CNET Editors' review
File recovery has never been easier thanks to Pandora Recovery. The program's wizard-like approach to finding and retrieving lost files will appeal to all users.
The user interface is about as straightforward as it gets. Clean and simple menu and command buttons run across the top of the paneled window, while a tree-menu containing hard-disk folders to browse resides in a sidebar. But what stood out the most was the program's wizard, which walked us through the process of locating long-lost files. It first prompts you to check your Recycle Bin, which sounds obvious, but is a necessary time-saver. The program has three search settings (Browse, Search, Deep Scan) and each has its own description so that you'll know which to choose. Depending on the search setting you select, the program's interface changes to accommodate the search. We started with a Deep Scan, which detects deleted file types. Once we selected the file types to include in the scan (All, Images & Photo, Archived Files, Music & Sounds) the program immediately went to work scanning our hard disk. Considering the task at hand, the program quickly pulled up deleted files.
We liked the quick help links located throughout the interface to answer specific questions, but the program does included a very thorough built-in Help file. Our only complaint is that it left files that had to be manually deleted during uninstallation. However, we highly recommend this free program for any user looking to quickly locate a lost file.
Publisher's Description
From Pandora:
Pandora Recovery is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. And that does not mean restoration of a file from Recycle Bin. The software recovers files removed from Recycle Bin, deleted using Shift + Delete keys bypassing Recycle Bin and files deleted from DOS prompt. Pandora Recovery lets its user browse, search, preview and recover files deleted from NTFS and FAT volumes, supporting hard drives, flash drives and memory cards. It successfully handles archived, hidden, encrypted and compressed files and recovers Alternate Data Streams (ADS). Pandora Recovery features classic interface wizards, hints and context-sensitive help. Pandora Recovery allows user to browse and search the tree of deleted files where show deleted items only button comes handy. Finally, it has ability to scan drive clusters, picking up files whose MFT record has been reused by OS, damaged or recreated (it can restore files on formatted drives).
Version 2.1.1 supports Data carving (surface scan) of Adobe PhotoShop PSD and MS Outlook PST.
What's new in this version: Data carving (surface scan) of Adobe PhotoShop PSD and MS Outlook PST supported, access to Recycle Bin and GUI improvements.
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All versions:
4.1 starsout of 516 votes
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Current version:
4.0 starsout of 300 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Saved my files"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
quick to search shift del files from any drive,easy to recover,free
Cons
oh no no not find any or say just ignoring even if any becoz it really works
Summary
My cleaning habit gave me hard time when dont how shift del all my pics...o man, have googled if can recover them and found this saver, installed it and in less than 10 min recovered 2 GB data.Thx guys.
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"FREE Recovered ALL deleted files on CF card"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
FREE, I paid $40 for another program that did not work. Don't pay! Pandora Recovery found all of my files and recovered them in about 20 minutes. Fully recovered and completely free!!!!
Cons
NONE except that I didn't find it fast enough!
Summary
As I said above I downloaded at least 3 other programs that ran exceptionally long scans and found files but required me to pay to recover them (anywhere from $40-$100). This program is completely FREE and restored ALL of my files from my CF card. The images were taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XT and were in the .jpg format. There is no size limit - I recovered the entire 8GB card. Wasted at least 5 hours last night. Found Pandora this morning and I have my files back!
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"Miracle program that really works"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
WORKS!!!!
FreeCons
Didn't have any
Summary
My SD card became infected when trying to download some very important images onto my computer. Thinking I couldn't do anything about it I formatted my card. REALLY wanting my pictures I googled how to recover deleted infected files and came up with a few that were suppose to work. Downloaded about 4 different programs, which were not able to recover any files. Tried CNET and chose Pandora because it had the highest rating. I was able to recover all the photos that I needed and many more. So glad I came across this!
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"Great recovery tool"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
Very easy to use.
Free.Cons
A bit slow.
The UI has some drawbacks -
"Pandora helped to recover a single deleted photo."
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
Simple interface allowed me to choose the disk and the date range of the deleted photo. Other software would only scan the whole disk. In a matter of 5 minutes the program was downloaded and the missing photo was recovered.
Cons
No problems.
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"Great program"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
Downloaded and recovered deleted pictures from an SD card. The pictures were deleted on another PC or the camera. This program found them and recovered them all. From D/L to burning to a CD took about 5 minutes.
Cons
None. Used the program once.
Summary
Great program to recover deleted pictures from an SD card and probably other media too.
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"It's great at what it does."
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
It's great at what it does. The best part about it is it's hassle free.
Cons
None. I didn't encounter any problems.
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"TGFPR Thank Goodness For Pandora Recovery"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
1 hr 45 min 52 seconds to complete task
95.7gb 214 folders
All of this adding up to 16,638 Pictures.
Fully Recovered.
That had been permanently deleted. When I was attempting to move them from one drive to another, then erase the folder from the original location. (to my horror clicking "YES" to "do you want to permanently delete this folder" resulted in both picture folders being deleted from both drives.)Cons
None that I can see so far.
Summary
Highly recommend this FREE recovery program. I am extremely pleased.
I would also like to add that this is 32-BIT Vista Home on a dual quad core with 4.00 GB RAM and 5 terabytes of memory.
Updated on May 8, 2012
Pandora Recovery seemed to have no problem sorting through this machine. -
"CRASHED!!!"
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
1.) Free
2.) Probably good for smaller storage disks
3.) Some people claim that it allows you to save original folder structure for any files you want to recover however since my scan froze I couldn't see any options for that
4.) Allows you to view list recovered files before scan is completeCons
I ran the scan for my 300 gb external harddrive and it gave me an initial 3 hr scan-time estimate. Other programs I tried estimated on average 5 hrs. One hour in the estimate changed to 11 hrs. The progress bar stopped moving from that time on and I let it sit for one day before closing the program. This is the first program I tried that never completed the scan. It found about 2000 files and did not organize them in their original folder structures. Other programs found >20,000 files. I'm still hoping to find a program that saves original folder structure :p
Summary
Well it's free, so if no other program works for you at least you get some files back here.
This sw also does not recover avi files
Updated on Apr 22, 2012 -
"Unsure how it happened, but deletion was rescued."
Version: Pandora Recovery 2.1.1
Pros
Not sure how it happened, but a 200 gig file was deleted from my external hard drive. Possibly a virus, or just a 'bug' in the system, but I lost backup files for 25 Website clients.
Pandora recovered every single file to its original state in perfect order. Pandora saved my butt!Cons
Recovery takes a lot of time, but I feel guilty even complaining about even that.
Summary
Worth having in your system, 'cause you never know!
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