The reason to do so is pretty simple. I am kind of lazy to delete the same stuff twice and if I were to leave everything in recycle bin, I’ll have no space left on my 80 Gig drive. As a result, I have lost some really important information from my system. But the good thing about me is my obsession to install a data recovery software/undelete software after a fresh install of Windows and this habit (a good one for a change) has saved me from losing critical information.

The data can be lost not just because of an ignorant habit but also due to virus attacks or accidentally deleted partition or formatted drive from which you forgot to take backup of some folder or file.

Now that I have given you the argument about deletion of files, I am sure you have realized that this post will be looking at softwares which are life savers and are called as data recovery softwares. They help you recover files from your drive which were lost because of any of the reasons mentioned above.

The scope of this post will be restricted to only Windows platform. However, we will cover Linux and Mac in a similar post in future. Also, for a change we are not going to just focus our attention on free data recovery softwares. We are going to look at the best available solution even if they cost you some bucks. It’s up to you do a cost benefit analysis before buying these softwares.

Let’s start by looking at some data recovery softwares. They are not in any order of ranking or rating.

1. Recover My Files

License: Free to try and $59.95 to buy

OS: All Windows

Limitations: You cannot save the recovered files in the trial mode. You’ll have to buy the software to save the files.

Recover My Files is one of the industry’s leading data recovery software provider. Following are some of the features offered by Recover My Files:

It has a very easy to use user interface. You can preview the files before restoring them and will be able to recover your data with just a few clicks.

Win Free Licenses worth $59.95 each.

We at TNerd are giving away 2 license keys worth $59.95 each of RecoverMyFiles to the 2 lucky commentators. Thanks to GetData.com for giving away two licenses of RecoverMyFiles to our readers. In order to win the licences comment on the this post and tell us the cause of data loss and what kind of data you lost.

The winners will be the first two commentators, so leave your genuine email while commenting on the post. The two winners will be chosen by the sole discretion of TNerd.com depending on the quality of the comment.

However, for people who could not make it on time to comment on the post, don’t get disappointed as you can get Recover My Files at 25% discount by using the following discount coupon.

Recover My Files Discount Coupon: EV6D3A

2. VirtualLab Data Recovery

License: Free to try and $39.95 for just 100MB data. For 1 GB of data you’ll have to pay $99.95 and $199.95 for 10 GB.

OS: All Windows, Mac

Limitations: You cannot save the recovered files in the trial mode. You’ll have to buy the software to save the files.

Boasts of being six data recovery programs in one, VirtualLab Data Recovery can help you with recovering deleted data, corrupted or formatted drives, CD & DVD-ROM Disks, RAID, flash drives, thumb drives, camera cards, USB/Firewire drives, Outlook & Thunderbird E-mail and even Mac Volumes. The software also makes sector by sector disk image of a failing hard disk, so you can perform safe recovery of that portion.

3. GetDataBack Data Recovery

License: Free to try and $79.00

OS: All Windows different software for FAT and NTFS.

Limitations: You cannot save the recovered files in the trial mode. You’ll have to buy the software to save the files.

With an easy to use interface, GetDataBack Data Recovery claims to recover almost all kind of data deleted, damaged or corrupted with virus. The biggest draw back of GetDataBack Recovery is that it has different software for recovering FAT and NTFS format drives.

Get 20% Discount at GetDataBack only at TNerd.com

You can also avail a 20% discount on GetDataBack Data Recovery. All you have to do is put TNERD0808 into the field for comments and suggestions on GetDataBack Recovery online order form. The offer is valid till 15 Sep 2008.

GetDataBack Data Recovery Discount Coupon: TNERD0808

4. Active@ UNDELETE

License: Free to try and $39.95

OS: All Windows

Limitations: In trial mode you can recover only files which are less than or equal to 64KB in size

Active@ UNDELETE comes with the feature to preview your files before restoring them and has a very simple and user friendly interface. Let’s see what the company promises to offer

Active@ UNDELETE – Data Recovery is a powerful data recovery software that helps you to recover deleted files, lost and formatted data from hard drives, floppy disks, basic and dynamic volumes, hardware or software RAID<RAID0 & RAID5>.

Software supports: NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, NTFS5, NTFS+EFS file systems and works under all Windows family operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP and Windows VISTA. Besides hard disk drives program supports recovery from removable devices like Secure Digital, Compact Flash, SmartMedia, SONY Memory Stick, ZIP drives, USB Hard drives etc …

5. File Scavenger Data Recovery

License: Free to try and $49.00

OS: All Windows

Limitations: In trial mode you can recover only files which are less than or equal to 64KB in size

File Scavenger Data Recovery claims to recover Hard disks, floppy disks, ZIP disks, memory sticks, flash cards, RAIDs, and more. It can recover data lost due to Accidental deletion, removal from the Recycle Bin. Corrupt disk, formatted or deleted volume or partition. Partially damaged disk with bad spots. Broken RAID or spanned volume.

6. Restorer2000 Pro

License: Free to try and $30.00

OS: All Windows

Limitations: In trial mode you can recover only files which are less than or equal to 128KB in size

Following is a description from the publisher’s site:

Restorer2000 PRO 3.3 is the complete professional solution for your data recovery needs and has all the features and benefits of Restorer2000 3.3 plus adds some advanced data recovery capabilities such as recovery from hardware and software RAID, basic and dynamic disks.

The PRO version also has additional file recovery algorithm that searches for files of known types using typical features of their structures and allows: to increase the file recovery quality when the file system is not damaged; to restore files that are not recognized in file system metadata and not found during disk scanning; to recover files from devices with unknown file systems including HD, CD, DVD, external ZIP/USB, removable SmartMedia, Memory Stick, SD cards, etc..

I hope you enjoyed the review and have participated in the contest. TNerd will be bringing you more such contests and on a regular basis and hence subscribing to our RSS would help you keep informed of these contests. We’ll be announcing the two lucky winners as soon as we have the results.