- 2020
Overall Product Rating: 4.7
The program has a decent wizard interface, good localization support, a very good previewer, and unrestricted file recovery for files up to 1 GB total in the free version. The list of supported file systems includes almost all Windows (except ReFS). Linux’ Ext2/3/4 and Apple’s HFS+ can be added in its Toolkit. It also supports raw file recovery with predefined and custom-specified file types. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are good, and it also supports S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Weak points are the lack of disk imaging and logging. The program’s file recovery performance is relatively good (ranking sixth), especially for emptied Bin and deleted partitions. At the same time, it showed very poor performance for damaged partition recovery (failed to recover from damaged FAT32 and exFAT partitions).
Interface and Features
File systems supported for file recovery: 5.5Compare
FAT/exFAT, NTFS/NTFS5, (Ext2/3/4 and HFS/HFS+ in Toolkit)
Disk imaging and copying: 0.0Compare
No disk image support in the Home program version. Images can be created in the Demo, Professional, and Technical versions.
Disk parts/regions: 0.0Compare
No support for disk parts or regions. A disk area can be specified for imaging in the Technician version.
Deep analysis of disks (disk scan): 4.5Compare
Two scan types can be selected: Scan and Deep Scan. Relatively few parameters can be specified. Places to scan (Desktop, My Documents, Choose Location, and other locations). Scan can be performed either for all file types, or for some specific ones: pictures, documents, etc. When the Turn On Preview option is enabled, picture files can be previewed immediately after recognition during scan process. Scan results can be saved and later loaded.
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 5.0Compare
Supports raw file recovery with a pre-defined file signature set. The user can select which predefined file type is to be included and specify file size range. It can also attempt to concatenate broken video streams. The user can add custom-defined file types using a built-in editor. If necessary, this feature can be disabled.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 5.0Compare
Search only for certain file types: all files, pictures, video, etc. Places to search in (Desktop, My Documents, Choose Location) may be explicitly specified. Individual file and file mask search. File sorting by file extension, time, and size by clicking column names. Files can be sorted by File Type, Tree View, Deleted List. Manual file mark for recovery.
File recovery parameters: 5.0Compare
Recovers file names and the folder structure. All recovered files can be zipped (the zip file type archive). Deleted files/folders and files with certain extensions can be included/excluded to/from recovery.
S.M.A.R.T. : 5.5Compare
Disk health status, including S.M.A.R.T. attributes, can be seen using the Monitor Drive function.
User interface: 4.5Compare
One of two operational modes can be selected at the program startup: Recover Data and Monitor Drive, when the interface becomes wizard-oriented.
: 5.3Compare
Languages supported: 5 languages: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish. Language management: Languages can be changed on-the-fly.
Recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names.
: 5.0Compare
File preview. Ontrack EasyRecovery Free: Unrestricted file recovery for files up to 1 GB total in the free version. No time limit for the demo mode.
: 5.0Compare
The built-in previewer can show Adobe, Microsoft documents (pdf, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx), txt, and graphic files without the application installed. There’s a partial preview of audio and video files. Corrupted photos can be previewed in the safe mode.
File recovery performance
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (NTFS file system): 5.0Compare
After Deleted File Recovery: All files, except 2 jpg and 1 avi files from the disk root folder, were found in their original locations with correct file and folder names. The large mkv file had zero size. All were successfully recovered except those files.
After Raw Files Scan: The mkv, avi, and 2 jpg files from the disk root were found with incorrect names. They were successfully recovered, except the mkv one, which was truncated.
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (exFAT file system): 5.5Compare
After Recover Deleted Files: All files and folders were successfully recovered with correct original names, except 1 avi from the disk root folder.
After Raw Files Scan: The avi file could not be correctly recovered.
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (FAT32 file system): 4.0Compare
After Disk Scan: All files were found in their initial place. The files and folders have correct names, except that some files and folders had the X character at the beginning of their names. Almost all files were successfully recovered. The following files were not recovered: 2 ods, 6 odt, 72 mp3, flv, mpeg.
After Deep Scan: The unrecovered files were not found.
The following files were not recovered: 2 ods, 6 odt, 72 mp3, flv, mpeg.
Emptied Recycle Bin (NTFS file system): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Two folders of the Folder 326 type were found. They contained half of the initial folder structure with the files. All had their correct filenames. The rest of the initial folder structure and their files were found in the Trash Bin with incorrect file names. Files from the root folder were also found in the Trash Bin with incorrect filenames. All files were successfully recovered, except one avi, one jpg, and one mkv file.
After Deep Scan: The avi and mkv files were found. They were recovered, the avi successfully, the mkv partially.
Files that cannot be recovered: one jpg file. The mkv file was partially recovered. The initial folder structure was partially recovered.
Emptied Recycle Bin (exFAT file system): 6.0Compare
After Recover Deleted Files: All files and folders were found in correct places and were successfully recovered after disk scan.
Reformatted disk (NTFS to NTFS): 4.0Compare
After scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep Scan: Some remnants of the previous file system were found in the Trash and Lost Folders section. Almost all of them were successfully recovered.
Many raw files were found in the Raw Data section. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Most files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and other attributes.
Files that could not be recovered: 12 mp3, 8 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods.
Reformatted disk (exFAT to exFAT): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep scan All files with correct names and several folders from the disk root folder were found in the Lost Folders section in the folders named like Folder 10842. All of them were successfully recovered.
Files from the disk root folder were found in the Raw Data section with incorrect names and successfully recovered, with one exception: the avi file was not found and could not be recovered.
Overall, only a small part of the initial folder structure was recovered. All but one file was successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: one avi file.
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep Scan: All files and folders were found in the NTFS Folders section and successfully recovered.
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS): 3.0Compare
After Deep Scan: No folder structure was found. Only raw files with incorrect file names were found, and most of them were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 1 flv, 1 m4v, 12 mp3, 1 mpeg, 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 6 odt, and 2 ods.
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32): 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep Scan: All files and folders with correct names were found in the 000006 section. They were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (NTFS): 5.5Compare
After Quick Scan: Nothing was found
After Deep Scan: All files and folders were found with correct file names in the NTFS Folders section. All of them were successfully recovered. The scan took extremely long time.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 3.5Compare
After Quick Scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep Scan: Only raw files with incorrect names were found, they were recovered successfully.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 flv, 1 m4v, 1 mpeg, 10 mp3, 2 pdf, 6 docx, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 6 odt, 2 ods. The mkv files was recovered partially.
Damaged partition (exFAT – memory card): 0.0Compare
The program showed the size of the partition as 0 KB.
After Quick Scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep Scan: Nothing was found.
After Recover Lost Partition: Nothing was found.
Overall, nothing was found and recovered.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 0.0Compare
The program showed the size of the partition as 0 KB.
After Quick Scan: Nothing was found.
After Deep Scan: Nothing was found.
After Recover Lost Partition: Nothing was found.
Overall, nothing was found and recovered.
Deleted partition (NTFS): 6.0Compare
After Search Lost Partition: An NTFS 19.53 GB partition was found with all folders and files with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Search Lost Partition: An NTFS 19.53 GB partition was found with all folders and files with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT – memory card): 6.0Compare
After Recover Lost Partition: An exFAT partition was found with all folders and files with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
After Recover Lost Partition: A FAT32 partition was found with all folders and files with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
