File recovery software is a program that works with your computer to find lost files, and sometimes even deleted files that accidentally got deleted by the user.  This can be a huge help for those of us who need various files to be recovered.  The software typically does not take long to recover files.  However, you should keep in mind that the sooner you purchase the software, the better chance you have of recovering files.  As soon as you find out that the file is missing, you should purchase the software.  If you wait a couple of days, the software may not be able to recover the file.

You can purchase recovery software at virtually any electronics store that sells computer software.  You should talk to the salesclerk and ask them their opinion on the different types of software.  However, you should also do your own research before going to the store to purchase recovery program.  You want to go into the store with at least a bit of knowledge in this area, so make sure that you are prepared by taking a few minutes and reading about the different types of software available.

You can also purchase file recovery software online.  At times you may find it cheaper online than in local stores.  However, you need to make sure that the software can be shipped immediately.  If it takes longer than a few days, it might not be worth it to buy it online.

The FIXMBR website has additional information that you might find useful.

My favorite recovery disk uses the Slax Linux operating system.  I simply remaster the disk using easy to load utility modules that contain the tools that I like to use for recovering files or operating systems.  Likewise DOS has as many tools available so that you can accomplish the same tasks using DOS utilities.  However the fastest recovery uses imaging tools that can perform a complete system recovery in a few minutes.

There are two imaging tools that I prefer.  The first is North Ghost and the second is a free Open Source utility called Partimage.  Partimage is a Linux tool that can image and restore both FAT32 and NTFS files systems.  Partimage is fast and is a clone of Norton Ghost.  I use Norton Ghost to daily to restore 35 computers in a high school lab.  The high school students have complete admin rights to the computers so that they can complete labs that require them to change the software configuration.  Each morning I am able to refresh the operating systems by restoring using and image on a DOS operating system.  DOS is fast and it only takes about 10 minutes to restore all 35 computers.  I can also restore computers during class if needed to provide a fresh known working configuration.  This helps me keep the computers available for the students 24/7/365 with about 99.9% availability.  I occasionally have a power supply or hard drive failure that takes about 5 minutes to fix.

Sometimes my students ask me why we need to learn DOS.  I tell them that Windows is the problem and DOS can be a great solution.

The FIXMBR website has additional information that you might find useful.