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.
v3.6 [Jun 19, 2015]
Aside from a few critical bug fixes and a ton of improvements there is also a lot of new functionality again. Such as support for the Linux EXT file system, which is a very popular file system that is also used a lot in embedded systems, NAS drives, TVs, Setup boxes, Recorders etc. However, there is also support for High Sierra, GameCube, Rimage and so on. On top of this IsoBuster detects a wide range of new file systems for their presence (JFS, ZFS, BFS, RomFS, SquashFS, BtrFS, CramFS, ReFS, ...). This way investigators can immediately see if a partition or volume hides another file system. I hope you enjoy this new version and you should definitely upgrade if you have an older version, to benefit from the bug fixes etc.
Combine this all-revealing functionality with far better read and recovery mechanisms, scanning for lost files functionality, workarounds for a wide range of drive and software bugs, limitations or shortcomings and you have an enormously powerful data recovery tool. IsoBuster is must-have-software for every PC user and is deliberately kept low priced to be able to offer a solution for everybody.
Mall Creeps
