Repairing damaged partitions on is a risky business. Even if you use the best tools and are absolutely sure in what you are doing, you are still risking your files shall something go wrong. Changes made to the damaged partition are irreversible; it is just too easy to overwrite an important system structure that holds vital information about your disk, files and data. Bottom line: it's good to backup before performing data recovery. But is this really the best way to do it?

There is a different approach to do data recovery that is even safer. No need to backup and restore during the recovery. Instead of making a backup copy of corrupted data, you can simply create a binary snapshot of the disk or partition being repaired, and attempt the recovery with different settings as many times as you need on this snapshot instead of the actual disk.

SoftAmbulance Partition Doctor by is one of a few data recovery tools that allow working on a virtual image of a damaged disk instead of repairing the disk directly. The data recovery tool lets you create a snapshot of the damaged disk, and works with the image instead of the real thing. The image is a big file stored on another hard disk, CD, DVD or other media. The technology is similar to making an .iso image of a CD or DVD disc, only SoftAmbulance Partition Doctor extends it to partitions or even entire disks.

The disk copy may be virtual, but any data you recover from it is for real. SoftAmbulance Partition Doctor can recover your files, documents and other data from the image and put it on a healthy media. After that, you can attempt fixing the damaged system structures of the corrupted disk without taking any risk at all. Any modifications will be performed on the virtual image.

Don't rush the recovery. Don't take the risk of losing or corrupting your data. Create a virtual snapshot of the disk being repaired, and work on that snapshot instead of accessing the corrupted disk. This procedure keeps your original data safe, and ensures the highest level of safety during the data recovery.

SoftAmbulance Partition Doctor recovers files from damaged and corrupted disks and partitions and fixes damaged disks. The disk recovery product supports all 32-bit versions of Windows, and recovers FAT and NTFS formatted hard disks, memory cards, CD and DVD media, and USB flash drives. The evaluation version is available for free at