SysTools Hard Drive Data Recovery is a Windows application for recovering files from internal and external hard drives after deletion, formatting or file-system damage. It scans the affected storage, presents the files it finds for inspection, and copies chosen items to another drive. The free demo provides scanning and previews; saving recovered files requires a paid licence.
Scanning hard drives
Supported storage
SysTools Hard Drive Data Recovery detects connected drives and displays their model, disk number, capacity and available space. Selecting a drive or partition brings its details into a separate panel. Refreshing the drive list adds newly attached storage to the available sources.
The program works with SATA, IDE and USB-connected hard drives, including Basic and Dynamic disks with MBR or GPT partitioning. Supported Windows file systems include NTFS, FAT16, FAT32 and exFAT.
HFS and HFS+ support allows files to be recovered from Mac-formatted storage attached to the Windows computer. BitLocker-protected volumes and partitions are unsupported. Recovery scanning needs readable storage; it does not repair physical drive damage.
Scan and Formatted Scan
The Scan option searches a selected partition for deleted files. Formatted Scan searches a formatted partition and also handles RAW volumes whose file system Windows cannot recognize. The scanning display shows progress before the result opens as a browsable drive and folder tree.
Scanning reads the source without changing its contents. Sector scanning skips unreadable areas and continues through readable parts of the drive. Overwritten data and damaged sectors affect which files can be recovered and whether their contents remain intact.
Where directory information survives, results retain file names and the original folder organization. Raw recovery can locate recognizable file types when that information is unavailable, including JPEG images, PDF documents, Office files, ZIP archives and MP3 audio.
Files deleted with Shift+Delete appear in red within their folders in the results. Normally deleted items are collected in a separate folder, allowing those entries to be browsed together.
Reviewing recovered files in SysTools Hard Drive Data Recovery
Filtering and searching results
The Explore Panel lists recovered folders on the left. Selecting one displays its files and an item count on the right. Category filters narrow the result to groups such as photographs, audio, video, documents, email files, databases, archives or deleted items.
Search controls narrow the results by folder name or file type. Date filtering accepts a From and To range for creation, modification or last-access dates, allowing a search to focus on files associated with a particular period.
The licensed edition also sorts entries by name, size, type, creation date or modification date in ascending or descending order. Sorting changes how the recovered results are arranged for inspection and selection.
File previews
Right-clicking a recovered file exposes its preview and save controls. The preview panel shows file properties, image content or hexadecimal data. These views let the user inspect an item before choosing it for recovery.
SysTools Hard Drive Data Recovery handles file types spanning documents, media, images, archives and mail data. The supported recovery types include DOCX, XLSX, PDF, MP4, MOV, MKV, WAV, JPEG, TIFF and camera RAW files.
Saving selected files and folders
A file can be saved individually from its context menu, while folder selection collects a larger set of recovered items. Save Deleted Data exports the deleted-data results. Save All Data covers the broader result and provides a checkbox for including recovered deleted items.
The destination browser selects the folder that receives the recovered copies and can create a new folder there. The destination must be on a different drive from the source, so output writes do not overwrite other lost files on the affected disk.
Recovered files are written into the chosen destination, retaining their names and folder structure where that information remains available.
