This is a review of Recovery Toolbox for CD, a unique tool for Windows that does something most data recovery tools can’t: it helps you recover data from unreadable CDs and DVDs.
I’ve been offering IT training and support for several decades, and write software reviews and how-tos for business users. I’ve taken an in-depth look at Recovery Toolbox for CD to let you know whether it’s worth downloading.
Recovery Toolbox for CD is easy to use and depending on the condition of your optical drive, offers a good chance of data recovery. Not all data recovery applications support optical drives, so I’ll list a few alternatives that do at the end of the article.
In this Recovery Toolbox for CD review, I’ll explore what the software is capable of, how long it’s likely to take, and weigh up your chance of success. Let’s get started.
Contents
Recovery Toolbox for CD Overview
Recovery Toolbox for CD recovers unreadable data from optical drives such as CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, and more. It only runs on Windows and can be downloaded for free from the developers’ website.
Recovery Toolbox offers quite a few other data recovery utilities, each of which covers a very specific niche:
- Recovery Toolbox for Access
- Recovery Toolbox for Address Book
- Recovery Toolbox for CorelDraw
- Recovery Toolbox for DBF
- Recovery Toolbox for DWG
- Recovery Toolbox for Excel
- Recovery Toolbox for Exchange Server
- Recovery Toolbox for Flash
- Recovery Toolbox for Illustrator
- Recovery Toolbox for MySQL
- Recovery Toolbox for OneNote
- Recovery Toolbox for Outlook
- Recovery Toolbox for Outlook Express
- Recovery Toolbox for Outlook Express Password
- Recovery Toolbox for Outlook Password
- Recovery Toolbox for PDF
- Recovery Toolbox for PDF Password
- Recovery Toolbox for Photoshop
- Recovery Toolbox for PowerPoint
- Recovery Toolbox for Project
- Recovery Toolbox for RAR
- Recovery Toolbox for Registry
- Recovery Toolbox for SQL Server
- Recovery Toolbox for Word
- Recovery Toolbox for ZIP
- Recovery Toolbox File Undelete Free
- Mail Undelete Recovery Toolbox Free
- Outlook Backup Toolbox
- Outlook Express Backup Toolbox
They have opted to micro-management the task of data recovery while most of their competitors offer all-in-one solutions.
Recovery Features
Methods of data recovery offered: The official website is light on details, but it scans optical media for lost (and existing) files and allows you to save them to your hard drive. It works on discs with physical damage or corrupted data.
Supported storage media: Optical media such as CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs.
System requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 or Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016 and above.
User Experience
Setup and installation are straightforward. The software is designed to be easy to use, and data recovery requires just three steps:
- Select the drive that contains the data you want to recover
- Choose a location on your hard drive to save the recovered data
- After the scan is complete, select the files and folders you wish to recover
Performance
Scanning the CD or DVD is normally quite fast. The time required to recover the data varies widely depending on how much information you are saving and the condition of the optical drive you are copying from.
Effectiveness
Data recovery can never be guaranteed. How successful is Recovery Toolbox for CD?
Trustpilot gave the app a 4.3-star rating based on 162 user reviews. [1] That excellent score indicates that users are highly satisfied with the software.
Many users who wrote reviews on the site had good success using the software, even on scratched CDs, but also comment that the software is slow. Some users were not able to recover their data using the app.
Obviously, the more damaged the CD, the lower your chances are of recovering your data.
Customer Support
Basic instructions on how to use the software are available on the official website. [2] The support team can be contacted via email or a web form.
FAQS
Is Recovery Toolbox for CD safe?
Yes. Scanning a CD for lost data won’t damage the CD or your computer, and I haven’t come across a review that claims that any damage was caused.
Is Recovery Toolbox for CD really free?
Yes, the software is completely free to use.
Alternatives
If Recovery Toolbox for CD isn’t right for you, here are some alternatives I recommend.
EaseUS Data Recovery offers an easy-to-use wizard that will scan your drive quickly for lost files and can also recover data from CDs, CD-RWs, DVDs, and DVD-RWs. It’s available for both Windows and Mac.
Stellar Data Recovery is another easy-to-use application with a wide variety of features, including data recovery from CDs and DVDs. It is a reliable and effective application, but its scans can be time-consuming. It’s available on both Windows and Mac.
Final Verdict
I recommend Recovery Toolbox for CD. If you’re a Windows user and can’t access data from a CD or DVD, it’s an effective software tool that may recover your data for free.
However, Recovery Toolbox has taken a piecemeal approach to data recovery and requires that you download (and sometimes pay for) a different application for each data loss problem you encounter. If you’re willing to pay for more comprehensive data recovery software, I recommend EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and Stellar Data Recovery. Both are highly effective and support optical drives.
Finally, Recovery Toolbar for CD is available for Windows only. Mac users should also consider EaseUS and Stellar’s products. Both companies offer macOS versions of their data recovery products.
References
Sukoshi Fahey
Hi, I had pictures and some speeches on a DVD. I was using a DVD writer to hook up to my laptop to view the DVD. When I ejected it and then popped it back in it seems to have erased all the folders and photos. Is there a way to recover these?