A new engine promises to stitch shredded files back together — EaseUS rolls out Data Recovery Wizard 20.1.0 with SmartSector Rebuild

What EaseUS just announced and why it matters

EaseUS announced on December 20, 2025 that its next update, Data Recovery Wizard 20.1.0, will include a new recovery engine called SmartSector Rebuild (SSR). The company is pitching SSR as a breakthrough for a specific, painful problem: recovering files that are badly fragmented, where parts of a file are scattered across a drive and traditional tools can’t piece them back together.

In its statement, EaseUS framed SSR as the headline feature for this release, saying the engine can find, match and reassemble file fragments with better accuracy than older sector-based or file-table methods. The company positions the update as useful for everyday users who lose files by accident, small IT teams trying to rescue damaged systems, and specialists who need a better tool for tricky recovery cases.

How SmartSector Rebuild works in plain language

SmartSector Rebuild is a new way of looking for missing file pieces and fitting them together. Traditional recovery tools usually work in one of two ways: they either read raw sectors and try to reconstruct files by guessing boundaries, or they rely on file system records (like a table of contents) to see where data should be. Both approaches struggle when a file has been broken into many pieces and scattered across a disk.

SSR mixes these ideas. It reads raw data on the disk, but it also applies smarter matching rules and integrity checks to figure out which blocks belong to the same file. Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle solver that doesn’t only match edge shapes, but also looks at the image on every piece to confirm the fit. EaseUS says SSR uses enhanced pattern matching and content-aware checksums to rebuild files while testing whether the reassembled file looks and behaves like a real document, photo or video.

The company says SSR improves both the chance of recovery and the likelihood that the recovered file is usable, not just a corrupted remnant. EaseUS also claims better speed in many fragmented cases because SSR narrows down matches with smarter heuristics instead of exhaustively scanning every possible block combination. The announcement did not publish precise benchmark numbers for all scenarios, but EaseUS highlighted higher success in internal tests for complex fragmentation cases.

Who benefits and how this will be used

SSR is aimed at a wide range of users. Consumers who accidentally delete photos or overwrite files on memory cards might see fewer failed recoveries when fragments are involved. Small businesses and IT administrators who recover files from damaged or mismanaged drives could save time and avoid costly data-loss incidents. And forensic teams that need to extract readable files from shredded or fragmented volumes may find SSR a useful addition to their toolbox — provided they can meet chain-of-custody and verification rules.

The update appears intended for mainstream platforms and common storage types: the usual mix of desktop OSes, hard drives, solid-state drives, USB sticks and memory cards. In practical terms, users can expect higher recovery rates in cases where fragmentation, rather than outright data overwrite or physical damage, is the main barrier. EaseUS also suggested speed improvements for some scans, especially on large but logically messy volumes.

How this stacks up against rivals

The data-recovery market has long included a range of approaches. Free tools and open-source options exist, and established commercial rivals offer deep forensic features and enterprise support. Names that come to mind include open-source utilities that focus on raw recovery, and commercial suites that combine file-system intelligence with file carving and lab-grade services.

EaseUS’s claim is targeted: it’s not promising miracles for physically dead drives. Instead, SSR claims to fill a gap where existing tools return partial, corrupt or unusable files because pieces cannot be reliably matched. If independent tests confirm EaseUS’s internal results, SSR would be a meaningful advance for a specific slice of recovery work rather than a wholesale replacement for forensic or lab-grade hardware solutions.

Limits, privacy flags and where SSR may stumble

No recovery engine can beat the laws of physics. SSR is likely to struggle with drives that have been overwritten, heavily damaged, encrypted without keys, or trimmed by SSD garbage collection. Files split across complex RAID setups, deduplicated storage, or encrypted containers also pose serious obstacles. For forensic uses, recovered files must be verifiable; the matching heuristics SSR uses could complicate chain-of-custody claims unless validated by third parties.

There are also privacy and security considerations. Recovered data may include sensitive personal or corporate information, and tools that store recovered fragments temporarily must be secure. Finally, recovered files should be checked for malware — retrieving an executable or archive can reintroduce threats to the recovery environment.

What to watch next

Look for the official release timing and pricing, enterprise licensing options, and any forensic certifications EaseUS might pursue. Independent benchmarks from labs or respected reviewers will be the clearest test of SSR’s real-world value. Signs that SSR is more than marketing will include visible adoption by IT shops, positive third-party recovery tests, and any partnerships with forensic or enterprise service providers.

Sources

• prnewswire.com