As the name may suggest, iCare Data Recovery helps you recover data. This data includes files you have deleted (i.e. files deleted from recycle bin, accidentally or purposefully) and files that you have lost due to a reformat or crash.
One of the major use cases for data recovery is hard drive failure or system crash. If this happens, that means you cannot boot into Windows. If you cannot boot into Windows, then how the hell are you supposed to run data recovery with [iCare Data Recovery]? You would either need a second hard drive that you can put inside your computer, install Windows on, and then use [iCare Data Recovery] from that second hard to scan the first hard drive; or a second computer in which you can pop the failed hard drive into to scan; or you would have to reinstall Windows onto your existing hard drive (the one on which Windows crashed), then use [iCare Data Recovery] after reinstallation to try to recover the files that existed prior to reinstall. Neither of these situations are very user-friendly, especially the later scenario in which you risk overwriting (i.e. destroying) the data you want to recover by reinstalling Windows. Having bootable media mitigates all these situations.
No matter what kind of data you store, you must have a reliable recovery tool on hand. Data loss is always unexpected, and scanning storage devices that are corrupted or damaged is important in order to be able to rebuild their structure and recover data from them.
Before you zero in on a solution, it is important to know all your options well. Is the iCare data recovery tool for windows on your potential purchase list? While it is a well-known recovery tool, we believe that several alternatives offer many additional features. In this article, we will explore the best alternatives for iCare.
A wizard-based solution developed by Piriform, Recuva is a Windows user-favorite for good reason. Its interface is great for even newbies, enabling users to retrieve a larger amount of data with each use. All a user needs to do is run through the wizard, and answer its questions. Recuva takes these answers and sets parameters automatically to scan, retrieve, and save files.
Wondershare Recoverit helps retrieve lost data from all types of Windows as well as Mac devices. Further, it is compatible with most storage media including HDDs, SSDs, external hard disks, Floppy Disks, USB flash drives, Memory cards, and digital cameras.
It is a technically advanced software capable of quickly retrieving all deleted, formatted, and inaccessible RAW files on Windows XP/Vista/2003/2008/7/8/10. It has a great track record for restoring files embedded deep in the folder structure, making it one of the most sought-after recovery software.
Although iCare is a well-known data recovery tool for windows, it fails in the face of strong competition. In attempting to be a simple software, the creators have stripped it of several features that can ease the process of data recovery. We strongly suggest you choose from the other software on this list as an alternative to iCare. Although each of them is a strong contender, our top picks are R-Studio for advanced users and Disk Drill for novices.
Disk Drill is a far more powerful data recovery software. Although iCare presents itself as a simple, no-fuss solution, in the long run, the powerful, feature-packed alternative that Disk Drill offers makes data recovery highly convenient for users of any level.
If the simplicity of iCare is what attracts you to it, consider Disk Drill. Loaded with tons of great features, Disk Drill is very easy to use and distraction-free. It is very easy to set up and data recovery is complete within a matter of a few minutes.
- Recover files from formatted partition, memory card, external drive, USB drive, sd card
- Recover 2TB disk
- Drive not formatted error and report RAW file system
- Recover MAC files on Windows
- Recover data when lost due to resize partition, merge partition, copy partition failure by PartitionMagic, Partition Manager...
- It could restore photos, office files, zip files, rar files, emails, pdf files, etc.
- Reformatted sd card, xd card, cf card, pen stick, memory card...
- System cannot boot, cannot locate the boot partition, I/O error
Since then I only connect the drive once every month for backup my data. Just now, I plug it into my laptop, the safe remove shows the drive but windows explorer take very very long time when i click the drive and still cannot access the drive.
Sorry to hear you cannot access your files. You can verify if the Passport has any hardware damage by running a test with DLG. If you are unable to recover your files with a data recovery program, there are some recommended data recovery companies on the WD support page that you might want to contact. Check the link below for more information.
Right now I still trying to recover using icare data recovery again just to see if the data recovered can be read fine this time. Last time, although the data can be recovered according to icare but when I try to play the avi, they are all error.
As part of my new travel blog, I have been travelling a lot and I usually use my new point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix P610 camera for all the travel shoots. However, this time, one of my team member took the Coolpix with him for another review and I had to use my old Canon EOS Rebel T2i DSLR to the beach to click some events. It has been a while since I used this camera and I think it was behaving a bit erroneous all the way. I finished all the clicks including the beautiful sunset in the beach, annual event by our travel group and a few wonderful clicks of a beach wedding. I was about to leave the place and just wanted to make the last click after the sunset. Giving me a shock, I got an error message in the display showing some error in the SD card storage. and it suggested me to format the SD card. I had no option other than clicking the "OK" button on the error. Camera stopped responding after that. Instead of formatting, I turned it OFF and turned ON again and everything functioned as normal.
But that relief didn't last long. When I reached home, I realized all the photos taken in the beach are lost except the last one I clicked after the error. I could go back and click the sun set but the wedding clicks and the photos of the travel group event were really important. In fact, the entire members of the travel group were waiting for the group photos taken in my DSLR.
I've reviewed a lot of photo recovery software in the past but was confused when it came to real world use for myself. After some thoughts, I decided to try iCare Photo Recovery software, for which I had a license key with me already.
It took only a few minutes to download and install the software. When I started the program, there were 3 options:
1. Recover deleted files from emptied Recycle bin
2. Recover files deleted by formatting, drive not formatted error and various other data losses
3. Recover files from deleted partitions and other partition errors.
In my case, since the files were lost due to the crashing of SD card in the camera, I was puzzled a bit but went ahead with the second option .
In the next step, iCare app showed me the drives in my computer including the SD card from which I lost the files. I selected the SD card and clicked "Next".
A status dialog showed the progress. I was really happy to see the number of files being recovered but I still kept my fingers crossed since I wasn't sure if I can really see my lost photos at the end.
The recovery process took about 4 minutes and it found 164 deleted photos from the storage. The next screen shows the partition I had to select to proceed with the photo recovery.
That's the time it prompted me to provide the license code. Any one using the trial software can reach up to this point but to proceed further with the actual recovery of the deleted photos, they have to purchase the software. The trial version allows recovering up to 20MB of data, but in my case, just 2 photos will finish the quota.
Luckily, I had a license key with me which the company had given for review purpose. I decided to go ahead and use it. It worked like a charm.
Clickeded the "Next" button and it took only a few seconds to finish its internal processing. It presented a clean tree structure that showed the files and folders in the media. All I had to do was, select the folders I want to recover and then select a target location.
Overall review of iCare Data Recovery software
One issue I would like to mention is, it didn't allow me to create a new folder within the software to store the recovered files. I had to switch back to Windows Explorer, create a new folder, then come back to the software, click here and there a few times to view the new folder and then proceed with the recovery process. Other than this small inconvenience, everything else worked perfectly and I was able to recover all of the deleted photos and videos from my SD card camera storage.
Other features of iCare Data Recovery
Even though I didn't have to use, let me mention some of the other features as per the product spec:
1. Restore files deleted from the Recycle bin. I tried this myself and it was able to show me a lot of files removed from recycle bin several days ago.
2. Restore files permanently deleted without sending to Recycle bin (Shift + Del)
3. Restore files from deleted drive partitions
4. Recovery from formatted drives
5. Change of file system type to RAW format
The official website has mentioned a lot more features. Also, the website claims it supports all brands of hard disk, external hard disk, USB disk, memory card (sd card, flash card, cf card, xd card, etc.), iPhone, iTouch, Smart Phone, BlackBerry, iTune, iPod etc.
Take a look at the official website for more information - -recovery.com/tech-spec.html
Do you like me to review another recovery software? Please let me know and I will be happy to try my hands on them.