iTop Data Recovery is a Windows program for recovering deleted or lost documents, photos, videos, audio and other files. It searches computer drives and removable storage, then lets you inspect the results and select files to recover. Its recovery functions cover accidental deletion, emptied Recycle Bins and formatted storage, while a separate backup tool can keep copies of important files before they are lost.
Scan locations, storage devices and Deep Scan
A scan can start from a drive, a particular folder or the Recycle Bin. You can also restrict the file types before scanning, so a search for photographs does not need to include every supported document and archive format. The results can be viewed by location or type and filtered to narrow the selection further.
iTop Data Recovery works with internal and external HDDs, SSDs, USB drives and SD or CF memory cards using NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT. Pro also supports NAS recovery without removing the disks from the network storage device.
Normal Scan searches for commonly deleted files. Deep Scan takes longer and searches more thoroughly when the initial scan has not found what you need; Pro provides the enhanced Deep Scan option.
Supported recovery formats include Office documents and PDFs, JPEG and PNG pictures, RAW camera files, MP4 and MOV videos, ZIP archives and EML or PST email files. Recovering an email file is a storage recovery task, rather than access to a hosted mailbox.
Previews and file-condition labels
Previews let you inspect supported documents, pictures and videos before recovery, including PDF and Microsoft Office files. Previewing is available before purchasing.
iTop Data Recovery also labels file condition as Excellent, Good or Poor. These indicators help assess the remaining data before selecting files to save. Recovery depends on that data still being present: new content written over a deleted file can prevent its recovery, even when the scan identifies a result.
Recovery destinations
You can select individual files or the entire set of results for recovery and save the output to a destination folder. Local recovery can run offline, keeping the recovery operation on the computer.
Pro adds direct recovery to Google Drive and Dropbox, allowing recovered files to be saved to cloud storage. These destinations are separate from the local recovery route and require access to the chosen service. The free edition provides basic scanning and previewing; the broader file recovery and cloud output functions belong to Pro.
File backup
The built-in backup tool keeps copies of important files ahead of a loss. Free includes basic backup functionality, while Pro adds automatic differential backup to maintain backups as files change.
