BitBroom Rescue 1.0.3

A small quality-of-life release.

Added

• Optional update check. At startup the app makes a single HTTPS call to the GitHub releases API and, if a newer version exists, shows a dismissible banner linking to the release. It is notify-only — it never downloads or replaces anything, so the app stays fully portable (fitting a tool you run as Administrator from a USB stick mid-recovery). Turn it off any time with Don't check again.

No changes to the recovery engine or safety model. This update check is the only network call in BitBroom Rescue; the engine and CLI make none.

Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt. Portable — unzip on a different drive and run.

BitBroom Rescue 1.0.2

A polish release for a consistent BitBroom family look.

Changed

• The app window now uses the same acrylic backdrop as BitBroom Cleaner — the translucent, taskbar-style wallpaper blur with a 65% smoke tint so text and cards stay readable on any wallpaper. It falls back to the stock solid dark background on Windows 10 or when Transparency effects is off in Windows Settings. (Previously the window used the flatter, non-translucent Mica backdrop.)

Internal

• Volume Shadow Copy recovery now uses the same streaming-write path as everything else, so a >2 GB previous version can't hit the old 2 GB buffer ceiling.

No changes to the recovery engine's behaviour or safety model. Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt. Portable — unzip on a different drive and run.

BitBroom Rescue 1.0.1

Correctness fix for large files, found in a full post-release audit — recommended update.

Fixed

• Files larger than 2 GB now recover correctly. Recovery previously buffered each file into a single in-memory array (~2 GB ceiling): NTFS/exFAT/Recycle-Bin recoveries of a bigger file failed, and the carver silently truncated a >2 GB carve to 2 GB. Recovery now streams content straight to the destination for every source (NTFS $DATA, FAT/exFAT contiguous reads, Recycle-Bin content, and carves), so multi-gigabyte videos and disk images recover byte-exact and memory stays flat regardless of file size.
• Original timestamps are now actually restored on recovered files (modified/created).
• Recycle-Bin scan no longer lists recycled folders as if they were single files.

Verified

• 39 unit tests (incl. new streaming tests; the NTFS streamer is proven byte-identical to the buffered reader).
• Real-hardware byte-exact round-trips through the raw-device reader on throwaway VHDs — NTFS, exFAT and FAT32, each deleting and recovering files verified by SHA-256, including a 2.3 GB file on NTFS and exFAT to exercise the streaming path end to end.

Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt. Portable — unzip on a different drive and run.

BitBroom Rescue 1.0.0

First release. Safety-first, open-source data recovery for Windows 10/11 — part of the BitBroom family.

Why it exists

Most recovery tools endanger the data they claim to save (installing/recovering onto the source drive) and oversell your chances (TRIMmed-SSD results, paywalled bytes). BitBroom Rescue is read-only by construction, refuses dangerous destinations, and tells you the truth.

Highlights

• Read-only source, always — the I/O layer has no write path; nothing is ever written to the drive being recovered
• NTFS deleted-file recovery: full MFT walk, path reconstruction, resident + non-resident data, per-file confidence
• FAT32 / exFAT (USB sticks, SD cards): deleted entries, long-name stitching
• Recycle Bin ($I/$R) and Previous Versions (Volume Shadow Copies)
• Signature carving for formatted/corrupted media: 20+ formats with validators, box-aware MP4/MOV sizing
• Clone-first imaging for failing drives: ddrescue-style two-pass, bad-sector map, then scan the image
• Honest health advisories: SSD/TRIM/SMART — no false hope, no upsells
• GUI + CLI over the same engine; recovery destination on the source drive is refused

Portable on purpose

No installer: installing software onto the affected drive can overwrite the very data you want back. Unzip on a different drive or USB stick and run.

• BitBroomRescue.exe — GUI (asks for Administrator)
• bitbroom-rescue.exe — CLI (run from an elevated terminal)

Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Verified

35 unit tests against synthetic NTFS/FAT32/exFAT disk images (byte-exact round-trips) plus real-hardware E2E: 953k+ deleted files enumerated on a live system drive, deleted files recovered from a real USB stick, and a genuinely failing flash drive imaged with bad-sector mapping (the partial image remained fully recoverable).