DIY DataRecovery.nl iRecover

iRecover is DIY DataRecovery.nl’s flagship product and it is not your typical undelete utility. It offers advanced features not found in any free data recovery software such as NAS and RAID recovery and exceptional bad sector handling. As DIY DataRecovery.nl reseller and technical support partner, DiskTuna offers full support on iRecover.

You can download iRecover (no setup, portable as long as .NET is on the system) here – 32/64 bit – ZIP File. Just unzip iRecover.exe to a safe location: Do not save on the disk you are trying to recover data from!

You can purchase iRecover from DIY DataRecovery.nl ($59). No longer available. I suggest ReclaiMe File Recovery instead.

Interface

iRecover features a wizard like approach interface. In each step of the data recovery process you make a choice after which iRecover goes to work or takes you to the next step where you make another choice. For example, during step 1 you select a data recovery mode and click next. The next step, iRecover asks you to select the partition from which you want to recover data.

Example: Steps required for NAS and ‘unformat’ type Data Recovery using iRecover.

iRecover data recovery step 1

Select Recovery Mode

iRecover - step 2, select drive/partition to recover data from. In case of NAS recovery select largest software RAID

Select disk or Virtual RAID

iRecover- Step 3, scan drive. iRecover scans for file system structures and individual files

Scan runs, no user interaction

iRecover presents the file and directory structure from which files and folders can be tagged for recovery

Tag folders and files

iRecover - Step 5, copy recovered files to another disk. iRecover tries to rebuild the original directory structure

Copy data to safety

Capabilities

  • Digital Image Recovery: Free module, designed to do RAW photo recovery from memory cards.
  • Windows and Linux recovery: FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4 and XFS support.
  • Recovers file names and directory structure.
  • NAS Recovery (use Windows and Linux Data Recovery mode). Automatic parsing of MD RAIDs and support for common NAS file systems (XFS, EXT).
  • RAID Data Recovery: Automatic (virtual) RAID reconstruction for broken RAID arrays. Supports RAID 0, 1 and 5.  Also, iRecover supports RAID 5 reconstruction with one disk missing.
  • Additional tasks: SMART viewer for estimating disk health and 2 pass disk imaging.
  • Configurable disk access parameters (for dealing with bad sectors).
  • Advanced settings to override defaults.

Typical scenarios in which iRecover can be used

I will list scenarios, but usage of iRecover is not limited to those! Sometimes a combination of symptoms may occur. A more complex scenario is discussed here.

  • Partition Recovery: Partition(s) disappeared due to accidental deletion, MBR corruption etc.. Disk manager is showing unallocated disk space where partition used to be. iRecover allows you to copy files to another disk.
  • Accidental format. This is often called ‘unformat’ in other tools. This recovery mode is not limited to reformatted drives, but is meant to recover files from any kind of file system corruption (example: RAW file system). A virtual file system is rebuilt in memory from which you copy files to another disk.
  • RAID Recovery from degraded RAID array or NAS (Network Attached Storage). iRecover will analyse the RAID array to determine RAID parameters such as the stripe size or block size. With these parameters a virtual array is built in memory. RAID 5 arrays can even be processed with one disk missing!
  • iRecover can often process NAS RAID sets without additional RAID analysis!
  • Data lost due to bad sectors in vital system areas. Either process the original disk with fine tuned disk access parameters, or first image the bad disk. You can then do the file recovery from the image file without having to worry about the bad sectors or further deterioration of the original disk.
  • Corrupt memory card, SD Card, digital image recovery.

Limitations and drawbacks

The one major drawback is that iRecover treats every case like a worst case scenario. As a result it will always scan the entire disk to rebuild a virtual file system. This is overkill on some situations. For example, to recover a deleted file, parsing the current MFT is enough to detect deleted files. A utility like DiskTuna DFR can do that in a matter of minutes.

As any other consumer grade data recovery software, it can not deal with severely physically damaged disks (although iRecover is in use in several labs). iRecover however is very capable in dealing with bad sectors and time-outs.


User Comments

“I recently lost data on my RAID. I researched different solutions on the Internet and found this. http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm I ran it and it worked great. It ran for a long time but I recovered all my data.” – (http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/127001-checkdisk.html)

“I found a wonderful program called iRecover http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm It recovered all my files and I bought a new drive :)” – (http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f149/faulty-usb-drive-146976.html)

GIUDIZIO: OTTIMO – (http://www.programmipro.com/recensioni/irecover.htm)

“Toobs, thanks for that reference to iRecover. I just used it on my hard drives and got off some stuff that Recovery2000 and Get Data Back weren’t able to find. I had to buy it in order to use it but it was well worth it for the data I was able to recover.” – (http://thecususergroup.proboards.com/thread/2006/n5200-raid5-migration)

“…it has worked for me many times before when all hope was lost” – (http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=441978)

“I used irecover to recover data from a bad partition. It was the only software I found which could read the bad partition – others would just freeze up.” – (http://www.englishforum.ch/other-general/30824-external-hd-died.html)

“I have had really good results with iRecover http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm, i have even recovered data from a RAID 0 volume where parts of the drives had been overwritten. sam!!” – (http://studiosysadmins.com/board/threadview/1383/)

“I have used this it works. Buy this software http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm. run it be patient. Good luck” – (http://bb.nsmb.com/archive/index.php?t-147551.html)

One thought on “DIY DataRecovery.nl iRecover

  1. RAID Data Recovery

    This is a nice post. iRecover is DIY DataRecovery flagship product and it is not your typical undelete utility. Thanks for sharing this useful information.

    Reply

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