Lost file recovery utilities - just in case

[Astronuc]

Some months ago, I lost (or perhaps Windows lost) about 1.5 GB of data. Actually, the files were still there, but the FAT got hosed.

I did not realize it at the time and unfortunately had saved some stuff to the HD. Once I realized what had happened I got a copy of "File Scavenger" - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm . I was able to recover most of the files (about 95-97%), although some files were corrupted - mixed content. Fortunately, I had some of that backed up elsewhere - so no data lost.

I am not endorsing this particular product, but its out there in case of emergency.

 

[PerennialII]

I used it about 6 months ago on a portable firewire drive of about 500 Gb, which developed a serious bad block problem (had to be replaced), the drive had about 300 Gb of stuff within it at the time and was able to completely recover around 250 Gb of it before replacing the HDDs. I tried a number of other software for extracting the data, but Scavenger was the one which was able to do the most good - so in case the worst happens giving it a go can be a good idea.