MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 20, 2012

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition is a free file- and data-recovery tool for Windows. It bundles several tools that together can recover lost and deleted data from hard drives, USB drives, and nearly every kind of disk or directory that can hold (and lose) data. Of course, not all lost data can be recovered, and there's no guarantee that recovered data will be intact or still usable. But MiniTool's modules are focused on specific data-recovery tasks, giving you a good chance of getting your data back. Its wizard-based operation and simple interface make it easy enough for beginners: just follow each step and you'll do fine. The free edition is limited to 1GB of data. That's a lot, and more than enough for most truly critical data, though not enough for, say, a copied DVD. A paid upgrade is available, if you need more.

MiniTool's installer warns that you should never install the program on the disk partition containing the lost data since that can cause irretrievable data loss. It's always best to run data-recovery operations from a separate, healthy disk, and usually necessary as well. MiniTool's colorful, simple user interface has large buttons for its five modules: Undelete Recovery, Damaged Partition Recovery, Lost Partition Recovery, Digital Media Recovery, and CD/DVD Recovery. Two more buttons let you contact technical support and buy a bootable CD (you can create a bootable system repair disk with your system's existing Windows Backup, too).

We strongly advise against damaging or deleting a partition on purpose, but we had no qualms about trying MiniTool on data and partitions we'd created specifically for deleting and recovering, starting with our D drive. MiniTool quickly scanned the drive and displayed the results in a neat tree view. We could click through to recover just certain files or select the whole thing via check boxes. MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition will only recover partitions up to 1GB, which clearly isn't enough for today's disks, though it's enough for many USB drives, which lead hard lives and can be damaged by rough handling. Certainly we recommend trying the freeware before the premium version.

Publisher's Description

From MiniTool:

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is an easy-to-use and all in one free file recovery software for home users. With this most effective free file recovery tool, you do not need to have technical background to use it. All the data recovery steps are logical and easy like 1-2-3. Just follow the data recovery step, and you will get your lost data back. Unlike other free file recovery software. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is very powerful and professional. It not only helps you recover deleted files, but also recovers data from damaged, reformatted hard drive as well. Furthermore, MiniTool Power Data Recovery not only recovers data from hard disk and RAID device, but also supports to recover data from CD, DVD disks, memory card, memory stick, and flash drive. As a data recovery software suite, MiniTool Power Data Recovery includes five data recovery modules - Undelete Recovery, Damaged Partition Recovery, Lost Partition Recovery, Digital Media Recovery and CD/DVD Recovery. Each data recovery module focuses on different data loss condition.

What's new in this version: Enhanced scan & recovery data engine with automatic error correction.