition size: 1 MB
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. | |
DMDE | 6.0 | All files were found in the original folders 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. | |
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo | 6.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. | |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 5.5 | All files, except rar, were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. | |
All programs successfully recovered all files, except for UFS Explorer, which recovered all files except for the rar file. |
Disk Reformat – NTFS to FAT32
Disk 1 - Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk 2 – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 500 MB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
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 | Most files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan, with the following exceptions:
| |
Restorer Ultimate | 5.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. When the files were in the root folder, the recovered files appeared damaged. | |
R-Studio | 5.0 | All files were found in the original folders with original names and successfully recovered after disk scan. When the files were in the root folder, the recovered files appeared damaged. | |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery and the GetDataBack package showed the best results in file recovery. |
Disk Reformat – NTFS to NTFS
Disk 1 – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk 2 – Disk size: 2 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
Restorer Ultimate | 5.5 | Most files were found in the Lost Files and successfully recovered after disk scan. Some files were found but unsuccessfully recovered. Successfully recovered files: rar, zip, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods, pdf, flv, mp4, jpg, png, tif Unsuccessfully recovered files: mp3, txt, mpg, avi Files not found: acc, exe, m4v, doc | |
R-Studio | 5.5 | Most files were found in the Extra Found Files and successfully recovered after disk scan. Some files were found but unsuccessfully recovered. Successfully recovered files: rar, zip, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods, pdf, flv, mp4, jpg, png, tif Unsuccessfully recovered files: mp3, txt, mpg, avi Files not found: acc, exe, m4v, doc | |
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 4.5 | Most files were found successfully, and several ones were successfully recovered after disk scan using IntelliRAW. Unsuccessfully recovered files: zip, acc, doc, docx, xlsx, odt, ods, txt, flv, mp4, m4v, exe The avi file appeared with double the file size, but it could be played correctly. | |
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo | 3.0 | Only a few files were found in the Lost Files and even fewer successfully recovered after disk scan. Successfully recovered: jpg, doc Unsuccessfully recovered files: mp3, zip, avi | |
DMDE | 0.0 | No files were found. | |
R-Studio and Restorer Ultimate showed the best results for this case. DMDE found no files due to its lack of a raw file search feature. |
Disk Reformat – FAT32 to NTFS
Disk 1 – Disk size: 1 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Disk 2 – Disk size: 2 GB, Partition size: 1 GB
Product | Rating | Test Results | |
---|---|---|---|
UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | 2.5 | Only a few files were found in the IntelliRAW after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mpg, avi | |
Restorer Ultimate | 2.0 | Only a few files were found in the Lost Files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mp4 Unsuccessfully recovered: mpg, avi | |
R-Studio | 2.0 | Only a few files were found in the Extra Found Files after disk scan. Successfully recovered: mp4 Unsuccessfully recovered: mpg, avi | |
GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor + Captain Nemo | 0.0 | No files were found. | |
DMDE | 0.0 | No files were found. | |
This test scenario produces very low chances of successful file recovery. UFS Explorer had the best results, but could still recover only few files. DMDE and the GetDataBack package found no files. |