Data Recovery Wizard Manual

Introduction


Welcome

Welcome to the user manual for Data Recovery Wizard, the most powerful and successful data recovery software available. We offer the highest quality and cost-effective Data Recovery software solutions for almost any logic data loss situation, covering servers, desktops or laptops for many media, windows operating systems and file types. Data Recovery Wizard is unmatched in its ability to recover from all causes of data loss.

When you perform a recovery session using Data Recovery Wizard, we can almost guarantee that you will recover the files you have lost. You don't even have to pay for our software unless you have used its free scanning and data-analysis capabilities to determine it will work for you. It's like having an experienced data-recovery technician in your own home or business! If you have any problem in data recovery process, we suggest you refer to the manual of contact us.


How to use this Manual

We suggest that you read this manual from end to end before you install and use Data Recovery Wizard. Inside you'll find a wealth of information about the application and the data-recovery processes. Experienced users may skip one or more sections, however, we strongly suggest that you have a complete reading.

Here's an overview of each major section of the manual:

Introduction

You are welcome to the large, happy and ever-growing family of Data Recovery Wizard users. In this section, we will explain how our software works, list the types of systems with which it is compatible, define some data-recovery lingo and unveil the single most important rule of data recovery.

Getting Started

Here's where we tell you how to install and uninstall Data Recovery Wizard. If the application is already installed on your computer, you should uninstall it before you install the new version.

Recovering Lost Data

This section is the nucleus of the manual. Here it guides you step-by-step go through the data-recovery processes. When you begin a new recovery session, start with "Pre-Recovery Checklist," and follow each instruction in each topic until you reach the end of "Recovery Summary," at which point your data recovery should be a success! If for some rare and strange reason the recovery didn't go as planned, you may probably find the solution to your problem in the FAQ and Troubleshooting section.

FAQ and Troubleshooting

As we said earlier, we've been in this business for a very long time. Over these years, we've collected so many questions that would fill several volumes from customers. We did manage to compile a list of the questions that we see most often, and we've listed them here, along with the answers, in the FAQ and Troubleshooting section. What is an FAQ? That's short for "frequently asked question." Our FAQ will help you solve problems you may be experiencing and it will also give you a little extra information about Data Recovery Wizard, that's good for users to know.

Upgrading Data Recovery Wizard

This short section tells you how to keep your Data Recovery Wizard software up-to-date.

Need Further Assistance?

What if you've read this manual from cover to cover and followed every instruction, but you're still experiencing problems? Just check out the Need Further Assistance section for details on how to contact our support staff. We kindly suggest that you refer to this manual one at first to see if the answer to your problem can be found here.


Important Items

As you use Data Recovery Wizard and read this user's manual, you may come across terms with which you may not be familiar. So we've compiled the following list of definitions as follows:

Dynamic disk

A Dynamic disk is a physical disk that provides features that basic disks do not, such as support for volumes spanning multiple disks. Dynamic disks use a hidden database to track information about dynamic volumes on the disk and other dynamic disks in the computer. Dynamic disk management is a data/hard disk management method on Microsoft Windows platforms, first introduced with Windows 2000 operating system. The basic concept was put to use on Unix platforms years earlier. There are five types of Dynamic volumes: Simple Volume, Striped Volume, Spanned Volume, Mirrored Volume, RAID 5 Volume.

HDD

Short for "Hard Disk Drive", an HDD helps manage the transfer of data to and from your computer's hard disk. Because these two items always come as a single unit, "hard disk drive" and "hard disk" are usually used to refer to the same thing.

Bad Device

This is the storage device that contains the data you want to recover. A Bad Device can be any disk-like storage media, such as your computer's hard drive, an external HDD, Flash card or any other form of removable media.

Good Device

This is a storage device that is in perfect working order onto which you want Data Recovery Wizard to save the data recovered from the Bad Device. The Good Device may be located on the computer on which you've installed Data Recovery Wizard (the "host" computer). The Good Device can be any of the storage media listed for the Bad Device. The Good Device is used to save recovered data from the Bad Device.

Host Computer

This is the computer on which you have installed Data Recovery Wizard. The Host Computer is used to recover the lost data from the Bad Device, which should be connected to the Host Computer as an additional drive (second, third or fourth - in addition to the existing drive(s) on the Host Computer).

The Bad Device set as an additional drive.

If you are using removable media such as a Zip disk or Flash card, you should insert the device prior to launching Data Recovery Wizard.

FAT

Short for "File Allocation Table", a FAT is a table stored on your storage device that tells the computer where to look over when it needs to find a file stored on this device. When you save data, it is stored in chunks of information called "clusters". The clusters for a single file may actually be located in several different areas on your storage media. The FAT is your computer's way of recording the locations of those clusters for each file you save. The term FAT is often used to refer the file systems, which use File Allocation Tables - FAT12, FAT16, FAT32.

NTFS

Short for "NT file system," this is basically the Windows NT equivalent of the FAT described above.

Partition

A partition is a logical division of a hard disk that creates the impression that you have more than one hard disk. If you want to run two different operating systems on the same hard disk, you can create a two-partition drive when you format the disk. Partitioning a disk is just a way to divide it up into independent sections.


What is Data Recovery Wizard?

Data Recovery Wizard is a complex data recovery software developed for non-destructive data recovery from hard disk drives and other storage devices. It may sound complicated at first, but after reading this manual and using Data Recovery Wizard, you'll found that despite the complexity of the software, it's very easy to use.

Here's a little bit about the software:

Wizard mode leads data recovery.

Step-by-step guides walk you through recovery session painlessly and easily. Intelligentized partition analysis and file research, needless complicated setting

Data Recovery Wizard can recover folders and files that were lost because of following causes:

•	intentional (trashed files) or unintentional deletion

•	viruses

•	formatting a disk

•	FDISK or any other disk-partitioning tool

•	all other non-physical data loss problems

Data Recovery Wizard can recover files and folders from disks on which the following components have become corrupted (or even if they are completely missing):

•	partition table (main or extended)

•	boot record (sometimes called "BIOS Parameter Block" or BPB)

•	file allocation table (both FAT1 and FAT2 on file systems that use FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32)

•	root folder

•	master file table

When Data Recovery Wizard recovers your data, you need have the options of saving it to another hard drive, a network drive, a floppy disk or some other type of storage device.


Features

Provides Partition Recovery from FAT12, FAT16, VFAT, FAT32, NTFS/NTFS5 file systems.

Supports IDE/ATA, SATA, SCSI, Dynamic disk, USB, Fire wire (IEEE1394) hard drive and other media such as Floppy disk, USB flash drive, Digital camera, Digital audio player and so on.

Recovers deleted files/folders even after recycle bin has been emptied or useage of Shift+Del keys.

File recovery from deleted partition, lost / missing partition or formatted logical drives.

File recovery from missing or lost folders.

Recognizes and preserves long file names when restoring files & folders.

Views the recovery files.

Changes the recovery file size.

Large and Multi-Disk Drive Support.

Data recovery from Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.

Can resume the last data recovery.

Recover compressed and encrypted files on NTFS volume (Only supported by professional version).

Recover Dynamic Disk (Only supported by professional version).


System Requirements

Data Recovery Wizard works on all Windows-based computers. Following are detailed minimum system requirements for the Host Computer:

Operating Systems

Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and 2003

Memory (RAM)

At least 32 megabytes (the more the better)

Available Space on the Good Device

Enough space to save the recovered data; for example, if you expect to recover 40 MB lost data, the Good Device should have at least 40 MB free space (and even more if you plan to take the Host Computer as the Good Device).


Supported File Systems and Storage Media

Supported Storage Media

Data Recovery Wizard can be used to recover data from the following types of devices:

•	IDE HDD

•	SCSI HDD

•	SATA HDD

•	Fire Wire HDD

•	Floppy drive

•	Dynamic disk, there are five types of Dynamic volumes: Simple Volume, Striped Volume, Spanned Volume, Mirrored Volume, RAID 5 Volume (Only supported by professional version).

•	Compact Flash cards and other disk-like media that use a FAT/NTFS file system to store files and folders.

Supported File Systems

Data Recovery Wizard supports the following file systems:

•	FAT12 (used by DOS and Windows on floppy disks and some small-sized media like Compact Flash cards for digital cameras)

•	FAT16 (used by DOS and Windows for partitions less than 2 gigabytes in size)

•	FAT 32 (used by Windows for bigger partitions)

•	NTFS (used by Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP)


URGENT - Read This Before Using Data Recovery Wizard

Before you use Data Recovery Wizard to recover lost data, you must keep in mind a very important rule:

 DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE DISK ON WHICH THE LOST DATA IS LOCATED (the Bad Device).

The success of your data recovery depends largely on your adherence to this crucial rule. When we say to make no changes to the damaged disk, we mean that you basically should leave the disk alone. This includes the following:

Do not try to delete folders or files from the Bad Device, even if you are able to see them and think that they are not damaged.

Do not try to save anything to the Bad Device.

Do not attempt to format or re-partition the Bad Device, not even with a program like fdisk or format. If the support people for these or any other applications tell you it's OK to format or re-partition the Bad Device, do not listen to them.

You will risk permanent data loss if you do not heed these warnings. If you already have made one of these mistakes, don't worry. Just don't make any more changes to the Bad Device. You can use Data Recovery Wizard free to see if your data is still recoverable. And even if Data Recovery Wizard can't detect your Bad Device, all is not lost. If your Bad Device is HDD, which is not detectable by computer's BIOS. It's URGENT for you to turn off the power of the device immediately! You will not be able to recover the device with any commercially available utilities, and you should consult a professional data recovery service provider.


License Agreement

Please read this document carefully. This is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or an entity) and CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd, the developer of Data Recovery Wizard. This Agreement supersedes any prior version license and governs your use of the software.

CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd exclusively owns all copyrights of Data Recovery Wizard.

Anyone may use the demo version of Data Recovery Wizard. Before deciding upon the purchase, you may have a chance to verify whether your lost data can be recovered. But if you wish to save recovered files, you must purchase full version.

The Data Recovery Wizard 3.0 Professional Unlimited License allows unlimited usage within company worldwide except for redistribution of the product to 3rd parties.

The Data Recovery Wizard demo version may be freely distributed, if the distribution package is not modified. No person or company may charge a fee for the distribution of Data Recovery Wizard demo version without written permission from the copyright holder.

Data Recovery Wizard IS DISTRIBUTED "AS IS". NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND IS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. YOU USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DATA LOSS, DAMAGES, LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY OTHER KIND OF LOSS WHILE USING OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE.

You may not use, copy, emulate, clone, rent, lease, sell, modify, de-compile, disassemble, otherwise reverse engineer, or transfer the licensed program, or any subset of the licensed program, except as provided for in this agreement. Any such unauthorized use shall result in immediate and automatic termination of this license and may result in criminal and/or civil prosecution.

COPYRIGHT. The software is owned by CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd. and is protected by International copyright laws and treaty provisions.

SOFTWARE SUPPORT. Support will only be provided by e-mail and only on the most current version. Queries regarding the installation and use of the software should be submitted by e-mail to support@easeus.com. Requests for additional features and enhancements should be submitted by e-mail to advice@easeus.com. We will attempt to implement all reasonable requests but is not obliged to implement it. If you have questions about buying or updating our products, please Email us at sales@easeus.com.

RESERVATION. CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd reserves the right to change the license agreement of the software. CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd has the right to change the product as it sees fit CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd reserves the right to change prices without notice. CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd reserves all rights that are not expressly granted here.

Installing and using Data Recovery Wizard signifies acceptance of these terms and conditions of the license. If you do not agree with the terms of this license you must remove Data Recovery Wizard files from your storage devices and cease to use the product.


Getting Started


Pre-Installation Checklist

Before you install Data Recovery Wizard on the Host Computer, it's very important for you to complete the following five items on the following checklist:

 First of all, do not install Data Recovery Wizard on the Bad Device. Remember the golden rule of data recovery: never change anything on the Bad Device!

 Make sure you have enough memory on the Host Computer for Data Recovery Wizard. The application requires only about three megabytes of space, but we recommend as much as 56mb of free RAM (depending on how much data and how large a drive is being recovered).

 Make sure you have enough free space on your Good Device. You need more space than the size of your lost data. Here's a list of everything that may need to be saved to the Good Device before and during a recovery session:

The lost data. You should plan on recovering at least as much data as that was lost on the Bad Device. And you may need even more free space than that your lost data takes because Data Recovery Wizard may recover files and folders you intentionally deleted in the past. If you decide to recover all recovered folders and files, you will have more files than what you used to 'see' before the failure/data loss.

Data Recovery Wizard application. If you are using a single computer as the Host Computer and the Good Device (that is, you plan to save your lost data to the same computer on which you have installed Data Recovery Wizard), you must have enough room for the application itself. It takes up only a few megabytes of space, so it probably won't create any memory issues. Regardless of this, it never hurts those few megabytes when checking your available memory.

Temporary files created by Data Recovery Wizard and files that track your session progress. During a recovery session, Data Recovery Wizard creates temporary working files on the Good Device. These files could take up dozens of megabytes of space, depending on the size of the device and amount of lost data found.

If you want to save just a small amount of data, you can use a floppy disk as the destination drive; otherwise, you need to use a local or network drive. If you don't have enough free space, you may switch to a Host Computer or Good Device with more free space.

 Close all other applications to improve performance during installation. Although not necessary, this is highly recommended.


Installation

Follow these steps to install Data Recovery Wizard on the Host Computer:

1.	Make sure the Host Computer meets all of the system requirements and that the Host Computer and Good Device have sufficient memory available, as defined in the pre-installation checklist.

2.	If you haven't done so yet, install the Bad Device as an additional device to the Host Computer. You can contact the drive manufacturer for assistance to install their drive as a slave (secondary) device. Be sure that the primary drive is loading Windows.

3.	Download Data Recovery Wizard if you have not yet done so.

4.	Extract the zip file with a file-compression utility such as WinZip, PKZip or WinRAR. If you already have one of these utilities, it will launch automatically when you double-click the zip file. If you don't have a file-compression utility, you must download one from the Internet.

5.	If you are upgrading from a previous installation, uninstall the older version of Data Recovery Wizard first.

6.	Double-click the Data Recovery Wizard Installer.

7.	Follow the on-screen instructions.

(Be sure you don't install Data Recovery Wizard on the Bad Device).

Note: If you download Data Recovery Wizard from the Internet, open Windows Explorer (or My Computer), locate and double-click the downloaded file. The installation process will automatically start.


Uninstalling

If Data Recovery Wizard is already installed on your computer, you must uninstall your old version before installing a new one. Here's how to do so:

Make sure that Data Recovery Wizard is not running.

On the Windows Start menu, go to

 Start > Programs > Data Recovery Wizard 3.0> Uninstall  Data Recovery Wizard 3.0.

Click Yes to confirm the uninstall. Data Recovery Wizard will be completely removed from your computer automatically.

If this item is not available, you can remove Data Recovery Wizard as follows:

1. Click Control Panel, and then double-click the Add or Remove Programs icon.

2. Click Data Recovery Wizard, and then click Remove.

3. Click Yes when the confirmation dialog box appears.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions.


Recovering Lost Data


Pre-Recovery Checklist

Before you begin a recovery session, you should make sure you've addressed every item on this checklist. You should have already taken care of some of these before you installed Data Recovery Wizard, but it never hurts to check twice. After all, your data is at stake here!

 Remember the golden rule of data recovery: never change anything on the Bad Device! (We know you're sick of hearing it at this point, but please believe us, it's for your own good).

Check that you have enough free space on the Good Device. Remember, you may need more free space than the amount that your lost data may take. If you don't have enough free space, you may need to use a different Good Device. You should review the pre-installation checklist for more details about what you should consider when checking your available memory.

Close all other applications. This will ensure that system resources won't be diverted to other programs during the recovery session.


Launching Data Recovery Wizard

If you didn't launch Data Recovery Wizard immediately after installing it, you can also launch the application by going to:

Start > Programs > Data Recovery Wizard 3.0 > Data Recovery Wizard 3.0.

When you have launched the Data Recovery Wizard, a "Please wait..." dialog will appear, which may last for a couple of seconds. After this you'll see the main Data Recovery Wizard window.

Now, you have to choose which kind of recovery you need.

Just press "DeletedRecovery", or "AdvancedRecovery", or "FormatRecovery".

Choose "DeletedRecovery" if you want to recover files that were intentionally (or accidentally) deleted.

Choose "FormatRecovery" if you want to recover files on the formatted partition.

If you've lost data after computer crash, virus activity or formatting Bad Drive, you should choose "AdvancedRecovery".

You can go back to this choice at any time - just click "Home" button at bottom of the main Data Recovery Wizard window.

After you have launched the Data Recovery Wizard, you may be prompted with "Do you want to restore the last operating state?" dialog, you can select "Yes" to resume a previous recovery session.

The "Log Setting " button allows you to force Data Recovery Wizard to record recovery process on log file. The log file is made only for support purposes, recording it will slow down Data Recovery Wizard.


AdvancedRecovery

This module is designed for data recovery from HDDs with crashed file system, mistakenly deleted partitions, drives with failed operation/file system, drives suffered from virus. And if, you want to recover deleted files, you have to choose "DeletedRecovery".

First of all, you will see list of physical devices attached to Host Computer and partitions found:

If your drive is not found on the list, verify whether the hard drive cable is connected properly and drive jumper settings are correct. If you are trying to recover data from a removable drive, verify that whether the media is in the drive before selecting the AdvancedRecovery tool.

The Preview button loads a disk viewer, which allows you to view drives and partitions at the sector level. The disk viewer allows you to save specific sectors on your drive or partition to file.

If your partition doesn’t appear on the list you may need to select the hard disk from which you want to recover data. Then press Next to begin search partitions on the selected hard disk. Data Recovery Wizard will now look for lost partitions, this may take a few minutes depending on the size of HDD..The next step is Selecting Recognised Partitions.

Once you have identified the partition from which you want to recover data, select the partition then press Next to begin Scanning for Files. (If you are familiar with file system details, you can change "Options" before pressing the "Next" button).

Selecting Recognised Partitions

After the process of searching partition is completed, the Data Recovery Wizard workspace will display a list of found partitions.

For each one listed here, Data Recovery Wizard displays a number of statistics, including the type of file system, partition label, its size in Gbytes and its Start Sector and End Sector. You may want maximize the Data Recovery Wizard application window to fit all details in window without horisontal scrolling.

The Preview button loads a disk viewer, which allows you to view drives and partitions at the sector level. The disk viewer allows you to save specific sectors on your drive or partition to file.

If your partition is not listed, this is a sign of a more severe corruption. You may need to check "RawRecovery"box. Then if you want to continue the data recovery, press Next to begin searching partitions on the selected hard disk.

Once you have identified the partition from which you want to recover data, select the partition then press Next to begin Scanning for Files. (If you are familiar with file system details, you can change "Options" before pressing the "Next" button).

RawRecovery

The RawRecovery tool allows you to scan severely corrupted partitions for files with a file signature search algorithm. This tool will help you recover files from a partition with damaged directory structures.

The RawRecovery tool should be used as the last resort in recovering data from severely corrupted partitions. This tool will read all sectors on the disk sequentially (sector-by-sector) looking for specific file header signatures. The RawRecovery tool will typically recover small files stored in one cluster or larger files stored in consecutive clusters on the disk, and the degree of fragmentation present on the partition before the corruption occurred will compromise the effectiveness of the tool. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently, creating, deleting and modifying files. If you have recently run a disk defragmenter utility on your partition, your chances of recovery are much improved.

WARNING: Do not defragment your hard drive in a deleted recovery situation. Doing so may likely remove all remnants of the file you are trying to recover.

You can scan the whole devices or you can just specify some of them to be scanned by setting Start at and End at scan sectors. You can follow these steps:

•	Position the mouse pointer on the left or right partition handle.

The mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow.

Drag the handle to the wanted search range.

•	Position the mouse pointer on the partition.

The mouse pointer changes to a four-headed arrow

Drag the partition to the wanted location.

You can see new beginning and end sector values displayed in text fields below.

The Preview button loads a disk viewer, which allows you to view drives at the sector level. The disk viewer allows you to save specific sectors on your drive to file.

To begin a raw recovery, select a range to search and click Next to begin Scanning for Files.

Click RawRecovery on the top of the Major windows to return Selecting Recognised Partitions.


DeletedRecovery

This module works only with deleted files and allows to "undelete" them (another popular term is "unerase").

Intact file system is important for this module. If you know that there is something wrong with your file system (for example, you did not delete some folder/files but you cannot access them) or if you see something strange with Windows, you should use "AdvancedRecovery" module.

First of all, you can see the list of all logical volumes found on Host Computer:

Choose one of them and press the "Next" button (if you are familiar with file system details, you can change "Options" before pressing the "Next" button).

Data Recovery Wizard will read file system on selected volume:

This step may take some time depending on the size of unused disk space. You have to wait until scanning is finished,

Otherwise Data Recovery Wizard may not be able to find and recover deleted files.

After this scanning is finished, you'll see file/folder tree.

Go to "Working with found data" section of this guide for further steps.


FormatRecovery

This module works only with formatted drive.

Another common data recovery situation is accidentally reformatting a partition.  The FormatRecovery tool will allow you to recover files from a partition, which has been accidentally formatted or reinstalled. This type of recovery will ignore the existing file system structures and search for structures associated with the previous file system.

The FormatRecovery tool should be used in the case where you have reformatted a partition by accident. For example, if you select the format option in Explorer by right clicking on a partition. This will perform a format of the partition removing all files. The file data is still present on the partition and can be recovered using this tool.

The first screen on the FormatRecovery tool will display a list of partitions found on the drives found in your system. If the partition that contains the deleted files you are looking for is not listed, you may need to select the AdvancedRecovery tool to recover your data. If your partition is not listed, this is a sign of more severe corruption. If you are trying to recover data from removable media, you need to have the media in the drive before selecting the FormatRecovery tool.

When you accidentally reformatted a partition you may have changed the partition type. The Previous File System radio box will allow you to select the previous file system type for your partition.

NOTE: If you have repartitioned your drive and the partition size has been changed or moved, use the AdvancedRecovery tool.

To begin a formatted recovery, select a partition and click "Next" to begin Scanning for Files.

Click Cancel to exit the tool at any time.


Advanced Options

FAT12/16/32

If your device is in a FAT format, to change the FAT options may yield better quality data than that by using the default settings.

There are several FAT-specific options:

Usage of FAT copies

You may have to try to use the first FAT copy ("FAT1") or second FAT copy ("FAT2"), or maybe even there is no FAT to get the best quality of data (depending on the nature of the damage to the disk and fragmentation of the files prior to the loss).

Usage of Root Cluster Number

The root cluster is the first cluster that contains directory data.

It is recommended to use root cluster number to assist recovery FAT32 partition. But if you are not satisfied with scanned root directory, try once more to turn off this option.

NTFS

These options are available for NTFS volumes:

Change them only if you are not satisfied with results of default settings.

RAW

"RAW" options are used for "Raw data recovery", when files are detected by their headers taken from sectors of the disk.

In some cases, raw data recovery is the only method to recover needed file(s).

Raw recovery cannot recover filenames, but content of the file can be recovered up to 100%.

Scan File System

The Device List use information provided by your partition's BIOS Parameter Block (BPB) to identify the file system. If the BPB information is faulty or unavailable, the tool may report the file system type by mistake. Before scanning files from the partition, you can select a proper file system from the result of scan file system.

This tab also allows you to customize the search for partition. You can click "Scan" to scan all possible file systems on the partition.

On this step, Data Recovery Wizard begins to perform a thorough scan of the partition. Depending on the size of the disk, this could take quite a time. Above the progress bar, you can see the estimated time remaining in the scan.

After the file system scan is completed, a list of all found file systems will be displayed.

For each one listed here, Data Recovery Wizard displays a number of statistics, including the partition's type of file system, a suggested percentage by its data quality, its cluster size in Sectors and the Score of amount of matching files/folders.

In most cases Data Recovery Wizard can automatically define most probable file systems calculated on information Data Recovery Wizard collected from partition during the scan. You should try this default option at first.

If, however, you are not satisfied with recovered data from this selected by default file system, you can try other file systems too.

Scan Physical Devices for Partitions

Select this check box for the most complete scan of the device. Every sector is scanned for partition signatures.

Note

Scan Physical Device for Partitions methods are using very scrupulous approaches to analyze data storage structures and it may takes a several minutes or even several hours, which depending on the size of the media. It is recommended that you don’t check the box at first.

  Log Setting

Select check box "Create running log of application" to force Data Recovery Wizard to record recovery process on log file. Turning this option on will lead to that Data Recovery Wizard takes more times. Also, you can click "Delete exist running log" to erase the existent log file.

The log file summarizes the recovery processes for support purposes. Important settings and choices are recorded in the log file.

It is a good idea to include the log file when you send us an email for support. The log file is located in the directory where Data Recovery Wizard installed.


Scanning for Files

Once you have selected a partition to recover from, all tools will scan the partition looking for file data. The scanning time depends on what tools and options are selected. The scan may take several minutes in the DeletedRecovery tool, or up to an hour or two in the AdvancedRecovery tool. You have the ability to cancel a scan and resume at any time.

TIP: If the scan time increases, and does not decrease, significantly, then the drive you are scanning may have read errors, indicating a drive that is physically bad. You should stop the scan and contact EASEUS support. Scanning a physically damaged drive is not recommended.

While the tool is scanning the partition, it will provide a continuous progress report. The following information will be displayed during a scan:

Total number of Files Found

Total number of Directories Found

Time Remaining

Time Elapsed

Last file found (with size information)

Progress bar indicating the percentage of the scan completed

You may stop the scan in mid-process by clicking the Cancel button. For best results, you should allow the scan to complete.

When the scan is complete, you may work with found Data.


Working with found Data

Working with Data Recovery Wizard's file/folder tree is simple - you can walk thru the tree, check subfolders and preview content of files.

Main goal here is to select all files and folders you want to recover.

Press the "State" button to see meanings of icons and colors.

Maximize the Data Recovery Wizard application window now, get more details on files and folders you are going to recover.

When the scan is completed, three items will be displayed on the left window pane and their file information on the right window pane is shown below.

Descriptions of the three items are as follows:

  [Found files]: Normal root directory

[Lost files]: This is where directories are listed after they have been found during the cluster scan. The normal root directory scan cannot find these directories due to the fact that they have been partially overwritten or damaged.  If the root directory is damaged due to format or virus attack, Data Recovery Wizard will find and recover the desired information into the [Lost files].

[Recently deleted files]: When Data Recovery Wizard is scanning for Files, Data Recovery Wizard will automatically register files deleted in last five days to the [Recently Deleted Files] directory.

In AdvancedRecovery module, there will be a "Raw files" item listed in "Raw" tab.

[Raw Files]: Severely damaged files can be recovered from [Raw files] if their data content is intact. If the directory information is damaged, the recovered file names and size information are not available, thus Data Recovery Wizard will create a file name.

Once the scan is completed, you can change the file size by righting click the file and then selecting "change file size". This approach is especially useful for restoring files damaged by the I-Explorer Worm Zip Virus or the Love Virus, since these viruses. These usually corrupt the directory information, but not actual data.

You have the ability to filter files by selecting the Filter button. By using filter options, you have the ability to view only those specific files you wish to view.

You can search for files with search buttons on the left top corner of the Data Recovery Wizard application window.

In DeletedRecovery module, you can only show deleted and lost file with Deleted & Lost Files button.

The Preview button will allow you to view the selected file in its Hex or Text format.

Tagging Files and Directories:

To tag an entire directory, select the checkbox to the left of the directory name. This will tag all files and subdirectories in the directory. If all files and subdirectories are tagged in a directory, the check color will be blue. If at least one file or subdirectory in a directory is tagged, the check color will be gray. You can tag individual file on the file list by selecting the checkbox to the left of the file name. In the lower right corner of the screen, the number of files selected and the total byte count of the files will be listed.

[+]Select and [-]Deselect buttons allow to select/deselect all objects in current subfolder.

Once you have tagged all files you wish to recover, select Next to proceed to the Destination Selection screen.

Search

With thousands of files and directories to view, finding a particular file in a tree display can be difficult. The Search option makes finding the file you need much easier. This option is modeled after some of the most popular Windows programs, making it very easy to use.

If you are looking for files with a specific name, you can enter a file filter string, either with or without using 'wildcards'.  To further refine your search, the file name string can be made case sensitive to pertain only to files.

Also, you can find files based on file sizes in bytes, file dates and file conditions.

Filter

The Filter feature allows you to filter the files you are interested in by viewing in the directory tree display. You can filter by the condition of files, file names, file dates, and file sizes.

If you are looking for files with a specific name, you can enter a file filter string, either with or without using 'wildcards'. If you are looking for files with a specific type, several popular file groups are listed in the pull-down menu for you to choose from. You can always add to a file group by selecting the group and adding a new type to the string with "," symbol (e.g., *.doc, *.xyz).

Also, you can filter files based on file sizes in bytes, file dates and file conditions.

Preview

To check the quality of the data in the container, choose a text file (with an extension of .txt) or an image file (with an extension of .bmp, .gif, emf, .jpg, .tif or .png and etc.) by clicking "Preview" button.

View Style

There are two styles "Details", "thumbnailes" for you to choose to view these found files after pressing the "View Style" option.


Destination Selection

All Data Recovery tools are read-only, and need a destination selected, in which you can copy data. All tools will copy your files to a folder on the selected destination. If Data Recovery Wizard requires you to copy your files to a safe location other than recovery source, you are given the option to copy the recovered files to a different partition, or even a completely different physical location. This is the preferred destination recommendation, and it could be another physical hard drive, a network drive, a Zip, a floppy (for a few small files), or other removable drive.

You can enter a path in the text edit box or select Browse to find a particular path. The tool will give you an estimated free space byte count of your destination path, which can be compared with the total size of the files to be copied field located in the lower left corner of the screen.

WARNING: If you have more than one damaged partition on your system, DO NOT copy files from one partition to another damaged partition. Always use removable media (e.g., a Zip disk) or a second, undamaged hard drive, as the destination in these cases. The Data Recovery tools will try to detect if you are trying to select the source partition as a destination.


Copy Data

Once you have selected a destination to copy data to, the Copy Data dialog appears. The Copy Data dialog is similar to the Scanning for Files dialog, providing a continuous progress report.

The following information is displayed during the copy process:

Current file being copied

Elapsed time

Remaining time

Files copied versus total

Bytes copied versus the total bytes selected

You can stop the copy in mid-process by clicking the Cancel button.

When the copy is completed the Recovery Summary screen appears.


Recovery Summary

Once the copy is complete, the Recovery Summary screen appears presenting a summary of the directory where the found files are saved.

Select "Back File List" to return to the Destination Selection screen or Finish to exit the tool.


Resume Recovery

Data Recovery Wizard allows the option to resume the recovery at a later time. Data Recovery Wizard can load a saved recovery state file to resume a previous recovery session.

If for some reason you need to interrupt the data recovery process, Data Recovery Wizard will automatically save information retrieved from the damaged partition, and allow resume where you left off. The information saved includes current recovery step, partition settings, file/directory information.

Data Recovery Wizard will automatically save a recovery upon leaving any of the following steps in the recovery process:

Scanning for Files

Working with found data

Destination Selection

Copy Data

Recovery Summary

You will be prompted with a standard Windows message dialog to confirm to resume last recovery session.

Once you confirmed to resume, Data Recovery Wizard will take some time to resume the recovery session. You may see a "Please wait..." dialog while Data Recovery Wizard resumes the recovery.


FAQ and Troubleshooting


FAQ

Q: Can I recover data from a formatted disk?

A disk can be formatted in three different ways: Quick, Standard and Low-Level (physical) format.

Quick Format enables you to quickly format a disk, by simply initializing the directory entry information in the root directory area and the FAT information. The data area during this proves to be still intact.

On the other hand, Standard Format examines the data area, and maps the bad sectors. Since each sector head must be read to determine whether it is bad, the process takes a substantial amount of time. If a bad sector is detected, clusters in that sector are marked in the FAT to prevent them from future usage. However, just like quick format, full format does not overwrite the data area, and the data content is preserved.

Finally, Low-Level Format modifies the surface molecule arrangement, initializes the entire disk, and records sector identifiers to each track (creating addresses to identify sectors within each track). All of the data contained in the disk is initialized, preventing any future recovery attempts.

If file system information such as directory entries or FAT is lost, the file cannot be opened by the Windows operating system. However, Data Recovery Wizard is capable of directly reading data from the data area to recover files after a quick or standard format.

For hard disks, a quick or standard format is generally carried out as a high-level format, where data areas are not overwritten. Therefore, even though the FAT or the root directory are initialized, Data Recovery Wizard can still recover the data remaining in the data area.

On the other hand, for disk media that cannot be partitioned with FDISK, such as a floppy disk, a standard format is comparable to a low-level (physical) format process, rendering the original data on the floppy as unrecoverable.

Q: Can I recover my data after performing FDISK?

Even if your partitions have been deleted with FDISK, you can use AdvancedRecovery and select a physical drive scan from Data Recovery Wizard and recover the data from the lost partition. Furthermore, even if you have created new partitions after removing the old ones, you can still recover your data with the Data Recovery Wizard. Please refer to AdvancedRecovery.

Q: What kinds of viruses are protected against by the Data Recovery Wizard counter measures?

Data Recovery Wizard is effective against viruses such as CIH, that initialize the file system information including MBR and FAT. Furthermore, Data Recovery Wizard can recover data attacked by viruses that alter the directory entry information such as WormExploreZip. These powerful features are implemented in Data Recovery Wizard’s [Raw files] category. The WormExploreZip virus destroys the entire directory information and FATs, thus completely eliminating file information, extension, and file size data. Consequently, only the data area remains unaffected. Even in these extreme cases, Data Recovery Wizard provides a miraculous recovery result.

Data Recovery Wizard cannot recover data damaged by viruses that directly attack a file data area.

Q: I have recovered a file, but I cannot open it.

In some cases, files recovered by using Data Recovery Wizard cannot be opened properly. Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Power Point) files and large files such as MPEG files often run into this problem. Please consider the following points:

Damaged Files

After a file is deleted, it could be damaged by another file, overwriting, disk defragmentation, virus attack, or hacking activity. (Microsoft Office files are especially susceptible)

Fragmented File

Some large files are saved in discrete locations because they cannot secure contiguous hard disk space. When one of these files is deleted, recovery can be very difficult. Even though the file’s start location is available, the location information of other fragments is usually erased.

Q: Can I recover files deleted from a floppy disk?

Files deleted from a floppy disk can be recovered. Files saved in subfolders, rather than in the root directory, have a higher recovery rate.

You can also recover files after formatting a floppy disk. However, you can only recover data if the floppy disk is quick-formatted. Unlike a hard disk, data cannot be recovered after a standard format has been performed on a floppy.

Files that were saved in sub-directories of a quick-formatted floppy disk can be recovered from [Lost Files], whereas ones in the root directory must be restored from [Raw files].

Q: Is tech support free?

Yes! It's free for all.

Q: I have more questions - who should I write to?

Please send your additional questions to sales@easeus.com

Q: How to buy?

You can use the online shop (http://www.easeus.com/buynow.htm).

Q: How do I get updates of the Data Recovery Wizard?

Current updates of the Data Recovery Wizard are (only) obtainable via the Internet.

Q: I have lost my full version of Data Recovery Wizard. Can you help me?

Please email us at sales@easeus.com. Please include your name, address, email address, and order confirmation number (if you have it). We will be happy to help you.


Troubleshooting

My computer can't 'see' my hard drive, what do I do?

Options:

(1) BIOS reports the device at system power on.

Try Demo version of Data Recovery Wizard, Free!

Does Data Recovery Wizard recognize the device?

To determine this, use a working computer where the bad device is setup as slave, download and install Data Recovery Wizard, start the application. Once started, select the RECOVERY MODULE. Once selected, you'll be presented with a list of recoverable devices that the Data Recovery Wizard can read.

Data Recovery Wizard can do a fine job of locating and recovering your data, and it's free to try, so that you can see the actual results BEFORE you spend any money.

If you've tried everything we offer, but are at your wits end, and the data is mission critical, we kindly suggest that you use a professional data recovery service.

(2) BIOS does NOT see my device at system power on.

Select this option if your system BIOS DOES NOT see your device when you power it on.

Are you sure that the device is setup and connected properly to your system?
Check the following:
Cables
Power
Device ID

Check Device Settings

Is bus enabled?

Does Data Recovery Wizard recognize the device?

When all else fails...

If this is an internal device, be sure that the bus is enabled.

In DEVICE MANAGER, select the bus to which that the device is connected to, double click, and make sure that it's enabled.

If you need additional assistance with this topic, please contact the computer or device manufacturer.

(3) My device is clicking or smoking when I power my system on.

It's URGENT that you turn off the power of the device immediately!
You will not be able to recover the device with any commercially available utilities, and you should consult a professional data recovery service provider.

I'm getting a blue screen when my device is connected at the start of Windows, help!

This happens when the boot sector is corrupt, or when there is partition damage. This can be caused by virus, power failure or incorrect read/writes on the device.

Here's the solution:

Download Super Fdisk (http://www.ptdd.com/download.htm)

Create an emergency disk of Super Fdisk. How to create an emergency disk of Super Fdisk please refer to:

http://www.ptdd.com/createdisk.htm

Once you've done that, take the device you're having problems with and install it into the computer as the PRIMARY MASTER. You don't have to have any other hard drive installed, for you could accidentally work with the wrong one. Be sure that the hard drive in question is set to PRIMARY or SINGLE. We don't suggest setting it to CS (Cable Select).

Once you've done this, put the emergency disk in, and startup the machine to Super Fdisk. After Super Fdisk has been launched, select Erase MBR on operations menu. Click Yes when the confirmation dialog box appears. DO NOT create a new partition.

Once you've erased it, then put the hard drive back in a bootable system, and boot.

Then run Data Recovery Wizard, select recovery module and perform the scan. Soon you'll be delightfully amazed with the listing of all the data that you could not previously get.

This does not work with damaged drives, or drives that are not listed in BIOS. As always, please use always the advice, tips and tricks at your own discretion and risk.

Data Recovery Wizard slow scan

Symptoms: Data Recovery Wizard scans for data very slowly, on the selected device.

This is a result of read errors.

Possible solutions:
1. Check device configuration. Be sure that it's properly setup for use in your system (cabling, id, etc).
2. Install the device directly in the system (remove the device from any external enclosures, and install it as the secondary master in a desktop system).
3. Use the DISKCOPY application to copy the bad device to a new, good device.

Once you've gotten a copy of the bad device to the good device, run Data Recovery Wizard again. Your recovery session should be very quick and run without further delay.


Upgrading Data Recovery Wizard

Any updates will be informed at your registered email.

Current updates of the Data Recovery Wizard are (only) obtainable via the Internet.


Need Further Assistance


Technical support

We want to help you get your data back! If you still need help after reading this guide, you can via:

Email:    support@easeus.com

We work very hard to give you the best support we can!


Question on purchase

If you have questions about buying our products, please

1. Read the info on the purchase page (http://www.easeus.com/buynow.htm).
2. Email us at sales@easeus.comif the above fails or in case of urgent problems.

Good Luck! And thank you for your patronage!


Bad Device

This is the storage device that contains the data you want to recover. A

Bad Device can be any disk-like storage media, such as your computer's

hard drive, an external HDD, Flash card or any other form of removable

media


HDD

Short for "Hard Disk Drive", an HDD helps manage the transfer of data to

and from your computer's hard disk. Because these two items always come

as a single unit, "hard disk drive" and "hard disk" are usually used to refer

to the same thing.


Good Device

This is a storage device that is in perfect working order onto which you

want Data Recovery Wizard to save the data recovered from the Bad

Device. The Good Device may be located on the computer on which

you've installed Data Recovery Wizard (the "host" computer). The Good

Device can be any of the storage media listed for the Bad Device. The

Good Device is used to save recovered data from the Bad Device.