MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition

Geared toward first-time and advanced users alike, the free edition of MiniTool Power Data Recovery is an approachable software application designed to help you retrieve lost or deleted files from the hard drive, corrupt partitions, CDs, DVDs or removable media devices.

Simple installation and pleasant GUI

Setup takes little time to finish and the only notable aspect about it is that MiniTool advises you to install it on a drive different than the one you want to perform recovery operations on. Worth noting is that the free edition has a 1GB data restoration limit.
The tool's wrapped up in an intuitive and attractive interface that invites you to run a quick scan on the entire PC, lost or damaged partitions, digital media, CDs or DVDs to identify recoverable files.

Quick or full scans and file analysis

The original folder structure is preserved and you can filter files by type as well as explore directories to find out the name, size, resolution and thumbnail (for photos), along with the date and creation and last modification for each file. The icons and highlights indicate whether the files are deleted, lost or raw, as well as NTFS compressed or encrypted.

Advanced searches, scan export, and preview

Plus, you can use a search function to track down specific files and enable case or word matching, apply advanced filters which involve file extensions, dates and sizes, export the scan results to file for closer examination, as well as preview files in text, hexadecimal or image form.

File filters and data recovery

When running full scans on partitions, media devices or CDs/DVDs, the utility lets you define the file types to take into account beforehand, so you can include or exclude documents, archives, graphics and pictures, audio and video, emails, databases, and other files types. Once you specify an output directory, you can ask MiniTool Power Data Recovery to proceed with the file extraction job, provided that the output drive is different than the source.

Evaluation and conclusion

The software tool worked smoothly in our tests, without triggering the OS to hang, crash or prompt errors. It carried out scan jobs in reasonable time while running light on system resources usage.
Taking into account its intuitive interface and options, the free edition of MiniTool Power Data Recovery should meet the requirements of many users looking for a data recovery app. For additional features, you can check out MiniTool Power Data Recovery.