A site of many experts… and some eager beavers
Although Reddit is full of questionable topics, the data recovery subreddit is a living proof that user communities can be helpful. In fact, whenever someone asked the regular commenters of this subreddit something, they are always met with understanding and helpfulness no matter how trivial their questions might seem. Many of the Redditors here seem to have an extensive knowledge of computer technology and data recovery in general, meaning that if the problem is described as precisely as possible, then it won’t take too long to get an answer and probably from an expert working at a data recovery company like Data Medics or Datarecovery.com.
Many of these experts often advertise their services in their comments, adding that it’s the only way to make sure that important files are salvaged from a damaged drive. However, apart from a few exceptions – such as an avid Bitwar commenter who was banned for their blatant, off-topic advertising – these professionals are well aware that not everybody can afford hundreds of dollars for a single data recovery session, and so they never insist on turning to their services. Instead, they often provide useful advice to users on what to do or not to do when attempting the DIY approach and alternatives to their services, including data recovery software.
Clone before going DIY
There is one thing that these experts constantly insist on no matter what, and that’s the need to isolate the damaged drive from the rest of the device as soon as possible and to never perform data recovery on that drive to prevent further data loss. Instead, Reddit’s data recovery specialists recommend using a drive cloning tool to create a virtual copy of the drive or partition in question and then recover lost data using the cloned drive.
Although this virtual disc imaging feature is often present in paid data recovery software, the preferred method of Redditors for performing this task is in fact Ddrescue, a program that is not only open source – and therefore free of charge – but also has a thorough user manual in a separate subreddit.
The ultimate, Reddit-approved program
The funny thing about this is that commenters, who usually visit Reddit to get information about free data recovery programs, don’t seem to be too bothered by the fact that both the Windows and Mac versions of R-Studio are pay-only programs, costing $80 each. However, since R-Studio has proven its worthiness to expert Redditors many times before – for instance, by recovering data that TestDisk couldn’t or by being faster and more thorough than its free competitor – it’s safe to say that this program is worth giving a shot for both tech-savvy and inexperienced users alike.
Zoltán G.
Adam B.
