The good news is that there are many good hard drive recovery software programs available to use to recover these lost, corrupt or delete files. Many of these are available as free downloads or sometimes even as freeware. In this article in the paragraphs below is a list of some of these free hard drive data recovery programs available nowadays.

PC Inspector File Recovery: Even when the boot sector of your computer has got damaged or deleted, this data recovery program is still capable of recovering lost files and of locating partitions automatically. This software can recover lost data even when a file's header entry is no longer available. It can retrieve data with the original date and time stamps. It is possible to them save these recovered files on your computer's network drives using the software. And surprisingly this hard drive data recovery software is still available as a free download. This is very popular software. VirtualLab Data Recovery Software v4.8.8: It is a remarkable free hard drive data recovery software. This data recovery software connects to a powerful recovery server and employs 'artificial intelligence'. It compares your system condition with previous data recovery sessions and updates its solution methods. VirtualLab Data Recovery Software v4.8.8 is quite versatile and works with FAT 12, FAT 16, Fat 32, and NTFS file systems. It can even find the disappearing data from Jaz disks, Zip disks and digital camera media as well as from a computer hard drive.

WhoLockMe Explorer Extension v1.04 Beta: This software can perform some unusual functions apart from data recovery. For instance, often when you'd like to delete some files, the system does not permit it because the particular file is 'locked' by the system. This program - WhoLockMe Explorer Extension v1.04 Beta - shows which Windows process is locking the file and is able to 'unlock' the files. This free software also works by destroying viruses with just a click.

Restoration: This unusual program is not strictly a hard drive data recovery program as the PC Inspector or VirtualLab Data Recovery programs are. It is a program that can undelete and restore data that may have been accidentally deleted or erased from any drive ' floppy drive, hard drive or USB. It is a very compact program and can easily be accommodated on a floppy. This makes it a very portable tool for maintenance personnel.

These three programs are available for download. To locate them, simply do a Google or Yahoo search for the software name and you will find a plethora of download sites available to install them from.

These free data recovery programs listed in the previous paragraphs are not your only options. There are many other programs available to you if you are willing to spend a few dollars. Many times, these programs come with free trial downloads so you can test them out before you make a purchase. It is important to read the reviews of previous users of the software to see how well it works!