Hey,

I've been looking for a good general Data Recovery / Disk Repair software and I thought I'd settled on Diskpatch (price is reasonable, service seems decent), but now I see in the forums that some of the other software does things that DP doesn't, that I thought it did.

Where is there a direct comparison of all the programs (DP, iRepair, etc) that tells me in detail what they each do and why I might want one over another?

Thanks, Kremmen

Product you are using: none yet!

Operating system / Service Pack: win 98se

Size of subject harddisk: 120gb

Hello,

We offer information on our products on our website and there are demos available. You'd really need to refer to some other website for a comparison of DIY DataRecovery and 3rd party products, we can't help you there.

Our goal in the suppport forum is to help people to recover their data. If they seem to be in a situation where our tools can't help, but a 3rd party tool we know of can, we will refer to that tool.

"but now I see in the forums that some of the other software does things that DP doesn't, that I thought it did"

What exactly?

--
Kind regards,
Joep

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

I didn't mean a comparison of third party software, only a comparison of the other software made by the same people who make Diskpatch. It would even be helpful to just have a head to head comparison of what appear to be the main ones, Diskpatch and iRecover.

First, I can't understand why the tasks that these programs do are split up into two pieces of software. If I'm trying to find good disk repair/recovery software I'm reasonably going to want one program that does all the tasks that these programs do, I don't want to buy one program that does a couple of tasks, another that does a couple of other tasks, and a third fourth or fifth that do a few more.

Additionally there also seems to be a good deal of overlap in the three or four of the described pieces of software. Why offer two that do cloning, two that do surface scans, two that seem to fix MBR damage, two that can recover data in some way, two that do MBR backup and restore. It seems like you're unnecessarily making 5 small programs out of what should be one good disk maintenance and repair program and consequently it appears kind of difficult to distinguish some of their features.

So my point is it's hard to distinguish one program from the next to find out which might suit my needs. Diskpatch does "MBR, partition and boot sector repair," assumedly which you'd do to get your data back, and iRecover will "Retrieve data after...mbr damage, deleted partitions." Aren't these basically the same tasks? Do I have to repair the partition or sector with Diskpatch then then recover the data with iRecover? Does repairing the partition or sector with the first automatically mean all the data will be intact and I won't need the second?

I'm sure these distinctions are large to someone who deals with this stuff everyday, but to someone just looking for good disk repair and recovery software, especially in the specific instance of where X and Y have happened to a drive or partition, the descriptions are very similar, general, and inadequate.

Both the descriptions of the two programs make it sound like either one of them *might* be the tool, one way or another, to get data out of an accidentally repartitioned or partition deleted or formatted hard drive, but back to my original question, why would I use one program over the other?

Kremmen

Product you are using: none yet!

Operating system / Service Pack: win 98se

Size of subject harddisk: 120gb

Hello,

All our programs each have a specific focus. This is (at least i thought) clearly described in short on our products page. But i'll recap here:
- DiskPatch : regain access to partitions by repairing disk structures (thus changing things on the disk, runs from DOS because of low level disk access)
- iRecover : copies data from damaged partitions to another location, making no changes on the problem disk. Runs from Windows
- HDWorkbench : monitor disk status and gives the user the chance to intervene when things get bad (by letting the user scan the disk or make a clone)
- MBRtool : manipulate bthe MBR
- CHK-mate : recover CHK files

Personally i find the overlap minimal. Because the tools focus on a particular way of recovery and enhance that by adding functions that can help the user when a specific situation occurs, it may look like functions overlap, but that has nothing to do with us willfully wanting to confuse you into buying all our tools :-)
Also, the different approach that each tool follows makes it impossible to create 1 uber-tool that contains all functions. And think of this: one uber-tool would be very expensive. If you'd only need one specific function, would you be willing to pay for all the functions you will not be using?

From another point of view: it is really up to the customer to decide which way of recovery suits him or her best: if you wish to leave a disk untouched, use iRecover. If you wish to perform repairs on-disk, use DiskPatch. The customer has to select a tool based on the type of problem he/she's facing, and personal preference. I thought the descriptions of the tools explained this adequately, but apparently it's not clear enough to all people. We'll look into this. For now i hope i have clearified things.

With regards,
Tom