IsoBuster is intended to rescue files lost due to multiple causes, like accidental deletion, corrupted partition and virus attacks. The program supports practically any type of storage device, including optical discs, memory cards, USB drives and hard disks. Likewise, it can open an impressive list of image file extensions. It is good news that it supports not only Windows file systems (FAT and NTFS) but others as well.
The program does an excellent job of extracting contents from optical discs that are not in an optimum state. This includes playing audio from damaged analog CDs. Moreover, it has the advantage of supporting managed image files, which eliminates the necessity of extracting all the contents of a disc. The tool can also perform surface scans and mark defective blocks, which can later be filled manually.
All in all, IsoBuster provides an effective way to recover lost data irrespective of the original storage device and file system. In this respect, the program is more powerful than others. In my opinion, its main weakness is still its interface, which makes it inappropriate for inexperienced users. Moreover, I think that the tool would be complete if it allowed backing up partitions as ISO files, something that is possible with other data recoverers. The product is shareware and can be evaluated at no cost. However, some of its features are restricted, such as recovering files and viewing a sector.
v3.1 [Dec 14, 2012]
Changes:
On Windows VISTA and higher, if you do not run in admin mode by default (UAC not disabled) you get the UAC (User Account Control) popup each time when you start IsoBuster. This is because admin rights are required to talk to Hard Drives and USB/Flash drives etc. However, in this version, if you disable listing Hard Drives and Flash drives in Options or during install, then you don't get the UAC anymore. The same is true when you run the shell command "extract" or when you start IsoBuster with command line parameters /nodrives or /nohd.
Support for GPT (GUID) Partition formatting
Also list empty card readers etc. when detected. Insert a card, hit refresh, and IsoBuster will show the content, like it does on optical media
Windows 7 (and higher) progress indication via the taskbar
Added the ability to choose how the VIDEO_TS\VTS_0x_0x.VOB file size is determined in the VIDEO file-system (Via Options)
Implemented extra columns in Listview (Blocks, Offset, Last LBA, Attributes)
List unallocated space as a hidden partition, provided it has a reasonable size
File signature recognition for *.cr2 (Canon photo format)
Improvements:
Improvements for Floppy/Diskette detection
Improvements for finding NTFS file systems (for instance when there's no partition data to start from)
Try to guess the correct code page of CD-Text on an Audio CD based on its Language field
Allow columns order to be changed
Popup to enable/disable columns
Store new column order, width, hidden etc.
Which column is sorted, and in what direction, is now shown properly
Once a column header is clicked to sort, that sorting order is also applied to every other folder you browse to
Various speed and memory allocation improvements throughout the code, noticeable during all sorts of functions.
Always use code page 10000 when parsing HFS, this improves special characters display such as the small TM in the top corner
Improvements in the detection between optical and other type media image files with shared extensions (e.g. .img)
Removed older Win9x / NT4 / Aspi related settings from Options / Communication
Introduced ability to start IsoBuster with only optical / only other than optical / both or none at all.
Added command line switches: /nocd and /nohd
Improved scanning for lost files and folders by reducing false positives for certain FAT and UDF structures
Exposed more settings via Options / GUI / Messages, for which a popup occured but no way to change it again existed
Various other smaller GUI improvements
Fixes:
Fixed a possible exception error when scanning for lost files and folders on VR discs
Fixed several excpetion errors that could occur while scanning for lost files and folders, due to buggy MS Office documents detection code.
Fixed issue that would prevent ibp images files of other-than-optical media to be accessed properly at all times, because space outside the partitions would stay hidden.
Fixed issue that caused an extended partition to be shown as well even though it contained other partitions
Fixed issue that sometimes prevented IsoBuster to see all partitions
Fixed it so that partitions are sorted, since the partition table may not be sorted
Fixed issue causing multi-session optical discs not to produce correct image files all the time.
Fixed rare exception errors when opening certain image files where IsoBuster needed to detect optical vs. HD/Flash etc.
Fixed rare stack overflow error when deleting a file.
Fixed rare exception error when the 'Default' button is clicked in Options
Mall Creeps
