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.
v4.9 [Dec 20, 2021]
Changes / New:
- Windows 11 tested, improved, ready.
- Support for ReplayTV 1000, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 3000, 3020, 3030, 3060, 4000, 4040, 4080, 4160, 4320, 4500, 4504, 4508, 4516, 4532, 5000, 5040, 5060, 5080, 5160, 5320, 5500, 5504, 5508, 5516 and 5532 DVR/PVR standalone Video Recorders.
- Support for ShowStopper PV-HS1000, ShowStopper PV-HS2000 and ShowStopper PV-HS3000 DVR/PVR standalone Video Recorders.
- Support for Thomson DTH7000 / RCA DRS7000 "Scenium" and Thomson DTH7500 / RCA DRC7005 DVR/PVR standalone Video Recorders.
- Roxio, Prassi, Sonic *.gi image file CD-Text support.
- Ability to keep certain attributes ('Read Only', 'System', 'Hidden' and/or 'Archive') when extracting files.
- Ability to auto-complete a managed IBP/IBQ image file in a loop, until stopped or completed. Look for a checkbox on the various dialogs, before creating, when opening an incomplete image, after first creation or completion etc. The check box is pre-checked if this has been set in Options.
- Read Error dialog's [Retry] button will now automatically be clicked, again and again, with a 10 second interval, so that after an error the process can continue automatically if the sector could be read afterall.
- The [Retry] button (and hence automatic execution) is not the default button on the RETRY-SELECT-ABORT error dialog, but it can be via a setting in Options
Improvements:
- Find orphaned/deleted PS2 MC card folders (if the PS2-MC-FAT is still OK).
- Also scan for PS2 APA partitions when a GPT partition scheme has already been found.
- Append "[Deleted]" to the filename of deleted files and folders in the PS2 MC file system (if the deleted files/folders are located in a not-deleted folder).
- Detect PS2 APA boot.kelf files even if they're not referenced from the header.
- Show what is selected in the Options (left pane) TreeView, even when the control is not in focus.
- Updated a number of icons.
- Improved algorithm to Extract while filtering only mpeg frames on DVD.
- Improved finding all VOB files via the DVD-VFR IFO files.
- Improved the /ef: command to incorporate wildcard search functionality to find a particular file before extracting it.
- Improvement to make sure CUE files of CD-i discs, as created with IsoBuster, are still recognized as CD-i discs.
- Always write out CD-Text data to the *.CUE, even if a *.CDT could be created. This way the CD-Text data is also easily readable via a text file (the *.cue).
- Improved detecting generic split image files based on their extension (Added *.00 and *_00.pdi variants).
- Added *.00 to Open Image file filter.
- Improved *.gi parsing to deal with certain variants.
- Improved showing file icons in the (right pane) ListView when the OS is super slow to respond.
- Sector View now also 'understands' "start", "end", "first", "last" and "mid" to read the first, last or middle sector of the selected object.
- Sector View "start", "end", "first", "last" and "mid" can be followed by a or - value, which is then taken in account (e.g. "last-32" will show the 32nd sector before the Last LBA of the selected object).
- Improved GPT partition table parsing, making use of its backup, to still find partitions on a HDD/SSD or USB stick.
- Use the GPT Partition Entry name/label to name partitions found via the GPT.
- Improved ability to interrupt building a report.
- Do not display edit window if building a report was cancelled.
- The Pause dialog that can be called on several functions now has a checkbox to auto-resume the process again in 60 seconds.
- Improved Progress bar behaviour.
- Various GUI tweaks were made for best compatibility with Windows 11.
- Checking for errors (Surface Scan, Check if all files are physically readable) defaults to normal generic reading again instead of mostly raw reading. This makes for a more accurate real life test.
- Improved detecting exceptional CD media (CD-i, VCD) that needs to be read and verified raw.
- Improved High Contrast mode (for the visually impaired), especially on Window 10 and higher.
- Plenty of other improvements, a few changes and re-writes in the core code / engine, as this is a living project and to deal with the ever growing new functionality.
- Various other GUI improvements.
Fixes:
- Fix when extracting Raw2User. In certain rare occassions there could be slightly more data in the file.
- Fixed GUI issue when doing a manual retry while reading from a managed (*.ibp/ibq) image file. A new dialog would be created on every manual retry.
- Fixed issues that, under certain conditions, prevented a DVD IFO -VFR folder to be expanded.
Fixes: [IsoBuster 4.9.1]
- Fixed an Exception Error that could happen while parsing certain IFO file systems on DVD.
- Fixed a Stack Overflow (IsoBuster would simply shut down) on highly fragmented files in the UDF file system.
