MaximumPC 2004 03

MediaRecover

Restart your heart and recover

your photos with this recovery app

T

here is no more gut-wrenching feeling
than the internal lurch that occurs when
you accidentally hit the erase button on
your digital camera before saving the images
to your PC. Fortunately, MediaRecover can
save the day in the event of such idiocy. By
letting you easily recover data from formatted,
erased, or corrupted memory cards and other
smart media, this app can handle the majority
of the devastating digital situations that cause
your heart to stop beating.
In our tests, we easily recovered erased
and formatted files from a card with 100 percent reliability when we
attempted recovery immediately after the files on the card were erased
or formatted. We also recovered some of our images after format-
ting and then writing additional images to the card. We did finally foil
MediaRecover by ejecting and reinserting the card during a recovery
effort. This scrambled the card’s data permanently and consequently
limited our recovery to just JPG file fragments. One nifty feature of
MediaRecover is its ability to format a corrupt card. After formatting,
you then run MediaRecover on the card and hopefully recover some or
all of the files.
We like the simple-to-use interface and easy-to-comprehend explanations,
but it would have been nice if the program could do a sector by sector scan

to search for lost images and

perhaps even display them

graphically. For 99 percent of

situations, MediaRecover will

do a fine job. For that tough—

and usually critical—extra one

percent, you’re going to need

the help of the data gods on

your side.

—GORDON MAH UNG

A quick format may let you recover some images from a

corrupt memory card.

Arrowkey CD/DVD Diagnostic

A lost and found department for your

CD and DVD data

I

f you think a CD-R will give you 25 years of trouble-
free storage, think again. Sunlight, scratches, acidic
inks, and even the glue from a label can all destroy
precious data on a disc. Thankfully, when your data
goes bad, you don’t have to sit screaming like an angry
Klingon. Not when Arrowkey’s CD/DVD Diagnostic can
help in the healing.
Based on the company’s forensic tool for cops,
CD/DVD Diagnostic is designed to recover the
unrecoverable. Perfect for those times when your software fails to close
a CD session, or any of the other hardware bombs that tend to zap disc
data dead.
In our Lab tests, we challenged the app with media scratched to various
degrees. We scraped one CD on the walls of the Maximum PC offices,
gave a second CD about 30 lashes with a box cutter, and rubbed a third
CD raw with the back of a motherboard. All three CDs were nonfunctional
and locked up the machines we put them in for 15 minutes. Then we set
CD/DVD Diagnostic to work. Remarkably, the app was able to recover about
90 percent of the files from the disc that received the stucco-wall treatment.
On the other hand, the program fared poorly with the disc that scuffled with
our box cutter, failing to ever even recognize the mangled CD-ROM. The disc
that went toe-to-toe with the mobo had about a 50 percent recovery rate.
While certainly not a cure-all, the prospect of recovering just 50 percent of
your work can seem like a godsend when you’re standing at the precipice of
complete data destruction.To be fair, we have to point out that readability is
greatly affected by the drive that’s being used. According to Arrowkey, the

slower the drive, the better its chance of recovering data.

CD/DVD Diagnostic’s recovery process is by no means speedy. It

took us more than an hour to complete some of the recovery attempts,

which is a long time to be

biting your nails in the hopes

that your data isn’t dead. We

understand that it takes time

to read data from a CD or

DVD that’s been mutilated,

but faster operation would

go a long way toward

excusing the app’s spotty

success rate.

—GORDON MAH UNG

Hell, we’re amazed it could read even a portion

of our slashed up discs.

ALCOHOLICSA.O.Y-OUS

6IDEOGA-ESA.O.Y-OUS

Can take more than hour to recover the data; the

interface looks like a shareware Visual Basic app.

$49, http://www.arrowkey.com

MAXIMUMPC VERDICT 8

“Keep it simple, stupid”-interface does the job in 99

percent of cases.

LEICA

+ODA+DISCCA-ERA

Could use a few more hardcore features.

$40, http://www.mediarecover.com

MAXIMUMPC VERDICT 9

It can take an hour to recover data from a badly scratched

disc, but it’s worth it.

Reviews

MARCH 2003 MAXIMUMPC 75