Power Data Recovery Free is an unusually powerful file recovery tool with many more capabilities than are typically available in similar free applications.

So, of course, it includes an undelete module to help you recover lost files. This is very fast, though; works with HFS+ as well as FAT12/16/32 and NTFS files; has an in-depth knowledge of many file types to improve your chances of recovery; allows you to filter discovered files by file name, size, creation or modification tiles; and is able to preview files before recovery, in many cases, so you can confirm you've discovered the right document before you restore it.

Power Data Recovery Free can also cope with lost or damaged partitions, though. So if you've accidentally deleted or formatted a partition, or Windows simply doesn't recognise it any more, that's not a problem: the program will scan the drive anyway and recover any files that might remain.

Maybe you've lost data on a backup CD or DVD which has been scratched, or accidentally formatted? The program also understands the ISO9600, Joliet and UDF formats and will do its best to recover as much data as possible.

And there's also a Digital Media Recovery module which focuses on recovering audio, photo and video files from memory cards, MP3 players, digital cameras and more. Other tools can do similar things, but again Power Data Recovery Free's attention to detail is impressive. It doesn't just scan for JPG images, for instance: the program also understands and can recover 10 common RAW image formats from manufacturers like Canon, Kodak, Nikon, Pentax and Sony.