recovery

Flash & USB Recovery can help when you accidentally delete important files from your removable and external memory devices, cards, and discs. NetGate Technologies' Windows 8-ready tool scans your drives for deleted but recoverable files and recovers files with a click. It can handle all of your system's drives, including internal and external hard drives, flash drives, SD Cards, and other memory devices. Its Deep JPEG Image Scan can find long-lost image files. A Log File records your searches. Flash & USB Recovery is free to try, but file recovery is disabled in the unregistered version.

Flash & USB … Read more

Cosmos System Care Free is touted as your all-in-one maintenance tool to keep your computer system healthy and clean. Indeed, when you first download the program, you are offered the chance for an immediate scan. However, while this program seems to be wide in scope, the free version only offers to scan your computer for problems; it doesn't fix them.

Cosmos System Care Free took more than 35 minutes to download, extract, and install on a dual processing system. The program scans for security problems including privacy issues, includes a file decryptor and encryptor, and backs up or restores … Read more

Since its move to online purchasing and distribution of its operating system software, Apple has no longer included gray recovery DVDs with its Mac systems. Instead, if you wish to reinstall OS X you simply reboot to the OS X Recovery HD and use the tools there to format your hard drive (should you choose to), then run the installer to download OS X from Apple's servers.

While convenient for those with fast broadband connections, sometimes you may find yourself in a location without fast Internet and would benefit from having a way to reinstall OS X from scratch. … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions on fixing a stuck locking mechanism for a MacBook lid, the inability to boot to or otherwise use the Recovery HD partition in OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, and tackling nonspecific slowdowns in OS X. I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Stuck locking mechanism for a MacBook lid MacFixIt reader Dominic asks:

How much do I love Cheapskate readers? So much that even when I'm a little under the weather (cough), I can't help serving up five sweet deals (sneeze) to carry you into the weekend (moan). That's love, people.

1. Storage to go Oh, flash drives, you so crazy. Crazy-cheap, that is. Today only, and while supplies last (not long, I'm guessing), Best Buy has the Kingston DataTraveler Special Edition 16GB USB 2.0 flash drive for $7.99 shipped, plus sales tax. This tiny drive includes Kingston's urDrive software, which helps manage, organize, and back … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about RAM upgrade options for new MacBook systems, using a Mac laptop as a desktop workstation, song progress options for the iTunes 11 mini player window, and updating external secondary recovery partitions. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: RAM upgrade options for new MacBooks MacFixIt reader David asks:

Sondle's File Recovery Assist can recover deleted and damaged files and other data from fixed and removable hard drives as well as USB drives and even floppies. It supports FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTSB, so it can handle most Windows operating systems still in operation as well as any disks still functioning. File Recovery Assist can find and recover data lost or damaged because of viruses, formatting, hard-drive crashes (but not total failure), and the ever-popular "no apparent reason." As long as the disk still functions and the data hasn't been deliberately overwritten with a … Read more

VirtualLab Data Recovery is a modular data and partition recovery tool from BinaryBiz. VirtualLab recovers lost, damaged, or deleted files and partitions, including Mac partitions, as well as deleted e-mail and photos. It can also recover CD and DVD data in many cases. This powerful suite even includes a RAID Recovery tool. It works on regular hard drives as well as removable and flash drives. While the program is free to try, it won't recover any data. The least expensive licensed version recovers up to 100MB of data. License upgrades are available, depending on how much data you need … Read more

A failing hard drive or loss of data can be really stressful. If your external backups are missing or giving out, it just adds insult to injury. File Recovery Assist promises to bring those files on your portable drives back if you cough up $29.95. Actually delivering on that promise is hit or miss for this program.

While the installation of File Recovery Assist went rather smooth, we were a bit disappointed with its interface. We feel that developers should have spent more time making it straightforward rather than goofy. Though the program scans external drives quickly, it tends … Read more