How to recover my data...

November 4, 2005 (Press Release) -- How to recover my data...

1. Files have been deleted or Windows-recycle bin has been emptied
2. Files/directories are lost*
3. Altered file size due to virus
4. Hard disk has been formatted*
5. Hard disk has been formatted with another file system*
6. A volume is lost (unrecognized drive)*
7. Windows is damaged and system not bootable
* This functionality is only included if you have the Professional version.

Files have been deleted or Windows-recycle bin has been emptied
If you have emptied the recycle bin or deleted files while holding down the Shift key, the corresponding files will not be shown on the recycle bin anymore. Files deleted by a user accessing your system through a network share are also not stored in the recycle bin.
Windows does not have the capability to restore these files.
To perform the recovery select Object->Open drive from menu and choose your drive containing the lost files from the 'Logical drive' tab.

After the drive is opened, click on the folder 'Deleted' and find the lost files. Optionally, perform a file search by selecting Object->Find from the menu. After finding the files you wish to recover, select Object->Save to ... from menu to save them on another drive.

If you emptied the recycle bin and no files were found, continue as described in section 4 (hard drive has been formatted).


Files/directories are lost
Proceed all steps like in section 4. (hard drive has been formatted).

Altered file size due to virus
Files contaminated with viruses such as Worm.ExploreZIP are displayed in Windows Explorer, but their file sizes are altered (e.g. to zero (0)). The operating system cannot read these files anymore. You can recover these files using the following procedure:

Select Object->Open drive from menu and choose your drive.

Select folder Root and find your file. After selecting Object->Properties from menu you will get the following screen:


Change the file size by entering a number greater than the initial file size.
Select Object->Save to... to save the file on another drive. The size of the file will be the size you entered before. If you open the recovered file with the corresponding program application and save it, the original file size will be restored.



Hard disk has been formatted

If you emptied the recycle bin from Windows NT/2000/XP or formatted the drive with a standard or quick-format, you must perform a cluster search to get again access to your data:

Select Object->Open drive and choose the drive you formatted from the 'Logical drive' tab.
Select Tools->Find Lost Data to perform a cluster search.
After the cluster search completes, find the files and folders you wish to recover in the folders 'Lost' or 'Other Lost' in the left window pane.

Select Object->Save to... to save the lost files on another drive.

Notice: URGENTRECOVERY can recover hard disks that have been formatted using quick or standard format. However, if a standard format was applied to a floppy disk, the data area is initialized and the data is irretrievable lost. A quick-formatted floppy disk can, however, be recovered with URGENTRECOVERY.


Hard disk has been formatted with another file system

After a hard disk is formatted with a different file system or a partition is deleted and reformatted with a different file system (usually with FDISK), you can recover your data by using the following steps:

Select Object->Open drive and choose your desired drive from 'Logical drive' tab (do not click on OK).
Select 'Full scan/ find format', modify the sector range for the search if necessary and click on OK.
After completing the search you will get the found file systems in 'Logical drive' tab.


Choose one among the drives found and find the files you wish to recover.


A volume is lost (unrecognized drive)
If a drive is not recognized, e.g. because it is contaminated by a virus or its partition information was deleted with FDISK, use the following procedure to get again access to your data:

Select Object->Open drive.

Select 'Physical drive' tab and choose the physical drive (e.g. hard disk) containing the unrecognized drive. The 'Logical drive' tab will not display any lost drives to be recovered.

After clicking on 'Quick scan' FILERECOVERY starts searching for the partition.

Partition was found:

After completing the search, lost drives will be displayed in 'Logical drive' tab.



Choose the drive to be recovered among the lost drives and find the files you wish to recover.
If the hard disk was formatted with a different file system, please continue as described in section 5. (hard disk was formatted with another file system).


Partition was not found:

Choose your physical drive (e.g hard disk) from 'Physical drive' tab and click on 'Full scan/ find format'.




Specify the sector range for the search and click on OK.
After completing the search lost drives will be displayed in 'Logical drive' tab.

Choose the drive to be recovered among the lost drives and find the files you wish to recover.

Windows is damaged and system not bootable
If you computer has only one hard disk and Windows cannot start, you can recover your data by attaching that disk as slave drive to a seperate system with FILERECOVERY installed. FILERECOVERY can only be run with a working system.

If the hard disk is not recognized by the system BIOS, the disk may have physical damages. A data recovery of physical damaged drives cannot be performed by software.