MiniTool Power Data Recovery 13.1

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a Windows program for getting back deleted files. It also recovers files lost with a vanished partition or left on a drive that was formatted or became inaccessible. It reads hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, memory cards and optical discs, and copies what it finds to another location. The Free edition has a limit on the total amount recovered; paid Personal licenses remove that cap.

Choosing the drive or device to scan

The main screen of MiniTool Power Data Recovery has two tabs. Logical Drives lists every partition the system sees, including external and removable drives, lost partitions and unallocated space. Picking one limits the scan to that area, the usual choice when a single drive letter was emptied or reformatted.

The Devices tab scans whole disks instead. This suits a damaged partition table or a drive where it is unclear which partition held the files. Supported media include RAID volumes, memory cards, digital cameras and CD/DVD discs. The program reads FAT, exFAT and NTFS volumes plus the ISO9660, Joliet and UDF disc formats. It leaves the source drive unchanged while scanning.

Desktop, Recycle Bin and folder scans

Three narrower targets sit below the drive list: Desktop Recovery, Recycle Bin Recovery and Select Folder, which scans one chosen folder. They finish far sooner than a partition scan when the user knows where a file used to be. Recycle Bin results do not persist after the session, so those files need recovering in one go.

Limiting a scan by file system and type

Scan Settings restricts the scanner to chosen file systems and file types. A search for lost camera photos therefore does not have to sift through every document and archive. Scan Settings also decides whether results appear during the scan or only at the end.

More than 2,000 file types are recognised, covering Office documents and PDFs, JPEG, PSD and camera RAW images, common video and audio formats, ZIP, RAR and 7Z archives, and Outlook PST and DBX mail stores.

Sorting through recovered files

Results open in a Path view that rebuilds the folder tree found on the drive, while the Type view groups files by format. Filter narrows the list by type, date modified, size or category, and Search matches part of a file name. Users can export a finished scan as an .rss file and load it later. This avoids repeating a long scan of a large disk.

Previewing and saving files

MiniTool Power Data Recovery previews more than 100 file types, including documents, images, video, audio and email files. Users can check a photo or spreadsheet before saving it. In the Desktop and Recycle Bin modules, preview is limited by file size. Save writes the selected files to a chosen folder. This folder should be on a different drive so recovered data does not overwrite files still waiting to be found.

Recovering when Windows will not start

Paid editions other than Business Standard include a Bootable Media Builder. It writes WinPE-based media containing the recovery program to a USB flash drive, a CD/DVD or an ISO image. Building it formats the target drive or disc. Starting a crashed PC from this media gives access to its disks without loading the installed system.

Free and Personal editions

Business licenses for commercial use and technicians are sold separately, and a separate edition exists for macOS.