There are few things more upsetting than a failed hard drive. However rigorous your back-up regime, unless you store everything in the cloud, the failure of this vital piece of hardware will result in the loss of data - and you can bet that somehow when it happens it will be the most important thing in your world.

Because of this, just knowing tools like Magic Partition Recovery exist proves a comfort should the worst happen.

Any port in a storm

Magic Partition Recovery’s sole purpose is the recovery of lost data. When a partition or hard drive fails, the tool finds what it can and lets you know what can be rescued. It is not a bastion of inventive design but, let’s face it, if you are drowning in a sea of data it doesn't matter if your rescue boat is made of wood or the bones of a unicorn, just so long as it floats.

Starting Magic Partition Recovery is actually surprisingly familiar. The opening screen looks like any other file Explorer window, from which you can choose to either jump straight in or take a little coaching from the Recovery Wizard.

From there all you have to do is pick a drive to scan and, once complete, you can see all of the (re)discovered files and pick which ones you want to recover. You can recover to a hard disk, CD, DVD, ISO virtual image, or upload them to an FTP, to avoid the risk of overwriting any existing files on your computer.

To the point

Its simplicity, however, proves reassuringly simple if you are panicking about your lost data. Its straightforward interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Windows machine before and, while some computer novices may still desire help, the Wizard should prove more than enough for most users.

After selecting a drive, Magic Partition Recover searches for any and every file it can find. Once complete, you can browse through and (pre)view all the files it discovered. Any recoverable file can be selected for resurrection on a new storage media, while those that cannot are conveniently marked with a red cross. If it does seem your desired file is gone don’t give up immediately, as often there will be copy tucked away elsewhere. A handy filter and search system are also available to help you quickly find files.

Perfect in a pinch

Magic Partition Recover did a great job checking our broken USB stick and hard drive, successfully recovering everything of importance that had been lost (though we can’t guarantee this in every case).

While I hope you never have to use it, Magic Partition Recover is exactly what you need should the worst happen. It may be a little expensive for the full program (which actually lets you save all of the lost data), but it will feel like a bargain once you get back those all-important files.