Test Report: O&O UnErase V2.0

All PC users are familiar with this problem: One hurried click of OK with the mouse and Word documents, presentations, or vacation photos are mistakenly lost. This is where UnErase can help. This software restores deleted files and folders, working on all NTFS and FAT compatible storage volumes.

A special search algorithm takes advantage of the fact that when Windows deletes a file, it merely removes the file from the directory structure (aka "dereferencing"), rather than actually overwriting the file itself. With an interface similar to that of Explorer, a user can run a search for deleted files based on a variety of different search attributes. By way of the the context menu, found files, or those files marked as deleted, can be restored. In the test conducted, this worked reliably for every standard file type. An additional perk: UnErase can be started from a CD or floppy.

This program reached its limits, however, when deleted data were already overwritten. A freshly formatted memory cards, for instance, would not produce any recovered vacation pictures with UnErase.

Overall Rating: Good