X-Ways

X-Ways Forensics is a commercial digital forensics suite from X-Ways Software Technology AG in Germany, built on the company’s WinHex hex and disk editor. It is known for being fast, lightweight and portable. It runs on Windows, can be launched from a USB drive, and handles disk imaging, file system analysis, data carving, keyword search, hash filtering and registry analysis.

Investigators often compare it with free tools such as Autopsy and with other commercial suites. See how it stacks up against PhotoRec, Scalpel, Bulk Extractor and Autopsy in our guide to the 7 best data carving tools.