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Features to Look for While Choosing a Data Recovery Software

Anand Karwa
Data loss can occur at anytime to anyone. There is no getting away from it. Making it all the more important to possess a good recovery software. Here is what you should consider before choosing a data recovery software.
The Importance of 1 Bit
We don't care about a few bits and bytes in this world of hi-speed 4G Internet, but the loss of even 1 bit of data can corrupt a zillion bytes of precious data!

At some point in life, we all have faced a dire situation when our digital storage device suddenly stopped working, or had somehow corrupted our precious data.
It's like the end of the world for us. We are not at all bothered about a malfunctioning flash/hard drive, but are extremely emotional about losing our data. Formatting can always be done if the partition gets corrupted due to some reason, but loss of data is of our utmost concern.
So, what do we do? We call up some data recovery firm and ask for their quote. Upon hearing their reply, we curse them (in our thoughts), and then format the drive with a cold heart. Some also wish if they too could recover the data themselves, but lose heart when they do not find a good data recovery software.

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To put an end to all this, read this Techspirited article that will tell you what to look for while choosing the best data recovery software. But before we begin, a word of caution.
Caution: Do not use the storage from which you want to recover the data. If you do not know how to use data recovery software, then please take the help of someone who does. Incorrect use of these software might lead to permanent data loss.
It should be easy to use.
This is one of the most important factors that you need to consider before buying any data recovery software. If the software is too complicated for you, then it's no good. One wrong step, and you have lost your data forever.
Should support for various data loss situations
Data loss might occur due to many situations. The most common scenarios are accidental data loss (deleting data by mistake, formatting the storage), data corrupted by virus or power outage, data loss due to damaged/lost disk partition, etc. A good software should be able to recover data lost due to all the above situations and more.
What data types can it recover?
The data recovery software should be able to recover folders, emails, and various file types like music, videos, images, archives (.zip, .rar, .7z, .tar, etc.), and MS Office files. It should also be able to restore files like .exe, .htm, .txt, etc.
Can it run from a removable storage media?
If you have lost data from your primary storage (HDD or SSD), then you should always run the data recovery software from some other storage media. If you want to recover data from a computer which won't start, then choose a software which can run from a live CD.
Does it support your partition type?
The data recovery software should be able to recover data from the partition type on your storage medium. Some of the popular partition types are FAT16, FAT32, ReFS, NTFS, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, HFS Plus, etc.
Look for the obvious things.
Is the company reputed and known for good customer support? This is an obvious thing to consider, but ignore it and your investment will go to waste. Before purchasing a software, check for its compatibility with your platform. It is also advised to read online user reviews and testimonials about the software.
We would also suggest you to keep a copy of your important data on multiple storage devices and keep them somewhere safe. Recuva, PC Inspector File Recovery  and Undelete 360 are my favorite data recovery software.
On a lighter note though, Data loss wouldn't lead to hair loss if you choose your data recovery software wisely. So, what do you use to recover your data?