Data Recovery Digest

There are many different types of data recovery software and choosing the right one may be tricky. You will notice that there are various different price tags associated with them, too. Some will be free, some expensive and some in the middle. This article will explore what the common differences are between these pricing levels and try to help you decide how much you need to spend on data recovery software.
You should be slightly weary of data recovery software that comes free. If you’re looking for a program that has a solid feature set and reliable results then they may not be the best. For example, Recuva doesn’t recover folder names and structures, something which will take a lot of time to rebuild manually. Some of them may not offer file previewing, which is handy to see how much of the file is going to be recovered. Some free software may not be able to recover as much data as the more advanced, paid software.
On the flip side, expensive software may offer too many features that will confuse the average user. A lot of the more advanced functionalities will not be required for a standard data recovery procedure. The majority of users will not need these features and you’ll be paying for what you won’t use. You shouldn’t assume that the more expensive the software is that the better it will perform; it could just be it offers all these additional features that are unneeded.
When choosing file recovery software you should make sure that it isn’t intrusive on your data. Some free programs will attempt to recover data directly from the damaged drive, but this is dangerous since it runs the risk of overwriting unrecovered data by mistake. It is always advisable to take a backup of your damaged drive, just in case the recovery process goes wrong and the situation gets worse.
On average, you should probably spend around $50 to $70 on data recovery software. Those put off by paying for software need to consider the costs of either not recovering their data or using software that doesn’t get the job done properly. Most decent companies will offer a trial version of their program that you can use before you buy it. Either it will recover a limited amount of data for free, or it’ll show you everything that it could recover if you paid. This is a very useful feature and one which will save you laying down your money for something that might not work.
It’s not to say that all free data recovery software is bad. Some of them are decent, but they don’t offer the same functionality as the mid-range priced counterparts. The higher end, expensive software is more for professionals who require the additional features, so don’t worry about shelling out three figure sums. Those looking for a good solution might want to consider something like R-Studio, which is a well-priced and solid recovery program that supports a variety of file types and also offers a trial version.