Bootable

• Knoppix
  Knoppix
  Knoppix, or KNOPPIX , is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD or a USB key , one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program, it is loaded from the removable medium...
  
  : The original Linux Live CD. It contains many useful utilities for data recovery
• SpinRite
  SpinRite
  SpinRite is a computer software program for scanning magnetic data storage devices such as hard disks, recovering data from them and refreshing their surfaces. It is proprietary and commercial software written by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation. The first version was released in 1988....
  
  : A FreeDOS
  FreeDOS
  FreeDOS is an operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. FreeDOS is made up of many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project...
  
  -based data recovery tool for hard disks and magnetic storage devices
• SystemRescueCD
  SystemRescueCD
  SystemRescueCd is an operating system for the x86 computer platform, though the primary purpose of SystemRescueCD is to repair unbootable or otherwise damaged computer systems after a system crash. SystemRescueCD is not intended to be used as a permanent operating system. It runs from a Live CD or...
  
  : A Gentoo
  Gentoo Linux
  Gentoo Linux is a computer operating system built on top of the Linux kernel and based on the Portage package management system. It is distributed as free and open source software. Unlike a conventional software distribution, the user compiles the source code locally according to their chosen...
  
   based Live CD
  Live CD
  A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
  
  , useful for repairing unbootable computer systems and retrieving data after a system crash
• Ultimate Boot CD for Windows: A Windows XP live CD with diagnostic and repair utilities built in, useful for removing malware and recovering data
• Trinity Rescue Kit
  Trinity Rescue Kit
  Trinity Rescue Kit is a free command-line Live CD Linux distribution created especially for rescuing Windows PCs It is aimed specifically at offline operations for Windows and Linux systems such as rescue, repair, password resets and disk cloning...
  
  

Consistency checkers

• CHKDSK
  CHKDSK
  CHKDSK is a command on computers running DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems that displays the file system integrity status of hard disks and floppy disk and can fix logical file system errors. It is similar to the fsck command in Unix.The command is implemented as an executable...
  
  : A consistency checker for DOS and Windows systems.
• Disk First Aid
  Disk First Aid
  Disk First Aid is a free software utility made by Apple Inc. that is bundled with all computers running Mac OS either as a standalone application or as part of the Disk Utility...
  
  : A consistency checker for Mac OS 9.
• Disk Utility
  Disk Utility
  Disk Utility is the name of a utility created by Apple for performing disk-related tasks in Mac OS X. These tasks include:*the creation, conversion, compression and encryption of disk images from a wide range of formats read by Disk Utility to .dmg or—for CD/DVD images—.cdr, which is identical to...
  
  : A consistency checker for Mac OS X.
• fsck
  Fsck
  The system utility fsck is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux.-Use:...
  
  : A consistency checker for UNIX file systems.

File recovery

• dvdisaster
  Dvdisaster
  dvdisaster is a computer program aimed to enhance data survivability on optical discs by creating error detection and correction data, which is used for data recovery. This program can be used either to generate Error-Correcting Code data from an existing media or to augment an ISO image with ECC...
  
  : Generates error-correction data for optical disc
• CDRoller
  CDRoller
  CDRoller is a utility for CD and DVD data recovery. It supports a wide set of CD and DVD formats, including HD DVD and Blu-Ray. CDRoller has the ability to read CD and DVD with UDF File System written by Roxio and Ahead Nero software...
  
  : Recovers data from optical disc
  Optical disc
  In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc is a flat, usually circular disc which encodes binary data in the form of pits and lands on a special material on one of its flat surfaces...
  
  s
• IsoBuster
  IsoBuster
  -External links:*...
  
  : Recovers data from optical discs

• TestDisk
  TestDisk
  TestDisk is a free data recovery utility. It was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error .TestDisk can be used to collect detailed...
  
  : Multi-platform. Recover files and lost partitions
  Disk partitioning
  Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it were multiple disks. Partitions are also termed "slices" for operating systems based on BSD, Solaris or GNU Hurd...
  
   (Open Source, GPL)
• PhotoRec
  PhotoRec
  PhotoRec is a file carver data recovery software tool designed to recover lost files from digital camera memory , hard disks and CD-ROMs...
  
  : Multi-platform console
  Command-line interface
  A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...
  
   program used to recover files (Open Source)

• Recuva
  Recuva
  Recuva is a freeware data recovery program, developed by Piriform, and runs under Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000. It is able to recover files that have been "permanently" deleted and marked by the operating system as free space...
  
  : Microsoft Windows 2000 & later, FAT and NTFS (Freeware)
• TotalRecovery
  TotalRecovery
  TotalRecovery is a backup and recovery software product, developed by FarStone Technology. Formerly known as DriveClone, TotalRecovery is written in C++ and runs only on Microsoft Windows ....
  
   : Windows. Bootable backup and recover system (Proprietary, approx $40)
• TuneUp Utilities
  TuneUp Utilities
  TuneUp Utilities is a utility software suite for Microsoft Windows designed to help manage, maintain, optimize, configure and troubleshoot a computer system. It is produced and developed by TuneUp Software GmbH, headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany and co-founded by Tibor Schiemann and Christoph...
  
  : Windows XPsp2 & later. A suite of utilities that has a file recovery component (Proprietary, approx $50)
• Norton Utilities
  Norton Utilities
  Norton Utilities is a utility software suite designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer. The current version 15 of Norton Utilities Premier Edition for Windows XP/Vista/7 was released December 27, 2010....
  
  : A suite of utilities that has a file recovery component (Proprietary, approx $50)
• DataLifeSaver
  DataLifeSaver
  Data LifeSaver is a data recovery software, developed by EASIS GmbH to reconstruct and recalculate FAT or NTFS formatted files systems. It can be used to recover data from external, internal hard disks and other storage devices like usb sticks, memory cards....
  
  : Data recovery for FAT
  Fat
  Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
  
   and NTFS
  NTFS
  NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....
  
   file systems (Proprietary, approx $60 for time limited use)
• GetDataBack
  GetDataBack
  GetDataBack is a data recovery software developed by Runtime Software. It can be used to recover data from external and internal hard disks, in the FAT and the NTFS file systems, although different variants of the program are needed for each file system...
  
  : A Windows recovery program (Proprietary, approx $80)

• FileSalvage
  FileSalvage
  FileSalvage is an data recovery product produced by SubRosaSoft.com Inc. It is a Mac OS X application used to recover lost data from hard drives, flash drives, CD-ROMs, and other media...
  
  : A Mac OS X recovery program
• Mac Data Recovery Guru: A Mac OS X program that recovers data from most device types

Forensics

• The Coroner's Toolkit
  The Coroner's Toolkit
  The Coroner's Toolkit is a suite of computer security programs by Dan Farmer and Wietse Venema. It is used to assist in digital forensic analysis.The suite runs on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, SunOS/Solaris and Linux...
  
  : A suite of utilities aimed at assisting in forensic analysis of a UNIX system after a break-in.
• The Sleuth Kit
  The Sleuth Kit
  The Sleuth Kit is a library and collection of Unix- and Windows-based tools and utilities to allow for the forensic analysis of computer systems. It was written and maintained by digital investigator Brian Carrier. TSK can be used to perform investigations and data extraction from images of...
  
  : Also known as TSK, The Sleuth Kit is a suite of forensic analysis tools developed by Brian Carrier for UNIX, Linux and Windows systems. TSK includes the Autopsy forensic browser.
• EnCase
  EnCase
  EnCase is a computer forensics product produced by Guidance Software used to analyze digital media . The software is available to law enforcement agencies and corporations.EnCase includes tools for data acquisition, file recovery, indexing/search and file parsing...
  
  : A suite of forensic tools developed by Guidance Software that is used for imaging and forensic analysis for UNIX, Linux, and Windows systems.
• Forensic Toolkit
  Forensic Toolkit
  Forensic Toolkit, or FTK, is a computer forensics software made by AccessData. It scans a hard drive looking for various information. It can for example locate deleted emails and scan a disk for text strings to use them as a password dictionary to crack encryption.The toolkit also includes a...
  
   (FTK) by AccessData (Forensic Tool Kit) Used by law enforcement.
• Open Computer Forensics Architecture
  Open Computer Forensics Architecture
  The Open Computer Forensics Architecture is an distributed open source computer forensics framework used to analyze digital media within a digital forensics laboratory environment...
  
  : Runs on Linux.

Imaging tools

• ddrescue: The GNU
  GNU
  GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
  
   tool for imaging failing hard drives, DVDs and CDs
• CopyCatX
  CopyCatX
  CopyCatX is a backup software product produced by SubRosaSoft.com Inc. The software uses byte and block-level copying to make exact duplicates of devices and volumes....
  
  : Originally a backup software, it is capable of creating images of damaged media