Several unique terms and phrases describe the features of software we review on this site, some easier to grasp than others. This list briefly defines terms relevant to Data Recovery Software.

Ratings

Feature Set

Exceptional data recovery software gives you a large artillery of data recovery tools, including the ability to recover data from multiple sources, support for the widest array drives and storage devices and multi-file-system compatibility.

Ease of Use

Data recovery software that is easy to use and designed for novices scored high with us. How simple a program was to install and whether we encountered errors during installation also affected our overall ranking.

Recovery Effectiveness

Data recovery software that's highly capable of scanning for, finding and restoring lost data to its original form scored higher in our reviews.

Search Capabilities

Data recovery software that offers greater search capabilities once a scan has been performed is ideal - allowing you to search by both file name and extension.

Help/Documentation

Software that provides a wide variety of help and support tools, covering all areas of data recovery are the best, including FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) sections, help manuals and contact information for the manufacturer's technical support.

Data Recovery Features

Recover Compressed Files

The data recovery program finds and recovers compressed files that have been deleted.

Recover Encrypted Files

The data recovery software finds and recovers encrypted files that have been deleted.

eMail Recovery

The data recovery program finds and recovers email files that have been deleted.

Network Recovery

The data recovery software finds and recovers files that are located on hard drives on different networks.

Create Image Files

The data recovery software creates an exact image of a drive and saves it to another drive, which can then be opened to recover files at a later time.

Recovers Files from

Recycle Bin

Data recovery program recovers files that have been deleted from the recycle bin.

Damaged Files

Data recovery software recovers files that are damaged and can no longer be opened.

Virus/Power Failure

Data recovery software recovers data that's been lost due to a virus attack or power failure.

Format/FDisk

Data recovery program recovers data that's been accidentally deleted from a hard drive after it's been formatted or modified by Fdisk.

Partition was Changed/Deleted

If a partition of a formatted drive has been deleted, the data recovery software finds and restores the data.

Disks with Bad Sectors

Data recovery software can find and restore data, even if the hard drive or CD/DVD has a bad sector.

Restores from Unbootable Hard Drive

This software will allow you to restore data from an un-bootable hard drive. However, in order to do this some of the Data Recovery software will require a seperate hard drive, USB drive, or other multimedia device to do so.

If you are looking to recover data from an un bootable hard drive then you need to remove the damaged hard drive from your machine and set it as the slave to another hard drive on a different machine. Once you boot up the other machine then you can install the program on that machine and restore your data. (Note. do not install the software on the damaged hard drive.)

Drives Supported

IDE

An acronym for Intelligent Drive Electronics or Integrated Drive Electronics, which is an interface for mass storage devices that has a controller integrated directly into the disk or CD-ROM drive.

SCSI

An acronym for Small Computer Systems Interface (pronounced "SCUZZY"), which is a standard interface for connecting external units like disks, tape drives, CD players, scanners and so on to a computer.

Serial ATA

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA is a newer standard for connecting hard drives into computer systems that's based on serial signaling technology.

RAID

An acronym for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks, which combines multiple small, inexpensive disk drives into an array that yields performance exceeding that of a single large expensive drive.

External Hard Drives

External Hard Drives are hard drives that are connected to the computer, usually via a USB port.

Removable Media

There are many different forms of removable media, including floppy discs, USB drives, CDs, DVDs and so on.

File Systems

NTFS5

A newer file system developed by Microsoft that's an upgrade of the NTFS.

NTFS

An acronym for New Technology File System, which is the file system for the Windows NT/2000/XP Operating Systems. NTFS cannot be accessed by other operating systems such as DOS and is designed to provide increased reliability and security.

FAT32

Stands for a 32-bit File Allocation Table, which is a method of storing information on a hard disk that supports drives up to two terabytes and pathnames greater than 256 characters.

FAT16

An older version of the FAT file system that's based on 16-bit integers, which has a limitation with respect to the size of partitions it can handle.

FAT12

An older version of the FAT file system that's based on 12-bit integers, which has a limitation with respect to the size of partitions it can handle.

Help/Documentation

Product Manual

Provides explanations of the data recovery software's features and gives step-by-step instructions on how to use them.

Phone Support

A telephone number available for customer support purposes.

Tutorial

Shows you how to use the data recovery software via a step-by-step process.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions" are usually available on the manufacturer's website. Check the FAQ page before contacting customer support to find answers to common questions and problems.

eMail/Online Forms

The manufacturer provides an email address or an online request form for customer support or sales.

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