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{rw_text}Software reviewed in this article:
Version reviewed:
v4.11 (Build Jan 06 2010)
Supported OS:
Windows NT/2000/2003 Server/XP/Vista/Windows 7
Price:
$49.00 (USD) but you can get it for free for a limited time at Giveawayoftheday.com!
Software description as per the developer:
MultiStage Recovery is a professional file recovery tool for Windows. It is designed to quickly recover files from hard disks, floppy disks, flash drives, digital camera cards, and most other digital storage devices. The program supports all Windows file systems including NTFS/NTFS5,FAT12/FAT16/FAT32/VFAT. With an optimized algorithm and smart built-in cache system, the tool has incredibly fast scan of hard drives.
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{rw_good}
- Has different levels of scanning.
- Can preview files before restoring.
- You can restore multiple files at once.
- Can scan internal hard drives, disk images, and external media.
- Has a built in search tool.
{/rw_good} –>
{rw_bad}
- OK recovery rate.
- Very slow.
- Program crashes when trying to scan whole hard drive(s).
- Not very clear on the “recoverability” of a file.
- Always starts fully maximized.
{/rw_bad} –>
{rw_score}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”10″}Pretty much point and click; however word choice for scanning types can be better.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”6″}Very slow in scanning and recovery rate, at best, is OK.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”6″}File recovery software are a hit or miss. Some people will need them, some people won’t.
{/for}
{for=”Price” value=”3″}$49 is much too overpriced for a file recovery software that doesn’t perform too well.
{/for}
{for=”Arbitrary Equalizer” value=”6″}This category reflects an arbitrary number that does not specifically stand for anything. Rather this number is used to reflect dotTech’s overall rating/verdict of the program in which all the features and alternatives have been considered.
{/for}
{/rw_score} –>
{rw_verdict}[tdown]
{/rw_verdict} –>
I last reviewed MultiStage Recovery on dotTech back in October of last year (as v4). Today’s GOTD is v4.1. The changes as per the developer are “multi-threading support for additional scan types, real-time preview, some additional improvements and bug fixes.” Please read my full review on MultiStage Recovery (v4) to get more detailed information about the software. For convenience’s sake, I will post free alternatives and final verdict here also.
This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.
{rw_freea}
Has a simple undelete tool.
Possibly the best partition/file recovery tools I have ever used.
Extremely powerful and fairly fast file recovery tool.
Recuva (pronounced “recover”) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
-Developer
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).
-Developer
Glary Undelete is a free and easy-to-use yet powerful file undelete solution for FAT and NTFS file systems. It will bring back files emptied from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. It will even recover files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
Glary Undelete works under Win 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista operating systems. The program supports all Windows file systems for hard and floppy drives including FAT12/16/32,NTFS/NTFS5 and image recovery from CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia and Secure Digital cards.
-Glary Undelete developer
{/rw_freea} –>
{rw_verdict2}I have yet to encounter that one perfect file recovery software I am waiting for. MultiStage Recovery definitely is not it. Now MultiStage Recovery is not bad; it is OK. And OK for me translates into a thumbs down for commercial software especially when they cost $49.00; thumbs down. That being said, honestly and truly if you are looking for one of the most powerful partition/file recovery tools out there, give Testdisk & PhotoRec a try. Yes even Testdisk & PhotoRec have their own caveats, but they are well worth it, trust me. Otherwise, DiskDigger is a good choice also.
{/rw_verdict2} –>
