Hi guys... Anyone with expereince in the various data recovery software applications...??? Been using Norton for erased files etc...but we have had 3 HD's go bad in the last month and our data backup system is depended on the users... So we have data retrieval problems... I'm looking for something more robust and powerful that Norton... Couple of programs boast that "even if the OS doesn't recognize the HD, if it will spin, our software can get the data off".... Anyone with experience with this stuff??? Any recommendations, good or bad on any specific software??? Been looking at OnTrack...I think this is the old Tiramisu data recovery program that seems highly regarded...any thoughts??? Most of our stuff is FAT 32, some NTFS and a very small spattering of DOS... How about Steve Gibson's stuff??? Any help appreciated... STeve

OnTrack's Easy Recovery and PowerQuest's Lost and Found are both good products. Of course regular backups can't be beat.

If when you say "data backup system is depended on the users" you mean that you have no proper automatic backup system and are relying on users to do it themselves then frankly, and I'm sorry if this offends, you are courting disaster and deserve whatever befalls you. If you've had 3 drives go bad you've been unlucky but if your data is that valuable to you you've lost the plot asking for recovery utilities when your problem is really one of data BACKUP. If you are determined NOT to implement a proper backup strategy the best I can suggest is that you either install a second HD (or maybe a Zip drive) in each machine and ensure data is saved to that and not the Boot/OS drive. Alternatively there are a number of programmes around that will mirror files and/or folders across drives, Ontrack's PowerDesk allows synchronisation of drives/folders.