I like Defraggler, as it:

• is free.
• is available as a 64-bit version.
• allows you to exclude specific files and folders, and
• has scheduling built-in.

Downsides?  None that I can see of.  Perhaps it could detect that the Windows Disk Defragmenter is running in the background, and warn you that running two disk defragmenters at the same time is going to slow things down.

You can download Defraggler here.

PDF, as a document format, I find really useful.  I find it useful because I can share a document with you, and it will be formatted as I intended it.  In other words, you’ll see the same page layout as I see.

To create PDFs, I use CutePDF Writer.  I love it so much, that in the past, I deployed to over 10,000+ computers I managed.  But if you’ve tried CutePDF Writer, and didn’t like it, well here are some other choices.

Got Open Office or Microsoft Office 2007 SP2+
Well you can print to PDF, without using one of the above programs.

Want to edit PDFs?
Gios PDF Splitter and Merger and PDFill PDF Tools are two free editing tools.

If you followed my posts on un-deleting files, you now know that when you delete a file, you can often recover it.  A reader asked in email

“So can you delete files forever, by formatting?”

No, and let me show you why.  I’ll “Quick format” & “also “Format” a USB stick, and demonstrate that you can still recover files.  Then I’ll show you what I do to wipe a disk clean.

“Quick” & Full Formatting
Quick formatting, or even Full formatting,

it makes no difference, you can still recover files.

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Only 4 that I would recommend, and 2 I didn’t test.

Found yourself in the “Oh crap, I’ve just delete some files by mistake”  moment?  I did recently, and it spurred me on to update this list I created in 2008.

Some terminology

I’d use it

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And the reasons for not touching these programs would be for one of the following reasons:

• They crashed!
• They didn’t find any deleted photos
• They didn’t find all the 19 deleted photos.

(you can see the un-delete programs I would use here).

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Not that I’d actually WANT to, but if I had to, it’ll be one of these four.  And truth is, I would probably use several of these programs if I’ve really need to get the data back.

How I tested.
Well I deleted 19 photos from mistake from a USB stick, and wanted them back.  It started from there.  16 programs later, I had my photos back, and the idea for a couple of blog posts.

DiskDigger

DiskDigger has a clean, easy to understand interface.  You don’t need to install this program onto your hard disk, which means you could run this from a USB stick.

Only downside?  It doesn’t detect what the original filenames were.  Not the only program to do that amongst the bunch I looked at. But heck, I’d still use it, as it’s free/donation ware.

Recuva

Recuva is damn good.  I would have selected it over DiskDigger, except that you need to install it.  Needed to use “deep scan” mode to recover all 19 photos.  I’d use this as my second choice if DiskDigger failed for me.

File Scavenger

File Scavenger has two modes, Quick Mode, and Long Mode.  Quick Mode found 18 photos.  Long Mode found the 19th.  Quick Mode will preserve the original filenames.  Long Mode does not.

You need to install the program to use it.  You can Preview the files File Scavenger has found, before you actually recover them.

You need to purchase the program to actually recover your files.

Active@ Undelete

If I had to really recover files, and the free programs didn’t work, Active@ Undelete would be the program I’d put money down for.  I found the scan to be very comprehensive.

So, I deleted 19 photos off my USB stick that I shouldn’t have, it was one of those “oh crap!!!” moments.  As soon as I deleted the files, waahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Seemed like a good opportunity to check out the programs I have listed in 10 free programs to recover deleted files.   I’d be interested if you have any other recommendations.  Here are the results of 3 programs I tried with Windows XP:

Restoration
Crashed on the scan of the USB stick, so I’d mark this as a fail.  Program was last updated in 2004, so no chances of any support there.

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A backup of your information is only good if it is stored in a separate place, such your office.  Or stored with a web Online Backup service.

Local Backup, aka You Store It

Free
Cobian Backup
Comodo Backup
Fling 
Karen’s Replicator
Microsoft SyncToy v2
SyncBack Freeware Edition
Unison

Not-free
AllSync
BounceBack Ultimate
EMC Replistor
FileBack PC
Second Copy
SynchronEX
Super Flexible File Synchronizer
SyncBackSE

Online Backup aka they store it

Me?  I use SyncBackSE with a collection of Western Digital and Seagate external hard drives.

People familiar with Wise Package Studio “Setup Capture” can leave now.  Everyone else read on!.

Windows System State Analyser analyser allows you to take a “before” and “after” snapshot of your Windows 7 computer.  This is amazingly useful when you need to answer the question:

“What changes did that program I installed make to my computer?”

Of course, you do need to snapshot before you install the program you want to check on.

The quip about Wise Package Studio?

Application packagers, ie. people who create program install scripts, have been using the Setup Capture function for years.  They’ll typically do this to capture all the files that a program installs onto a computer, so they can re-package it into a better installer format.

You can read all about Windows System State Analyser here.

Use Driver Magician.

Why?  Well sometimes you’ll get a laptop from a manufacturer, and to remove all the crapware, you’ll want to reformat the laptop.

Reformatting is normally the best option.  Quickest way to get rid of the crapware I know.
Or, if you work in a Corporate IT shop, you are probably going to want to install your own customised Windows operating system install.*

BUT.  Sometimes manufacturers don’t place their laptop drivers on their website, which makes it hard to install your own copy of Windows successfully.  What with not being able to find all those required device drivers.

Driver Magician will backup all those device drivers for you.  And if you’re not a skinflint who uses the Driver Magician Lite version, it’ll even restore them for you.  From the screenshot, you can see I’m a skinflint…

And the driver backup went very well.

On a test Dell e4200 series laptop, I backed up the Intel Ethernet and Wireless Network drivers.  It backed all the required DLLs/INFs/CAB files it needed to.  Then I reformatted the laptop, and installed Windows XP.  Loaded the backed up drivers, and they worked perfectly.

I’m very happy.

Why the Dell e4200?

A standard Windows XP build does not have the required (e4200) Intel Network drivers included.  Meaning you have to install them yourself.  So it made a good test machine.

Thanks to…

Terry McDonald (School Network Manager).  This is where I first saw mention of Driver Magician.

* if you are a large enough Corporate IT shop, you’ll get into discussions with laptop hardware vendors like:

Wisefaq, your customised image fails to load at our laptop manufacturing plant.  It’s your device driver choice.  We use different drivers in our laptop Windows install, and they work …

Driver Magician will allow me to extract those very same drivers, and use them in my customised Windows build.