Comprehensive search method allows finding and rebuilding in memory directory structure of a damaged file system.
In the most complex cases volume candidates are given rather than actual volumes. You should select and Open volume to view it files and directory structure (and reconstruct it). If the selected volume does not contain necessary files or they are being recovered incorrectly you should continue the search or try opening another volume candidate. If a file system is not seriously damaged then the volume may be opened before the search completes.
It is recommended to perform FAT/NTFS search over a selected area of a physical device (including old and new location if the volume was moved) rather than over a logical disk. The software may read beyond the selected area if it is necessary.
Open volume | Open volume selected in the list. |
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Save... | Save search log to a file. |
Load... | Load search log from a file (to continue previous search or to use previous search results). |
Start/Stop | Start/stop scan. If the scan area is not changed the scan will continue from the last point. |
Scan range | Select the area to scan. Is is possible to select one of the partitions or any drive extent. |
Menu | Besides, allows changing volume sorting order. |
The special search method allows detecting volumes without prior complete scan of the selected area. Scan is not continuous but sampling with frequency increasing. The volumes with the most number of files are being found first. Some fake volumes may be found by mistake (e.g., if partitions were moved or resized) so it is recommended to define the most exact area to scan. If data was moved over disk some files of one volume may be found on different volumes. Moreover, the one file may be found on different volumes. However, generally the file is recoverable correctly from one volume only.
The column Check may be used to estimate the recovery quality of a found volume candidate (it corresponds to the number of correct directory indexes on the volume). When select a volume the status lines display the estimated percentage of found volume files and probable quality (including removed indexes), the number of found files and estimated total number of files.
Min. Size is the minimum volume size (in sectors) containing all files in the best MFT fragments of a volume.
MFT Volume Start #1 and Volume Start #2 are possible volume starts for a given MFT fragment.
Volume Mod = Volume Start mod Cluster size
MFT Mod = MFT Cluster Start mod Cluster size
Sign "-" in the columns Boot FAT1 FAT2 Root indicates the absence (damage) of the corresponding file system structures (boot sector, main FAT table, FAT table copy, root directory).
The column Found shows the number of directories found and allows estimating approximately the recovery quality of a volume candidate.
Values in the columns Boot FAT1 FAT2 Root are the sizes (in sectors) of the corresponding structures.