Program for the restoration of hard drives. Hard disk recovery software. Disk file system structure

One of the biggest annoyances for PC owners can be hard disk sector corruption. Such sectors are called "broken", and the hard disk itself with such damage is said to have started to "crumble".

The ability to turn on / off the computer directly depends on the location of such damage. If the sectors where the operating system files are located are out of order, the PC will not turn on. If we are talking about sectors where other files are located, then the user will have the opportunity to boot the machine. Depending on this feature, a method is chosen to eliminate the bad sectors of the hard disk.

What to do

With this type of damage, you need to open "My Computer" and select the desired disk with the right mouse button. Next, from the options offered, select "Properties", then "Service" and "Check". Check the box "Automatically fix system errors" and "Check and repair bad sectors". By clicking "Start", the user starts checking the hard disk for damage. After that, it is instructed to restart the PC.

In the second case, you should have a disk with a virtual operating system or a Windows installation disk at hand. To start the computer, insert the disc into the drive and turn on the machine normally. All further actions are similar to those described in the previous paragraph. When working with the installation disc, a menu will appear with the option to select the "Restore System" command. As a result, the hard disk will be checked for bad sectors, and the damage found will be repaired.

Special programs

You can also check and repair your hard drive using a program launched through the recovery console. The Recovery Console itself can be launched without a boot disk. To do this, press the F8 key and select Safe Mode that supports the command line. After the console is loaded, the partition with Windows installed on it is selected. It is necessary to ensure that the partition matches the disk, after which the administrator password is entered. After the appropriate prompt appears in the line, the disk name, route and file name are entered. By pressing "Enter" the user starts the recovery process.

Thus, when checking the "C" partition of the hard drive, you need to start the system recovery console and issue the chkdsk c: / f / r command. It is easy to prevent such a nuisance in the future - for this you need to acquire special programs, for example, MHDD. Such

In this article, we will talk about bad sectors on the hard diskwhat they are and how to treat them. But first, let's find out where they come from?

Everyone knows that the hard drive consists of clusters are miniature cells. Each of the clusters is a logical storage of information, where files are constantly written. The combination of all clusters ensures the correct operation of the entire computer.

Bad block or bad sector - This is an unreadable disk sector that contains bad memory cells.

Such a hard disk is no longer suitable for working with the operating system, but you can try to use it as an external storage device, like a "large flash drive". If you use such a hard disk for storing data, it is advisable to cut off the place where the bad blocks are located using a hard disk program. For example, Acronis DiskDirector.

Bad sector on the hard disk

The most common the reason for the appearance of bad sectors - this is the natural wear and tear of the drive, i.e. if the hard disk has been working for many years, then simply due to the large number of write and read cycles to one sector or another, the hard disk starts to fail slowly but surely. As a rule, this is more than 10,000 hours of work. This increase in the access time to the sector is manifested, that is, for a new serviceable cell, it is on the order of 10-15 ms, then indicators of more than 150 ms indicate a strong wear of the drive. If one sector fails, then others will soon begin to fail, which means that you should think about replacing the hard drive, or at least copy the information you need.

Why bad sectors appear - we figured it out, now we will discuss how to identify them.

Victoria

Maybe you already know about the program Victoria is a program specially created for deep diagnostics of the hard drive. Victoria is available in 2 versions: with a graphical shell and without it (DOS version).

Received Smart in Victoria program

This is already a proven hard drive, and its main parameters are shown here, i.e. data SMART... During the surface test, the response time to the request for each sector can be obtained. The time is indicated from 5 milliseconds to 1.5 seconds and higher, the less - the better, the faster our hard drive reacts.

As for Smart, here you can be guided by the number of "", the more, the better. Judging by the quantity " Hardware ECC recovered"- it's time to change the hard drive.

• 1 Raw read error rate 100 253 6 0
• 3 Spin-up time 97 97 0 0
• 4 Number of spin-up times 94 94 20 6522
• 5 Reallocated sector count 100 100 36 0
• 7 Seek error rate 87 60 30 564751929
• 9 Power-on time 83 83 0 14937
• 10 Spin-up retries 100 100 97 0
• 12 Start / stop count 94 94 20 6273
• 187 Reported UNC error 1 1 0 103
• 189 High Fly writes 100 100 0 0
• 190 Airflow temperature 55 48 45 45 ° C / 113 ° F
• 194 HDA Temperature 45 52 0 45 ° C / 113 ° F
• 195 Hardware ECC recovered 80 64 0 100816244
• 197 Current pending sectors 100 100 0 0
• 198 Offline scan UNC sectors 100 100 0 0
• 199 Ultra DMA CRC errors 200 200 0 1
• 200 Write error rate 100 253 0 0
• 202 DAM errors count 100 253 0 0

Victoria also knows how to do many other operations with HDD, up to closing sectors.

With this function, bad sectors can be closedhowever, this will only slightly delay the failure.

You can download the Victoria program on the website, it is free and does not require installation on a computer.

If, for some reason, you did not like Victoria, then there is always an alternative, and many others, such as: Active boot disk, HDD Regenerator, R-Studio etc.

Broken sectors are not treated, but closed, and their disk space will be assigned to workers.

Recovering HDD with Victoria

No matter how high quality your hard drive is, sooner or later problems may arise with it. Incorrect removal of programs, viruses and malicious applications, wear and tear - all this can lead to a breakdown of the "hard drive" and the appearance of the so-called. The latter do not make themselves felt instantly, most likely months will pass before you notice the problem.

What are bad sectors?

For a more understandable definition of a broken sector, it will not be superfluous to understand the design of your hard drive. In general, it consists of rotating magnetic disks, which are divided into tracks, and these very tracks, in turn, are divided into sectors. They also record any information that you copy to your hard drive. Disk sectors have one unpleasant property - they deteriorate over time and you lose access to them. And this process is accelerated by improper work with a computer.

Freezing of the computer when trying to access any files, long copying from one partition to another, errors and restarting the PC - all this may be the result of a large number of bad blocks on your "screw". Some of them can be corrected, and some cannot be treated. By this sign and by the nature of the damage, all broken sectors can be divided into two types: physical and logical.

• Physical problems are the result of damage (for example), dust getting inside the hard drive, and normal wear and tear of the equipment. The main thing is to understand that in such cases, which can no longer be restored. Even the usual data recovery from such sectors will be a miracle;
• Logical badges appear under the influence of viruses, file system errors and incorrect writing of information to the disk (for example, a sudden shutdown of the computer while copying files or other active work). In such cases, it is not the sector's magnetic coating that is damaged, but its data. Such broken sectors are subject to treatment and can be corrected using a variety of programs at normal home conditions.

Programs for recovering bad sectors of the hard drive

Microsoft provides a built-in utility chkdsk to work with hard drives. By default, the utility only checks for file system errors, but if you add the key / fthen chkdsk will check the disk for bad blocks and try to fix them automatically. Of course, there are many alternative solutions from third-party manufacturers for checking the hard drive and fixing bad sectors that can be easily found on the Internet. Let's talk a little more about the most popular of them:

• Victoria - probably the most popular program for testing hard drives and recovering bad sectors on a hard drive. It can be used not only for treatment, but also for testing equipment. As the developers themselves note, when interacting with the hard drive, it ignores the file system and works at the level of I / O ports. This property ensures the most efficient and quality work. In addition, there are two versions of the program, one of which works directly from under Windows, and the other from under DOS. The latter is more versatile, but it is also recommended for experienced users.
• MHDD Is another popular program that works with equipment through controller ports. It also has two versions (Windows and DOS), both of which are completely free. Differs in very fast speed of work, which does not affect its quality in any way. In addition, it provides complete statistics on your device: the number of on and off cycles, the number of spindle revolutions, etc. As a minus, you can count the unfriendly program interface, which will become a problem for inexperienced users.
• HDD Regenerator - a unique program that, according to the developers, can even repair physical damage. The point is that often physically damaged sectors have incorrect magnetization, which is eliminated by this program. The rest of the set of characteristics and capabilities is similar to the above utilities.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the main danger of hard drives breakdown is not in them themselves, but in the information that is stored on them. For example, if your video card is out of order, you can simply replace it. If your hard drive is out of order, then all the materials that are often so important to us will disappear along with it. Therefore, even if you do not notice signs of poor performance of your hard drive, test it from time to time. After all, trouble is much easier to prevent than to fix.

A hard drive is a fragile device. Bad sectors are damaged cells for storing information on a hard disk. After some time using the hard disk, a problem with bad sectors may occur. Therefore, it is so important from time to time to deal with the restoration of broken sectors.

This is easily done using various programs, but first you need to determine if there are bad sectors. About this, as well as how to recover the boot sector of a hard drive, see our article.

How to repair damaged disk sectors

There are many ways to recover bad disk boot sectors. Let's consider several of these methods in detail.

How to restore sectors via Windows

If it is possible to enter the OS, then restoring the hard drive will not require much effort. To do this, open the context menu of the hard disk and select the "Properties" item.

In the new window that opens, select the "Service" tab, where we click on the "Check" item. We put a tick in front of the items "Automatically fix system errors" and "check and repair bad sectors." After that, we run the check.

If the disk is a system disk, then a reboot will occur and the verification process will begin. If the disk is not a system disk, then the check will pass without rebooting.

The system will find all errors by itself and carry out recovery. Then it will display statistics of the work done.

But sometimes it happens that the OS does not boot due to bad sectors.

How to recover bad sectors if the OS does not start

If Windows does not start, then you can take a disk with a virtual system and load the virtual OS. In it, all actions to restore the hard drive are performed in the same way as in the previous section.

If you do not have a virtual OS disk, then the Windows installation disk will help. After downloading it, you must select "System Restore". The recovery console will appear, where you need to select a local disk with your OS. This is usually the C: drive.

After rebooting, the console will appear, where you need to enter the command "CHKDSK [drive:]", where:

• / F is a disk check and error correction,
• / R is a search and repair for bad sectors.

After that press "Enter" and wait for the recovery to start. Then we exit the console and restart the computer. Everything is ready.

How to recover sectors using programs

To recover bad sectors on your hard drive, there are many programs that can be easily downloaded from the Internet. Let's consider their principle of operation using the example of the HDD Regenerator program.

The program restores bad sectors by remagnetizing them again. This is achieved by creating a virtual flash drive.

After installation, launch the program. In the window that opens, you will see several choices in Russian. You can recover bad sectors both in the operating system itself and using a flash drive or a regular disk from the console.

The program will check the bad sectors (broken) and restore them. For the most effective use of the program, it is better to use a bootable USB flash drive or disk that is created after installing the program.

In this article, we will tell you about recovering bad sectors of a hard drive and the reasons for their appearance. Step-by-step instructions will help you prepare for this procedure and cope with it yourself.

What are broken sectors

Let's take a quick look at the structure of the hard drive. It consists of several separate disks, above which there are magnetic heads for reading and writing information. When storing data, the heads magnetize certain areas of the disk, divided into tracks and smaller components - sectors. It is in them that the units of information are stored. If the sector becomes unavailable for reading, it is called "broken".

Several signs indicate the appearance of such a problem:

• squeaks, grinding, tapping when the disc is working;
• heating of the HDD surface (in a normal state this should not happen);
• frequent errors when working and starting the operating system.

Typical reasons

The main reasons for the appearance of broken segments of the hard drive are:

Also, malfunctions of the hard drive may appear due to mechanical damage. They are often caused by dropping the hard disk or computer, damaging the magnetic surface (for example, during transportation). Non-working parts also appear due to factory defects. In this case, they may not appear immediately, but "fall down" over time, rapidly increasing their number to a critical level.

Important! If you suspect mechanical damage or marriage, you should immediately contact a specialist or exchange the hard drive under warranty.

Recovering bad HDD sectors with Victoria

If the appearance of broken segments is associated with software failures, then they can be restored using specialized software. One of such programs for recovering bad sectors of hdd is Victoria. The utility is available in two versions - for Windows and DOS. The most effective recovery will be through DOS, since when the OS is running, some sectors may be busy, which means they are not available for scanning.

Scanning

To get started, we need to do a little preparation. First, you need a disk with a program image recorded on it or a bootable USB flash drive. If everyone can cope with recording an image, then difficulties can arise with creating a flash drive.

Let's dwell on this step in more detail:

Note! The program takes up very little space, so after installing it, the drive can be used to store other information. In order not to accidentally delete the files necessary for the utility to work, it is recommended to allocate a separate folder for them.

Let's start the scanning process:

Here we need the item "Reallocated sector count", which displays the number of fragments in the reserve zone, as well as "Current pending sectors"where the parts that cannot be read are displayed. If their number is not very high, then the disk should be recovered.

Hard drive recovery

Let's see exactly how this process takes place. Problem segments can be roughly divided into two types. The first ones are not readable due to the mismatch of the information stored in them and its checksums.

This error occurs during a power outage, when new data has already been written and the checksums remain old. They simply cease to be recognized and are restored quite easily - by formatting them and writing the correct amounts.

The second type occurs as a result of mechanical damage. In this case, recovery is more difficult, but still possible. The resumption of the performance of such parts is carried out through the use of reserve areas that are on each hard drive.

We begin to recover each of these types of errors.

Video: HDD - "treating" bad sectors

First, let's try to fix the bad sectors by erasing the information stored in them:

• press F4 and get to the check menu;
• in the menu for selecting operations with unreadable sectors, specify "BB: Erase 256 sect" and press "Enter".

A lengthy process of scanning and recovering bad sectors of the HDD will start. If the program finds a bad sector, it will try to erase it, thereby correcting the error. If a mechanical defect is present, an error will be reported. In any case, you need to wait until the check is complete and then separately correct the sectors with physical faults.

For this:

Now the restore operation will work on a different principle, trying not to erase the bad sectors, but to replace them with space from the spare area.

Important! If there are a lot of such sectors, then the spare space may run out. This will be announced by a special message, and further recovery will become impossible.

After successfully recovering bad sectors on the hard disk, it is recommended to perform a full check of the file system for errors.

This can be done using the CHKDSK utility or in the following way:

Attention! For the system not only to find, but also to fix the problems, before starting the scan, select "Automatically fix system errors."

One of the biggest annoyances for PC owners can be hard disk sector corruption. Such sectors are given the name "broken", and they say about the hard disk itself with such damage ...

Over time, bad sectors appear on any HDD that are inaccessible for reading. When the number of bad blocks exceeds all permissible limits, the hard disk refuses to work. However, under certain conditions, the hard drive can be cured using special software.

What are bad blocks?

HDD (hard disk) is a series of magnetic disks, above which there is a head that records and reads information. The drive surface is divided into tracks and sectors (smallest division unit). If information is not read from a certain sector, then this is: bad, bad, broken, or just a bad block.

Recovering bad sectors is not an easy task, but doable. If there are few bad blocks on the HDD, you can cure the disk, while simultaneously extending its life.

The very presence of bad sectors is a bad sign, so even after the repair, you cannot use the HDD for a long time - it can fail at any time.

Working with VictoriaHDD

VictoriaHDD is one of the most famous hard disk treatment programs. It is distributed under a free license and allows you to fix bad blocks in DOS mode. However, working with it requires some preparation.

Create a bootable USB flash drive and configure BIOS

Download the VictoriaHDD utility ISO and write it to a USB flash drive using WinSetupFromUSB.

1. Open WinSetupFromUSB and select the connected USB flash drive.
2. Check "Auto format", choose "FAT32".
3. Specify LinuxISO / otherGrub system and click the button on the right. Show the path to the downloaded ISO image through the explorer, click "Go" to start recording.
   
4. After creating the Victoria bootable media, you need to restart your computer and open the BIOS. In the "Main" section there is an item "SATA Mode" - for it you need to set the value "IDE", because in the "AHCI Mode" Victoria does not recognize the connected disk. Press F10 to exit BIOS and save changes.

After completing all the preparatory steps, restart your computer again. At startup, start pressing F11 to bring up the boot menu. Select the Victoria bootable flash drive to run the program in DOS mode.

Recovery and subsequent verification

To restore, do the following operations:

1. Once launched, press P (English) to bring up the Port Selection menu. If the hard drive is connected via SATA interface, select the “Ext. PCI ATA / SATA ". For hard drives connected via IDE, you need to select the appropriate port.
   
2. A list of channels appears, each with a number. See what number your disk is designated and enter it in the field below.
   
3. Press F9 to open the SMART table. Study two points: "Reallocated sector count" and "Current pending sectors". The first line contains the sectors transferred to the reserve zone; in the second - places from which information is not read (bad blocks). If there are few bad sectors, try to repair them.
4. Press F4 and start the "BB: Erase 256 sect" mode. If during the analysis the program finds a bad block, it will try to fix it. If the sector is not physically damaged, then Victoria will heal it. Information from this place will be erased (therefore, it is advisable to transfer all the necessary files in advance to another medium), but there will be fewer bad blocks.
   
5. If the sectors cannot be restored, transfer them to the backup area. Press F4 again and start the "BB: Classic REMAP" mode. Look at the SMART table after the scan is complete - the number of bad blocks should decrease.
   

After running Victoria HDD, it is advisable to check the disk:

These measures will help you to eliminate bad discs, which will ultimately lead to an increase in the duration of the hard drive.

Using HDD Regenerator

If Victoria seemed difficult, try performing disk recovery and fixing the so-called bad blocks using the HDD Regenerator program. The peculiarity of this utility is that it has access to the software and hardware of the HDD. HDD Regenerator really tries to cure bad sectors, while most programs prohibit access to bad blocks, as a result of which the volume of the hard drive decreases.

To fix this problem, start Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and close all applications. Go to the Processes tab and end all processes started by the user. Click Retry to make the program try to access the disk partitions.

If the warning window reappears, restart your computer and start the system in safe mode. You can ignore the warning by clicking "Cancel" rather than "Repeat", but then HDD Regenerator will work with some limitations.

A command line-like window will open. In it you will see 4 options for the program:

1. Checking and restoring bad blocks.
2. Checking without recovery, showing information about bad blocks.
3. Regeneration of bad sectors at a specific location.
4. Statistics output.

First select operating mode # 2. The hard disk will be checked for bad. The next screen will appear, where you are asked to specify the interval in which to search for bads. Better to start testing from the beginning, so leave the value at "0".

After starting disk scan, a progress bar will appear. You will have to wait a long time; sometimes the system will freeze - this indicates that the program has detected bad sectors and is now determining the extent of their damage.

When the hard disk surface analysis is complete, a report appears. Explore the “bad sectors founded” and “bad sectors recovered” items. These lines indicate the number of found and recovered bads. If the line “bad sectors founded” contains a lot of bad sectors, then it will hardly be possible to fix bad sectors, but you can try.

Recovery of bad blocks in HDD Regenerator

Connect the USB flash drive and run the HDD Regenerator program. Select the "Bootable flash drive" mode. Highlight the connected drive and click "OK". All information will be erased from the flash drive. Instead, files will be written to enable DOS mode. Further:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. When the system starts, start pressing the F11 key until the drive selection window appears.
3. Select the removable disk that contains the HDD Regenerator files.

The program will run in DOS - this mode is better suited for curing bad sectors. The window that you already saw when working in Windows will appear. Select check and restore bad blocks (operating mode # 1).

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In case of accidental file deletion, disk formatting, or hard disk errors, remember:

• It will not be possible to recover data by means of the OS itself, so we use third-party hard drive recovery programs;
• We try, if possible, not to use the disk from which we need to recover data at all.

Deleting files and emptying the recycle bin does not directly delete data on the hard drive. The reason for this is the rather lengthy process of complete removal. Therefore, in order to speed up the deletion of files, they came up with such "invisible storage" of documents. If another document is written in place of the deleted document, it will already be permanently deleted. Therefore, whenever possible, of course, we do not perform any operations of copying, deleting or moving data.

• We are looking for a program that suits our requirements.

Now we are just going to deal with the third point.

It should also be noted that disk recovery is a rather lengthy operation. Therefore, be patient. During recovery, it is not recommended to perform any actions with files on the disk (copy, delete, move). Such actions can only spoil everything. If your OS is installed on a disk that you want to recover, then the best option would be to write the program to a USB flash drive or disk and boot through them, and not through Windows.

In this article, I would like to give a list of programs for recovering data from a hard drive. These programs can be said to be universal and are suitable for recovering data not only from hard drives, but also from SSD, SD memory cards and USB flash drives.

Supported file systems: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, Linux Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, Linux Swap

Description:

Acronis Recovery Expert is included in the software package
Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation. Provides high-quality recovery of deleted or damaged hard disk partitions. If you want to be ready to perform recovery in case of unexpected data loss, then Acronis Recovery Expert is a must.

The program is paid, but for ordinary users there is an opportunity to use a trial version. Download the program from the link below.

Key features of the program:

1. Support for a large number of file system formats;
2. The ability to run the utility from bootable disks and flash drives if the operating system cannot be loaded;
3. Simple and intuitive Windows XP style interface;
4. Supports hard drives larger than 180 GB.

Active Partition Recovery Pro

Supported file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5

Description:

Convenient program for recovering your disk partitions. Supports a large number of file systems. Allows you not only to perform recovery, but you can even say to extend the life of your disk. The program can be launched both from under Windows and from under DOS by writing the program to disk or to a USB flash drive.

The program also allows you to recover individual files, but it is mainly used to recover entire disk partitions. If the data on the disk has been damaged by a virus, Active Partition Recovery Pro will allow you to recover it.
Screenshot:

HDD Regenerator

Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7/8/10

Description:

The program specializes in recovering bad sectors of the hard drive. The working window of the program is the command line. Quite not modern, but this utility can help in situations where using other programs did not help.

The program is quite easy to use, but before using it it will not be superfluous to study the specifics of its operation and the functions of the program.

Screenshot:

Hetman Partition Recovery

Supported file systems: FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS

Description:

A program for recovering hard disk partitions and individual files. The program will help with accidental deletion of data or formatting, works with existing partitions, damaged and inaccessible disk partitions allowing you to restore them.

The advantage is the support of various storage devices: SD memory cards, flash drives and hard drives. The work in the program is quite convenient, it is carried out both in manual mode and in the wizard mode, with which you can step by step configure data recovery.

The trial version can be downloaded from the developer's official website.

Screenshot:

R-Studio

Supported OS: Windows 2000, XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10

Description:

A program for recovering data from flash drives, hard drives, USB drives. Supports almost all operating systems of the Windows family and can work with a large number of file systems.

R-Studio features

• File system support: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, HFS / HFS +, UFS1 / UFS2, Ext2 / Ext3 / Ext4 FS;
• Creation of an image of the entire recovered disk for further work with it;
• Data recovery after disk formatting, accidental file deletion;
• Ability to save data to a network drive or other media.

Screenshot:

Zero Assumption Recovery

Supported OS: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10

Description:

An excellent program for data recovery. Recovers FAT and NTFS partitions.

ZAR is read-only and does not make any changes to the recovered disk. This avoids the risk of further damage to the partition.

Screenshot:

Looking for hard drive data recovery software? Don't know how to recover a deleted hard drive partition? Do you want to recover data lost after formatting or deleting a logical partition? Is your information unavailable after a virus attack, file system failure?

Download for free
The size: 13 MB

Hetman Partition Recovery ™ 2.8

The program recovers data from hard and external drives, as well as any other devices under FAT, NTFS file systems. The utility combines a set of algorithms that recover the name, attributes, file contents and original disk directory structure.

In addition to the existing ones, the utility finds all previously created disk partitions and displays them to the user for further analysis and search for deleted information. Supporting FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS used in Windows, the program fixes any errors in the logical structure of the hard drive and returns its contents faster than you can count to three.

$150 Price: RUB 2,999

Video

The tool is extremely easy to use. The step-by-step "Assistant" and the interface in Russian allow you to quickly and safely complete the task. Check out the basic features and interface by watching the video.

Appointment

Hetman Partition Recovery is the flagship product. The innovative algorithm used by the company makes it possible to find and restore in full volume almost all files in the vast majority of cases.

Recovers any files deleted from a hard or USB drive, memory card or any other media carrier, regardless of memory size and manufacturer. The software will successfully recover data lost from personal computers, laptops, digital cameras and other gadgets. Low-level internal content search algorithms will return documents in the most difficult cases.

Recovers information from formatted, deleted partitions or disks after changing the file system from FAT to NTFS (and vice versa). Hetman Partition Recovery finds and analyzes any data stored on the disk. Even if the file tables are empty or completely absent, the utility will recover the lost by applying algorithms for finding information by the signatures of the beginning and end of the document.

Successfully recovers files deleted using the "Shift" + "Delete" key combination, deleted by third-party software, or lost as a result of emptying the Windows Recycle Bin. Work in the "Quick Analysis" process takes only a few seconds, in the "Deep Analysis" mode the program examines the entire surface of the hard disk and returns all available information.

Recovers information destroyed or blocked as a result of virus attacks. Viruses, Trojans and other types of malicious code can deliberately destroy information or make it inaccessible by altering or deleting important system disk structures. The utility is equipped with a series of innovative algorithms that successfully extract information from infected hard drives.

Recovers information lost after system or hardware failures, physical damage, power outages, or driver errors. Often, errors in the system firmware of the disk ("Firmware") lead to the deletion of important documents.

A logical disk may be damaged or not accessible at all if a lengthy file copy operation is interrupted by an operating system crash or power failure. The utility successfully reads information from damaged, unreadable and inaccessible disks and opens access to lost or inaccessible files.

Capabilities

It is a versatile tool for successfully solving common data deletion problems, it supports both scratch disks and inaccessible and damaged logical partitions and returns information so that it does not become the reason for its loss.

File formats

Returns deleted files regardless of extension:

• Microsoft and Open Office text documents (DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, PDF, etc.);
• Digital images (JPEG, PSD, EPS, TIFF, PNG, etc.);
• Spreadsheets and presentations (XLS, XLSX, ODS, etc.);
• Compressed archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.);
• Video and audio recordings (AVI, DAT, MKV, MPG, VOB, MP3, etc.).

Recovers hard, external USB and SSD drives

Hetman Partition Recovery works with hard and external USB drives (IDE, ATA, SATA, SCSI, etc. interfaces are supported), as well as with any other devices connected to the computer by USB cable.

Supports memory cards (SD, MicroSD, SDHC, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, etc.) used in Mp3 players, tablets, cameras, mobile phones, smartphones, DVRs, GPS navigators.

Works with USB solid state drives from various manufacturers (A-Data, Corsair, Goodram, HP, Kingston, LaCie, PhotoFast, PNY, SanDisk, Silicon Power, TDK, Team, Toshiba, Transcend, Verbatim, etc.).

Ease of use

The recovery process is very simple and takes place in 3 stages. By answering simple questions from the built-in "Wizard", you will find deleted files in a few minutes. The interface resembles the standard Windows Explorer window, which displays both existing and deleted files and folders. Moving from folder to folder and viewing the contents of the found documents, you will quickly select and save the desired objects. Detailed documentation is fully translated into Russian.

Hard disk analysis methods

Master File Table

Documents are stored in the form of sequences of bytes written to the hard disk one after another or randomly scattered over its surface. The logical disk driver keeps records of which sectors the information with the contents of the file is in in a special table. During deletion with "Shift" + "Delete" or emptying the "Recycle Bin", the operating system marks the sectors in this table as free and available for writing new objects. The utility analyzes the contents of such a table and opens access to remote files to the user.

Disk file system structure

System errors, virus attacks, physical damage, deletion or formatting of logical drives lead to complete or partial overwriting of the Master File Table and, as a result, loss of important documents. The program finds file tables using all the preserved disk system information (partition tables and their fragments, master boot record), processes and extracts the contents and service attributes of lost files.

Disk signature analysis

Often the contents of a file are saved on disk in full, and information about where it is stored is overwritten with new files. "Signature Analysis" recovers files based on their contents. When it detects a specific sequence of bytes on the disk (eg, "49 49" or "4D 4D" for a TIFF file) indicating the beginning of the file, the program reads and displays its contents to the user. The utility is unique in that it combines all the above recovery algorithms. The result of the work exceeds the capabilities of most specialized laboratories.

Preview and HEX editor

The trial version allows you to analyze the storage medium and view the contents of the files found for recovery. If the file is displayed in the preview area, then it will definitely be restored in full. In addition to previewing deleted images, documents, spreadsheets, multimedia files, compressed archives, the utility has a HEX editor. Using the HEX editor, you can see in which sectors the contents of the remote file are located, as well as view the service information about logical disks or the entire physical storage medium.

Hard disk recovery security

Any operations with files (for example, creating, editing, viewing and saving) lead to changes in the records of file tables and to full or partial overwriting of the contents of deleted files. In the case of working with a "broken" disk, every minute of work can lead to failure of the entire medium and the irrecoverable loss of part of the data. Hetman Partition Recovery is designed to meet all the security requirements for a professional hard drive tool. The hard disk scan is performed in read-only mode. The utility supports the creation and subsequent recovery of data from a virtual image, which significantly reduces the time of the failed disk.

Saving results

For most users, the hard drives of computers and laptops are filled with valuable information: family photos, work documents, etc. When saving the recovered data, you cannot use the disk from which the files were deleted. This will completely or partially overwrite the lost files.

Most of us store a lot of important information on our hard drive. And almost always everything is fine, but it so happens that the unexpected happens. Once again you start the computer and get an error - a message that the hard drive is damaged. In this case, you need to rebuild the hard drive. In principle, this is a simple procedure, but not for a beginner. Let's take a closer look at this issue.

Mechanical damage to the hard drive

There are many problems that arise through the fault of PC users. But it so happens that not everything depends on us, and the hard drive fails without human intervention. This can happen due to damage to the power supply when the engine stops starting. In this case, it is enough to use special utilities that will help solve problems. A little later we will definitely consider a few of them.

If you notice that the hard drive constantly knocks or makes other incomprehensible sounds, then most likely the matter is in the damage to the magnetic head unit. In this case, you will hardly be able to do it on your own, so you will have to call a specialist who will solve the problem.

There are other common problems such as switch failure or motor inoperability caused by negligence in technology. It is worth noting that logical errors are much more common, which are eliminated by installing special programs.

As a rule, hard disk recovery takes place without complications. All that is required from the user is to install special software and spend some free time.

Recovering data from a hard drive with Recuva

This utility is ideal for working with file systems such as NTFS and FAT. It is worth noting that there is a so-called portable version that runs from a USB flash drive. This is necessary in cases where the hard drive refuses to work, and there is no disk drive. Since it is completely free, it is very popular among ordinary users, but not professionals, which is due to some shortcomings, for example, the inability to recover files that were deleted some time ago.

During the first launch of the utility, you will be prompted to select what you want to restore. To mark all files, click opposite "other". Then indicate the path (in our case, this is the hard drive). The process takes a lot of time. It all depends on the capacity of the HDD, as well as on the reading speed. We can safely say that in 90% of cases, data recovery from a hard disk with the Recuva program is successful. You just need to make sure that after deletion no records are made to the hard drive.

UndeletePlus - hard drive recovery software

If you formatted your hard drive, and there was extremely important information, do not worry, this utility will solve all problems. It is completely free, but its functionality is suitable only for a beginner, since the number of tools is very limited. Everything here is extremely simple and understandable thanks to the Russian-language interface.

To begin with, select the disk on which important information was stored, and start scanning it. At the end of the process, choose a location to restore. By the way, it is desirable that this was not the medium on which the work is carried out, since the correctness of the files may be violated. There is also a recovery wizard. It is more suitable for beginners as it has step-by-step instructions. Basically, this hard drive recovery program is good for home use, and nothing more. Moving on.

For professionals - R-Studio

The optimal solution for most large offices and companies that save gigabytes of useful information on their computers every day is to install paid programs. This is exactly what R-Studio is. Its main advantage is that it allows you to recover files that were lost as a result of formatting, deleting, or trivial damage to the hard drive. If the operating system does not even start, then for our utility this is not a problem at all, since it is possible to create a boot disk or drop it onto a USB flash drive. Here are the main features of R-Studio:

• data recovery from HDD, flash drive, memory card, CD, DVD-disk;
• work with damaged hard drives;
• support for FAT, NTFS on MAC OC, Linux;
• recover files from hard drive RAID arrays, etc.

It is safe to say that this program is one of the most popular among professionals. This is due to its wide capabilities and relatively low cost.

How do you find what suits everyone?

If you need a comprehensive hard drive data recovery, a program called Recovery Software is the best solution. This is due to the fact that it is a whole software package. Each separately taken utility is designed to solve specific problems. What features does this development have? Consider below.

By downloading this software package, you have seven programs at your disposal. For example, RS Partition Recovery is designed to recover a hard drive after accidental formatting. It supports all popular file systems today, while RS FAT Recovery is used to restore the logical structure of a disk, flash drive, etc. In addition, this package includes products that are specifically designed for photo recovery. It often happens that the resulting images have dead pixels. The assembly has RS File Repair, which is designed to solve this problem. Works with JPG, TIFF, PNG.

We can say that the main advantage of such a solution lies in its broad functionality, but often an ordinary user does not see any reason to overpay for packages he does not need, and this is correct.

What to do if bad sectors appear?

Sometimes users notice that folders start disappearing from the computer, and the operating system takes a little longer to load. If there are read errors and logical disks are violated, we can say that bad blocks appear. It is difficult to say what exactly causes this kind of problem. In some cases, this is due to the lifespan of the hard drive, and sometimes logical failures. But in any case, you need to do something and somehow restore the missing folders.

There are many programs that will help us solve this problem. One of the best is Data Extractor. Its main advantage is the following: you can work with the hard drive in technological mode. This solution is good because you can perform multiple reads with skipping or ignoring the control code. As a result, 90-100% of the information that was on the broken sectors is restored.

Stellar Phoenix - powerful software for the hobbyist and professional

This utility is good because it has a very wide functionality. Recovering information from a hard drive can be performed regardless of what has been lost. This refers to the format of the document, executable file, etc. This is due to the fact that this utility recognizes more than one hundred eighty seven formats, and the medium can be almost any - from a memory card and a CD to an external hard drive. There is also a drawback - it is impossible to recover RAID arrays, since it will not be possible to create a copy of the image to work with it, and not with the original.

I am glad that even a beginner can figure out the menu and navigation. This is due to the fact that hard disk recovery after formatting takes place in Russian. You can hardly make a mistake, since after launching the utility itself will ask what needs to be done. The following choices are provided:

• work with a hard drive;
• image recovery;
• recovery of files on CD- / DVD-disks.

Victoria - fast and reliable

The utility is designed to work only on Windows; this is the main drawback of this product. But, despite this, he is very popular. Victoria has recently been released, running on DOS systems.

The strong point of the utility is its diagnostics, which can tell almost everything about the hard drive. The most interesting thing is that there is an opportunity to find out how much more the hard disk will work. Based on the data received, you can conclude whether to buy a new hard drive or repair it with paid programs.

But that's not all. The fact is that if the recovery of hard disk sectors is impossible, Victoria will simply mark them as non-working. After that, they will not be read, and the speed of reading, as well as loading the OS, will increase slightly. Even a beginner will understand how the utility works. There is a main window, which displays basic information about the hard drive, and a "test" section. The latter is needed in order to detect bad sectors, and, if possible, cure or block them.

What everyone should know

Most of the above utilities work the same way. But you have to gain a little theoretical knowledge, and only then proceed to recovery. For example, after testing, you need to figure out which disk sectors are working normally and which are not.

Various colors are used as designation. For normal sectors - gray, for workers with signal delay - green. Orange is assigned to sectors that take too long to read. It is they who cause the braking, so there should be no more than 50 of them. Red - damaged, which cannot be restored. Sometimes there are also blue ones with a cross, information about which could not be obtained. Such sectors require re-annotation.

Several important points

Do not forget that recovering a damaged hard drive always takes a long time. During the operation, it is not recommended to perform any actions at all (write / delete / copy) on the hard drive, otherwise you can only make it worse. It is best to use utilities that can be dropped onto a USB flash drive or disk so as not to download them to the hard drive. This will provide faster testing.

Conclusion

As you can see, not everything is as complicated as it might seem at first glance. There are free and paid programs, of course. If you are not an employee of a large office, but an ordinary user, and just want to perform a hard disk recovery after a recent formatting or for any other reason, then it hardly makes sense to buy software. As practice shows, there are a lot of free utilities, the functionality of which allows you to do everything you need to do (and even a little more). There are fewer Russian-language software, but with due diligence, you will definitely find a suitable option. In addition, some programs in English have an intuitive interface.