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.
v3.9 [Dec 19, 2016]
Support for the Linux EXT file system
Support for Rimage mastered CD/DVD discs with manifest file
Support for Nintendo GameCube file system
Support for GEMDOS / Atari - ST FAT12-16 variant
Support for High Sierra on CD-ROM (the predecessor to ISO9660)
Implemented internal device caching, especially used during File System recognition. Many file systems start from similar addresses. Caching avoids having to re-read blocks for every file-system that is checked
Detect if the Nintendo Wii file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Linux RomFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Unix/Linux JFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Unix/Linux ZFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Unix/Linux Minix file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Linux BtrFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Linux SquashFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Linux CramFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Linux BeFS (BFS) file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
Detect if the Microsoft ReFS file system is present and show an icon for it (*)
New and much faster way to find deleted files and folders in an NTFS file system
Extra tests to make sure a child folder doesn't have subfolders that are a parent folder, creating circular links, in buggy or recovered file systems
Added a 'Paranoid mode' when creating managing IBP/IBQ image files, to make sure all data is flushed to the destination without system caching, and structures are updated regularly
Allow to complete a managed image file from media of which the layout doesn't fully match, but the risk is manageable [Professional]
Allow to complete a managed image file from another non-managed image file [Professional]
Improved speed when updating the IBP managed image file
Added various extraction type switches via the command line: /ET: A, IBP, WAV, RAW, R2U, RUN, DLL
Added new file system switches via the command line: /EF: see the various newly implemented file systems
Added Pinnacle Studio mastered DVDs to the IFO/VOB recognition sequence ("PCLE UDFLib")
Added ability (via right mouse click) to see the properties-window-text as text in a memo field (for easy copy and paste)
Support for underscores in function names in the libewf.dll, so that Borland bcc32 built dlls can be used as well
Always display FileName:StreamName, with or without [ADS] appended, for NTFS Alternate Data Streams
Removed registration dialog nag when doing a surface scan on BD media
Improvements in the Extract From-To functionality, dialog and warnings
Make sure testing for encrypted partitions only happens once, not every time the visual node is created (e.g. when switching devices in GUI)
Do not read extra blocks to test for partition encryption if there are enough cached blocks
Updated the 'Agent' string when doing an online query, to check for a new version, to be more compatible with modern servers and systems
Reverse the order of AVDP parsing, LBA 512 first rather than 256 first, in case of a CeQuadrat made UDF disc, to deal with CeQuadrat UDF bugs
Get the proper volume name for CeQuadrat made UDF CD-R discs
After an image file has been made, save its filename to the recently opened image files, so that it can be opened immediately from the recent image files' list
Improved .GI image file interpretation, specifically improvements in finding the header size
Show files and folders with the System property in another color
Show special files, file entries that are not used in the classical way by Unix/Linux file systems, in another color
Show Windows overlay icons and add the shortcut overlay icon to EXT symbolic link files
Added checkbox to options to uncheck using CD-Text in filenames, when audio tracks are extracted
The file-exists dialog now also allows to auto-rename a file, instead of over-writing or ignoring the file (non-Windows file systems allow duplicate but caps-sensitive names in the same folder)
New dialog to auto-rename filenames that are illegal in Windows but OK in other non-Windows file systems
Auto-rename folders, during extraction, when they contain illegal Windows-filename characters or a Windows-reserved file/folder name.
Show Endianess in UFS, XFS, ISO and SquashFS and other File System properties
Improvements in drag&drop functionality and the use of the temporary folder. Better clean-up afterwards
Possibility to always get the RETRY SELECT ABORT error dialog (instead of RETRY OMIT ABORT) on file extraction
Various improvements, changes and re-writes in the core code / engine, as this is a living project and to deal with the ever growing new functionality
Fixed GUI issue that caused incorrect values to be displayed in certain error messages
Fixed possible hang when EWF image files are loaded
Others
