MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable CD

As partitioning tools go, MiniTool's is quite friendly. Users are taken through a step by step process, making partition creation, management, and even recovery literally as easy as 1-2-3.

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AVG Rescue CD

Like the Avira Antivir Rescue System, the AVG Rescue CD is a bootable (what else?) CD that lets you clear infections completely from your PC. All recovery actions are done independent of your computer's installed OS, meaning even the best viruses and malware won't survive the purge.

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TestDisk

We've featured Recovery is Possible earlier in this list. TestDisk is one of the utilities packaged in that recovery CD. In case you forgot what it does: it lets users recover damaged or accidentally deleted partitions.

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Pandora Recovery

In many ways Pandora Recovery is just like Recuva, allowing deleted file recovery without the trouble of booting from a Linux CD. But Pandora Recovery is designed to run without any installation, which means you can copy it to a USB drive, and run it on any computer.
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Recuva

Sometimes you just want to recover a deleted file, but you don't want to go through the trouble of booting from a recovery CD. That's where Recuva comes in. It just looks are the empty space on your PC's drive—which still contains the information stored in the files you've deleted accidentally, and rebuilds the lost data based on what it finds.

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PING (PartImage is Not Ghost)

The great thing about PING is that it goes beyond mere recovery. Included in the bootable CD/USB drive are tools that let you back up entire partitions and BIOS configuration data. You can even use PING to delete the password for the computer's admin.

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Recovery is Possible (RIP)

Here's another boot CD that does what it says—puts hard disk data recovery tools within reach of even basic users. Included in the package is TestDisk, a utility that recovers deleted partitions, and PhotoRec, an undelete tool that goes beyond just retrieving deleted images.

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PC CMOS Cleaner

Forgot your BIOS password? You can PC CMOS Cleaner to reset it, and regain access to that important configuration tool on your computer. If it's a x86 or x86_64 (64-bit) PC, CMOS Cleaner is most likely compatible with your BIOS.

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Never say never, especially about recovering lost data

As computers become more important at our work, home, and school, so has data. Many times we consider the information we store on our PCs more crucial than actual physical objects. And why not, when the files we work with on the computer represent hours of hard work?

It's still amazing how many users take a flippant approach towards backing up important data—if they bother maintaining redundancies at all. The following software won't replace any good backup regime, but they do provide a chance that information lost through human or machine error won't be lost forever.