Data recovery software for hard disks

[Averyius]

I recently used Rufus software to download W7 to a USB stick but during my attempts rufus chose my still connected external hard disk for formatting (I think?) and downloading to. I noticed that just as it was starting the procedure and stopped it. Have n´t a clue why it chose the Hard disk and not the stick. Unfortunately after that I could no longer use my external hard disk and read data from it. The computer just wants me to completely re-format it which I certainly am not going to do with so much valuable data on it. I recently discovered two commercial software companies that let you test their software free and recover a small amount of data to demonstrate it works. It did. I used easeUS and Disk Drill. Both cost approximately € 80 to get a full recovery of my data. Can anyone tell me if there is any completely free software I can download and use? I rather doubt it as why should a company just give away software to everyone free?

 

[APM]

CC Cleaner has Recuva as freeware,not completely sure that can do what you require though.

I found BitRecover to be good and not as expensive as other offerings.

Also TestDisk which may actually be freeware,can't remember.

 

[Avalon]

I’ll ask the obvious question first: Would it not be cheaper/easier to restore from the backup of the ‘valuable data’? At least that way you can guarantee you restore all your data
without any corruption/loss/further downtime?

Otherwise Recuva or Disk Drill are probably the best bet at this stage for free.