Product comparison

iolo Search and Recover vs Ashampoo Undeleter

These tools overlap most directly when you accidentally delete documents, photos or folders. Search and Recover provides location and file-type searches with SmartScan and StrongScan. Ashampoo Undeleter focuses on finding deleted files and directories and displaying estimates of their condition before recovery.

Compare recovery workflows

Task	iolo Search and Recover	Ashampoo Undeleter
Primary scenario	Search for deleted files on accessible storage	Recover accidentally deleted files and directories
Where to search	Selected folders, drives and removable media	Selected devices or partitions, including external USB storage
Search controls	Location selection, custom search and file-type selection	Choose the source to generate a deleted-file results list
Named methods	SmartScan for relevance and StrongScan for sector-level searching	Do not infer equivalent SmartScan or StrongScan controls from the undelete workflow
Result assessment	Review found files and check the saved contents	Displayed condition estimates help assess recovery candidates
Saving copies	Use a different drive from the source	Select a recovery destination on another drive and verify the output

Which workflow fits?

Consider Search and Recover for its search-scope controls

iolo Search and Recover is a candidate when you want to narrow a search by location and file type, then investigate surviving data with its documented scan methods. A sector-level search can cover a different search scope, but its name alone does not establish better recovery.

Consider Undeleter for an accidental-deletion workflow

Ashampoo Undeleter lets you choose a device or partition, review deleted-file results and assess displayed file-condition estimates. The focus is finding and restoring selected files and directories after ordinary deletion, including on external USB media.

A displayed condition is an estimate for choosing candidates. It does not replace opening the saved copy, and a familiar name does not establish that the complete contents survived. Treat damaged storage, ordinary deletion and overwriting as different situations when deciding what a scan can achieve.

Recovery checks and edition scope

Both catalog entries are unnumbered. Check the installed releases and the file-system support relevant to the source. Do not assume that one product exposes the other product's scan modes, or that a recoverability estimate measures success on every file.

Identify where the deleted items were stored and avoid further writes or installation on that source.
Select the intended drive or partition, then review the relevant search scope and results.
Use any displayed condition information to choose samples, without treating it as a guarantee.
Recover to another drive and verify the actual document, picture or media contents before saving more results.

Recovery depends on surviving, readable data. These are documented workflow differences; we have not tested recovery rates or scan speeds on identical sources. Software cannot recreate overwritten contents or repair physical hardware damage.

Compared products

Review the selected catalog products for the recovery task described here.