Thus, if the files were probably compressed using WinZip, WinRar, or another archiving program either select ‘All Files’ or plan to run the program more than once. One unfortunate weakness of the program is that ‘Documents’ does not include archives and the dialog box doesn't permit multiple choices. In both time and money, these days accidentally deleted music or video files may be every bit as valuable as documents or email. The user interface is so simple that most users won’t find any advantage in using the advanced mode, but to each their own.įirst up in the wizard, Recuva presents the user with a radio button dialog to select the type of the lost files.

Hitting ‘Next’ starts the wizard, while ‘Cancel’ goes to the advanced mode. A check box lets the user permanently suppress the wizard option in favor of running in advanced mode. After clicking on the Recuva icon, the software opens to an optional wizard. Recuva isn't the only data recovery software in the marketplace, but it is the most complete product that is easy to install, wizard driven, and easy to use. Likewise, if a damaged computer won’t boot but the USB ports will, portable data recovery software may be able to recover files in an emergency. Then too, the ever expanding capacity of USB stick memory makes it less and less likely that users will want to lug CD’s or DVD’s from computer to computer, even if they had the rights necessary to install software to a guest computer. With so much malware around, vendors understand the reluctance of security conscious users to install software to their hard drives. More and more software utilities come in portable versions these days. Even if parts of the desired file have been overwritten all or part of it may still be recoverable.įor new users Recuva comes in both permanent and portable versions. Usually, the filename is still there, too. What most people don’t know-and maybe law enforcement would prefer that some people didn't learn-is that unless the data has been overwritten by new files, it’s all still there. After watching a few seasons of TV murder mysteries most people know that everything still in the Windows Recycle Bin gets restored with one click. Once in a while everyone accidentally deletes some files that they would like to get back. Consistently rated by experts among the top five free data recovery software packages, Recuva makes a tedious task about as easy as possible.

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