Overview
Three separate categories of tool live inside this one program, and they overlap in a way that turns out to be exactly right. Partitioning, because the moment you need to resize a volume you also want to see what is on it. Recovery, because the reason you are looking at a partition table is often that something went wrong with it. Imaging, because the correct first step in any risky disk operation is to take a copy before you touch anything.
This is the professional build with the license applied, so the recovery functions actually write the recovered files rather than only previewing them, which is the limitation that makes the free tier of every tool in this category useless at the critical moment. The bootable environment builder is included, which matters because the disk you need to work on is frequently the one the system is running from.
Partition management
Resize, move, split, merge, create and delete partitions, with both partition table styles supported and conversion between them possible without deleting everything first. Alignment for solid state drives is handled automatically, and a partition can be resized while the system is running with the change committed on the next restart when the volume is in use.
The partition table itself can be edited directly for the cases where automated repair does not fit, and there is a recovery scan that rebuilds a lost table by finding the file system headers still present on the disk. That function has recovered more accidentally wiped drives than any other in the program, and it should be the first thing tried when a disk suddenly appears unallocated.
Data recovery
Recovery works at two levels. The file system scan reads the existing structures and recovers deleted entries with their names and folder structure intact, which is fast and works when the file system is healthy. The deep scan ignores the structures entirely and searches the raw disk for file signatures, which is slow, produces files with generated names, and works when nothing else does.
Recovered files preview before writing, including images and documents, so you can confirm a file is intact rather than recovering thirty gigabytes of corrupted fragments. Recovery from a formatted partition, from a partition that no longer exists and from a disk image file are all supported, and the correct practice is always to recover onto a different disk than the one being read.
Imaging, cloning and disk health
Sector by sector and used space only imaging both write to a single file that can be mounted read only to pull individual files out later. Cloning copies a disk to another disk directly with partition resizing during the copy, which is how a system moves from a spinning disk to a solid state one smaller than the original.
The health tools read the drive's own reporting, run surface scans for bad sectors, and can attempt to work around damaged areas during a recovery read by retrying and skipping. There is also a secure erase that overwrites a disk properly, and a bootable environment builder that puts the whole program on a USB stick for working on a system that will not start.
What you get
- Resize, move, split and merge partitions with automatic solid state alignment
- Conversion between partition table styles without data loss
- Partition table recovery that rebuilds a lost table from file system headers
- File system scan and raw signature deep scan recovery modes
- Preview before recovery for images and documents
- Recovery from formatted, deleted and imaged volumes
- Sector by sector and used space imaging with mountable image files
- Disk to disk cloning with resizing during the copy
- Bootable environment builder for working on an unbootable system
Inside the archive
- DiskGenius Professional installer, offline
- Bootable environment builder and base image
- Portable build that runs without installing
- Language files for the interface list shown above
- Notes on recovery practice and target disk selection
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 7 or newer, or the bootable environment |
|---|---|
| Processor | Any processor from the last fifteen years |
| Memory | 2 GB, 4 GB for deep scans of large disks |
| Graphics | No dedicated graphics required |
| Storage | 300 MB for the program, plus a separate disk for recovered data |
| Media | A USB stick for the bootable environment |
Installing it
- Unpack the archive. Use the portable build if the disk you need to work on is the system disk.
- Run the installer as administrator for full disk access.
- If the target system will not boot, build the bootable environment onto a USB stick from a working machine first.
- Before any partition operation on data you care about, take an image to a different disk.
- Recover files onto a different physical disk from the one being scanned, without exception.
Mirrors
| Route | Region | Note | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct, primary | Europe | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Direct, secondary | Asia Pacific | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Torrent magnet | Global | Small file, direct is simpler | Online |
Release history
- Deep scan speed improved substantially on large drives
- Additional file signatures added to the raw scanner
- Fixed bootable environment builder failing on some USB controllers
- Partition table recovery handles more damaged layouts
- Image files can now be mounted read only from the file browser
- Cloning with resize reworked for reliability on smaller targets
Questions about this release
Can it recover files after a format?
Often yes, provided nothing was written to the volume afterwards. Every write reduces the chance, which is why the correct first action after losing data is to stop using the disk.
Why must I recover to a different disk?
Writing recovered files onto the same disk overwrites the very data you are trying to read. It is the single most common way a recoverable situation becomes unrecoverable.
Does the professional build actually write files?
Yes. The write restriction that limits the free tier is not present here, which is the reason this build is worth having before you need it.
Will it work on a disk the system cannot see?
Frequently. It reads at a lower level than the operating system's disk manager, so a disk with a damaged table often shows up here with its partitions intact.
Comments
Bootable stick worked on a laptop that would not start. Cloned the disk off it and moved on.
Deep scan is slow but it found things the fast scan missed. Recover to another disk, seriously.
Comments are read before they appear. If a build stops working, say so here and it gets rebuilt rather than quietly left up.
Table recovery brought back a drive that showed as unallocated. Everything was there.