• Storage device failure, viruses and user error can cause data loss.hard drive image by BigDog from Fotolia.com
  
  Data loss occurs for many reasons--user error, hackers, viruses, power surges or device failure. Losing critical data is at best annoying, and worst fatal to a business or organization. Fortunately, when data loss occurs there are tools available to recover the data. These advanced tools use software, hardware or a combination of both to retrieve deleted or lost data from storage drives.
  
  

TestDisk

• TestDisk is a free data-recovery tool that recovers lost partitions and makes non-booting disks bootable. The software fixes errors caused by faulty software, viruses or human error. The tool works with both FAT and NTFS file systems as well as file systems used by Linux. TestDisk works with DOS, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
  
  

Recuva

• Recuva, from Piriform Ltd., recovers deleted files from the Windows Recycle Bin, memory cards or MP3 players. The program recovers data from damaged or formatted hard drives and can restore unsaved Microsoft Word documents. Recuva also recovers deleted e-mails. Recovery procedures use either a quick scan or deep scan for file recovery. The quick scan uses the Master File Table of a drive to find deleted or lost files. A deep scan searches the entire hard drive; one scan may take over an hour to complete.
  
  

Undelete Plus

• Undelete Plus is advanced data recovery software that can restore files from hard drives, removable drives, flash drives, memory cards and cameras. The developer provides a free trial and purchasing information on their website. The software restores any files that were deleted in error and is built around a user-friendly interface.
  
  

Data Copy King

• Data Copy King, a hard-drive duplicating device, works separate from any computer to duplicate the data on hard drives, removable media and cell phones. The duplicator offers IDE, SATA and USB support for connecting drives to the duplicator. The device accesses and copies data from drives that are damaged and can restart copying automatically if a drive becomes stuck during the process.
  
  

Flash Doctor

• Flash Doctor is a combination of software and hardware tools to recover data from damaged flash media types including SD, SM, MMC and USB. The tool recovers data from flash devices such as USB pen drives that have a damaged or corrupted controller chip. The included software offers both automatic and manual data recovery options.