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Just
three mouse clicks away from recovering all your lost, deleted
and(re)formatted images or files on any (damaged) removable media or
digital camera connection.
RecoverPlus
Pro supports all possible image files and comes with over 50
predefined file types, including Raw and data.
UniqueLearning
Engine for adding new file types.
Hi-res
images are made on the fly and displayed while
recovering.
What
you see is what you get. A good display means a good
recovery.
Save
all in one go or pick your choice for saving.
RecoverPlus:
Recover more, accurate and fast.
Connect
your media to the computer and start RecoverPlus Pro. Alternatively,
the other way around, it does not matter. RecoverPlus
Pro will detect your removable medium automatically and shows the
specifications of the drive in the pane on the right
side.
 Choose
another drive if your desired drive is another one.
There
are two choices for restoring:
-Quick
Undelete searches for deleted files only
-Scan
performs a thorough scan of the whole medium
The
SearchTypes list is used to determine which file types should
be searched for and recovered.
Press
the SearchTypes button, check the wanted
and uncheck the unwanted file types with a mouse click in the check
boxes.
Press
Scan and RecoverPlus Pro will scan the whole medium for the selected
file types.
At
the bottom of the screen, you will see the results while
scanning.
Toggle
between a file list and thumbs with the Show button.
When
scanning is finished, press Save All for saving all recovered files
to a directory of your choice.
Thats
all,
rescued now.
Press
Backup and select the destination for the backup. RecoverPlus Pro
will make an image file of the whole medium, provided there is
enough space on your destination disk. By using Scan Backup you can
deal with this backup later as if it was the
original.
Another
possibility is just scanning the medium. The results will remain in
the cache until you are making another scan.
All
settings are preserved while ending RecoverPlus
Pro and used the next time you start the program
again.
With
these features, you can quickly save the contents and reuse your
medium again.
Quick Undelete
Command
button
With
Quick Undelete, all the directory entries are
searched for deleted files.
Check the file types to be
searched for in the SearchTypes list.
Quick
Undelete also examines for orphaned directories and files. This
might take a while on large capacity media.
The
upper pane will show the regular loadable files, the lower pane the
deleted files with at least some retrievable size
left.
The
most recent deleted files are more likely recoverable than earlier
deleted files. Earlier deleted files can have cross references with
later deleted files and only the later deleted file is retrievable
then. (They occupied the same place.)
Reformatting
the
medium rather than deleting all the files when initiating the medium
for reuse, will erase all the directory entries.
Click
on a filename and if it is a retrievable image, it will be shown in
the upper pane. Double click on the filename and the file will be opened with the associated program for
examining.
There
will be more files recoverable than Quick Undelete is able to find
in the directories. A reformat will wipe all the directory entries.
Therefore, Quick Undelete is suitable for quick retrieving of recent
deleted files only.
Backup
Command
button
Press
Backup and after selecting a destination directory an image is made
of the whole medium.
The
program automatically saves the image with a filename assembled from
the drive letter and the date.
Use
this image to perform a scan with Scan Backup.
Scan
Backup performs a scan on an earlier saved image of a medium using
the Backup command.
It
will show the directory used for storage. Files are stored with
filenames beginning with the drive letter and the
date.
Select
the desired file or double click on the filename and scanning will
start immediately.
'Scan
Backup' is able to handle backup files made with other programs.
Navigate to the wanted file and select this file.
This
command toggles between a list of filenames and filenames with
thumbs even while scanning.
In
thumbs mode the thumbs are made on the fly
while scanning and the preview window shows images.
In
filenames mode only filenames are shown.
Clicking on a filename will show the preview.
If
necessary, the thumbs are made when
switching to the thumbs mode. The format of the thumbs are depending
on the Render Width.
If
available RecoverPlus Pro derives filenames from the directories;
otherwise, a numbering system is used.
With
Save Selected you can save files to a
directory of your choice one by one or a selection of files
together.
If
a filename already exists in the destination, the new file will get
a _ or & extension with a number to resolve double
filenames.
This
command saves all available files to a directory of your choice in
one go.
In
fact, all files are moved from the cache to
the chosen directory. The pane with filenames and thumbs will become
empty.
Saving
to the recovered medium is
prevented.
When
the target directory is not empty and has conflicting filenames, you
will be asked what to do.
Press
Explore Folder for exploring the chosen directory with the
results.
Scan
performs a thorough scan of all sectors of the medium and will
recover even after (re)formatting.
You can stop scanning
by pressing the Stop button and resume scanning by pressing the Scan
button again.
Search Types
Command
button, toggle
The
SearchTypes list shows the file types that will be
recovered using the Scan command and the Quick Undelete
command.
Select
all the file types your want to recover as specific as
possible.
In
rare cases, or using DeepScan, selecting
too much might give unwanted results.
If
having unpredictable results, narrow the search to the wanted file
types only or deselect the disturbing file type.
Just
click in the check box to select or deselect the type.
Quick
selection is possible by clicking on an icon, clicking the space bar
for a toggle of the selection and using the arrow keys for moving to
the next item or column. Toggle between two formats of the search
list by pressing the SearchTypes button
again.
Quick
selection of camera specific types is possible with the type
selection list. 
This list also contains the settings for
the minimum and maximum file length to be recovered. Limiting the
minimum file length to let's say 1 MB can dramatically reduce the
number of files to be recovered, especially useful when recovering
from a hard disk with thousands of files.
After
reformatting sometimes only the latest taken pictures will be
recovered and not the former taken pictures (or the other way
around). Then a deep scan is required to retrieve all the pictures
and files. Just check the check box before performing a scan. This
is a onetime operation and the check box will reset itself after
scanning.
Standard
RecoverPlus Pro considers the beginning of a cluster as a possible
file entry. However, after a reformat with another cluster size,
some file entries of the former content will be within a new
cluster.
With
DeepScan checked Scan will perform a sector scan for retrieving these
files also. Scanning speed will degrade about 20%.
Did
you take your card out of the camera while saving was in progress or
the medium is damaged
otherwise?
The
RecoverPlus Pro engine will discover this and drops into a low-level
scan retrieving as much as possible while ignoring the bad
spots.
It's
also possible to force scanning into a low-level scan for damaged
media. Check Deepscan and right-click on
Deepscan before scanning. It changes in
Damaged. Check the box and scanning will be
executed at low-level. Scanning speed will degrade
severely.
With a physically damaged card, Windows will terminate
RecoverPlus. This abnormal program termination cannot be avoided.
However, RecoverPlus will detect this has happened while scanning
and re starting RecoverPlus will lead you through an automated
recovering process. Restart Windows first if a restart of
RecoverPlus fails.
Physical defective sectors are only detected
by using special mediaprep utilities and not by the Windows
formatting function.
RecoverPlus
Pro comes with more than 40 predefined file types and over 60
different file signatures.
TP
Adaptive is a very powerful engine, enabling you to add even more
file types, like propriety RAW, at no additional costs.
Enter
the desired extension(s) and TP Adaptive will search all your drives
for files with that extension(s). After analyzing all these files,
the results are shown with an indication of
the reliability. This reliability is an indication of the variety
during the analyzing process. Against the analyzed files, the
results for scanning are always 100%! Wrongly typed files and corrupted files are
discarded.
Press
TP Adaptive and enter the extension you want to add, separated with
a space, JPE MRW for example.
The
engine will gather all jpe and mrw files on all drives, analyze them
and add the results to the search list. Delete unwanted results with
a right click on the entry.
If
you prefer searching on a specific drive then add that drive to the
list, for example JPE MRW C: searches on the C disk only.
Altough
in general not recommended, it is possible to search directories
only. Just press OK without entering any extensions for selecting a
directory. In this case, all extensions of that directory and
subdirectories are examined. It narrows the
search and is useful when you have your files well
organized.
If
necessary TP Adaptive will make two or more definitions of the same
file type.
Please
keep in mind that analyzing just a few files might give a definition
too specific for these files only. Then, RecoverPlus Pro will not be
able to recover all files. Therefore, TP Adaptive will update itself
automatically while making a new scan. Run TP Adaptive again for the
same file types when you have a greater variety of that types on
your drives.
Once
and a while running TP Adaptive again for already defined types will
refine the definitions, increasing the accuracy.
The
example below shows added definitions of JPE, JPG and MRW types.
Although JPG and MRW are also Program types, shown is the Adaptive
origin. For scanning the Adaptive
definition is used as well as the Program definition.
In
the hierarchy for scanning the Adaptive
definitions are used before the Program definitions. This enables
you to overrule the Program definitions with a more accurate
Adaptive definition, even with a different extension.
Delete
unwanted types permanently with a right click on the entry. After
confirmation the file is sent to the
recycle bin.
Click
in the check box to select or deselect the file types for
scanning.
Quick
select by clicking on an icon, use the space bar for a toggle of the
selection and use the arrow keys for navigating.
Toggle
between the two formats of the search list by pressing the SearchTypes button again.
The
selected file opens with the associated program.
Pressing
this button has the same effect as a double click on the file name
or thumb.
Right
click with the mouse on the file name or thumb and you will see the
file information shown by Windows Explorer.
Pressing
Explore Folder will open Windows Explorer showing the last used
folder for saving.
If
this folder is empty, the folder for caching is
shown.
Browse
Command
button, toggle
With
the Browse command, you can browse directories and disks. The
thumbnail generator will make thumbnails and previews are available.
Browsing does not interfere with the scanning results. Use the Show
command to return to your scanned results.
Press
Browse to return to browsing. Press Browse again for selecting a new
directory.
Move
the mouse pointer to the left or right edge of the RecoverPlus Pro
window.
 When the arrows appear, click and drag the screen
to the desired width.
All
panes, the preview space and the height of the window are adjusted depending on the width of the
window. Therefore, dragging the top or the bottom only repositions
the whole window rather than resizing it.
On
wide screens, an extra pane for Exif
information will appear if there is enough room.
Maximizing
the window with the Max button in the upper right corner will also
force the Exif pane to be shown. If necessary at the
expense of the preview format. Press the same button for
returning to the normal window state.
While
resizing some flickering of the screen may occur when redraw while
dragging is activated in
Windows.
RecoverPlus
Pro is designed for removable media. Media
is meaning anything showing a drive letter in Windows, like all kind
of cards, sticks, cameras, drives, disks, recorders, phones, readers
etc.
Fixed
disks are more likely having fragmented files, which are only
recoverable partly. On a large disk, searching every inch will also
take a lot of time. Nevertheless, RecoverPlus Pro is able to handle
large fixed disks too.
With
SmartScan active existing files are discarded and only missing
files are recovered.
The option is shown if a disk/card is not
empty.
If scanning the system disk or if caching to same disk as
recovering from, SmartScan is automatically activated.
SmartScan
is very usefully on large disks for preventing recovery
of existing files, reducing the number of files to be recovered
significantly to exactly the missing
ones.
In
case you are scanning your system disk, performance will degrade due
to searching and writing the same time on the same disk.
Normally
RecoverPlus Pro does not do any writing on the medium it examines.
Scanning the system disk is left open for
just the case you want to retrieve files from your system disk.
SmartScan is automatically activated, preventing iterative
recovering of recovered files and reducing the number of files to be
recovered to the missing ones.
Resume scanning after a
'stop'
If
scanning is interrupted by pressing 'Stop' or when the system ran
out of disk space, you are able to resume by pressing the Scan
button again. If resuming is confirmed by you, scanning resumes at
the point of interruption and remaining files are added to the
cache.
RecoverPlus
Pro caches the results temporarily on your system drive for quicker
access. This cache is cleaned whenever you
perform a new scan. All program settings are
preserved when the program ends. You can pick up your work
later by starting the program again.
Save
the wanted files before you perform a new scan!
Click
on a file for a single selection. Use the Shift or Control key
together with the mouse for multiple selections (as in Windows
Explorer).
After
having made a selection of files to be deleted, press the Delete key
on your keyboard.
After confirmation, the selected files are
moved to the Recycle Bin.
RecoverPlus
Pro checks the size of the medium against the available room on the
system disk for caching the results. Not knowing how much there will
be recoverable there is a warning if you might run out of disk
space. You can proceed and the program will do his job until 2GB
room is left on the system disk. Then it
will terminate the action and all functions are
available.
Saving
the results cannot cause an out of disk space error; the files are moved to the selected directory rather than
copied.
See also: Resume scanning after a
stop.
Out of
thumbnail memory
Having
recovered a huge number of files like from a hard disk, sometimes a
message will appear that RecoverPlus ran out of memory making
thumbnails.
RecoverPlus adjusts the size of the thumbnails in
order to show the most possible but after about 9000 thumbnails the
remainder is not shown.
Saving all wanted files and deleting all
unwanted files will free the memory needed for showing thumbnails of
the remainder.
Another work around:
- make a temp
folder outside the cache
- move as much files from
the cache to the temp folder for leaving about 5000 files in the
cache
- start RecoverPlus (with every start the
cache is examined and adjusted if needed)
- handle
this first batch of files by saving and deleting
-
move files from the temp folder to the cache and restart
RecoverPlus
- handle this batch etc.
Advice: move
files rather than copy/delete files because it is quicker and avoids
writing to the disk.
The memory for thumbnails is physically
limited and does not depend on the size of available RAM
memory.
Click
on the filename or the thumb
Just
click on the file name or the thumbs in the lower pane for the
preview. RecoverPlus Pro renders the preview from the
whole
image, rather then extracting a thumbnail from within the file. A
good picture means a good recovery.
No
picture does not necessarily mean a bad  recovery. The internal viewer is showing all
the generic image formats.
Specific
graphic applications have more capabilities for showing specific
file types.
Double
click on the file name or the thumb and the file will be opened with the associated
program.
Click
on the picture in the preview window to view the image at full
screen. This applies only when the image is larger than the preview
window.
Viewing
at full screen, click on the image to return to RecoverPlus
Pro.
The
internal viewer shows jpeg, jpg, jpe,
ico, wmf, bmp,
cur, png, gif, thm, tiff and jfif
files and of the RAW types:
NEF, CRW, CR2, DNG, RAW, RAF, X3F,
ORF, SRF, MRW, DCR, BAY, PEF, KDC, SR2, MRW and
ARW
If
the internal viewer cannot show a file, RecoverPlus Pro tries to get
a Windows thumbnail. This depends on your local configuration of
Windows. If successful the specifications will show Display: System
Thumb, if not, the Windows icon is
shown.
Recommended:
If
you are looking for just a viewer and thumbnailer for Canon or Nikon
RAW files and are using Windows XP, then Microsoft has one for you
at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/raw.mspx
Supported
file types: NEF, CRW, CR2, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and
WMF.
This
viewer requires Windows XP with Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1
installed (if version 2 installed, install 1.1 too!): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=262d25e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3&DisplayLang=en
With a thumbnailer installed, RecoverPlus will show as well
thumbnails of the by the thumbnailer supported kind of
files.
FastStone
Image Viewer is a fast, user-friendly image browser,
converter and editor for almost any kind of graphic format, RAW
included. Free for home users and available at http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm
DPMagic
is a fine viewer with a lot of supported file types and a
shortcoming. With certain types of files DPMagic stalls if the file
does not have exactly the expected number of bytes (partly
recovered).
Right
click on the preview image 
If
you want to rotate the image, right click on the picture and select
the desired rotation.
This
rotation applies only to the shown image.
It
is also possible to view the images with a sharpening
filter.
Select
the kind of filter after a right click on the
picture.
This
filter will be used for all images and full
screen view.
Use
reset to switch the filter off.
Orientation
and sharpening are used for viewing only;
the files are not altered and remain original.
RecoverPlus
Pro generates previews from the whole file rather than showing an
extracted embedded thumbnail. Therefore, a good preview represents a
viewable image. If the internal viewer is not capable showing a
perfect image, the thumbnail viewer of Windows might generate a
thumbnail. In this case Display: System Thumb is shown in the
specification window. When Windows does not generate a thumbnail at
all, the system icon represents the file.
The
Render Width determines the format for thumbnails. If necessary to
avoid an out of memory, the format shrinks when thousands of
thumbnails are to be made.
Enter
the desired width of the thumbnails in the text box.
Using
the TAB key or clicking with the mouse anywhere afterwards causes
resizing of the thumbs.
Thumbs
are not re-rendered by altering their
width. The quality will degrade. Press the Render Width button for
re-rendering.
By
carefully choosing the desired width, vertical scrolling can be avoided and the thumbs window will not
have a vertical scroll bar.
Click
on the filename or the thumb
The
Specifications pane will show the image data. If Exif information is available within the file,
an extract of the Exif information will be shown. On wide screens or with
RecoverPlus Pro at full screen (max button) an added Exif Info pane will show information that is
more detailed.
Files
do not have a standard identification within the file for the type
of file nor the size of the file. Normally all the needed
information is stored with the directory entries and the File
Allocation Table.
Deleting
files leaves some information in the File Allocation Table and the
directory entry, including the size.
Assuming
the file is not stored fragmented this information is sufficient to
reconstruct the file. This is with the exception that the place of
the file is not occupied by a file you
saved later. Saving can overwrite the directory entry and or the
original file itself.
Therefore,
not all deleted files will be recoverable and when you want to
recover, please do not use your medium until you have
recovered!
Formatting
a medium wipes all the directory entries and the File Allocation
Table. No information is left, but mostly the file itself is still
present somewhere. There is no information left about its name,
type, size, place, beginning or ending. However, some types are
recognizable by specific bytes on specific places, a signature. The
variety can be great. Jpeg files have 12 different sequences and
some propriety formats like KDC are in fact TIFF files. Seldom is
the size of a file marked by ending bytes.
By
scanning the whole medium and analyzing the contents of each sector,
the RecoverPlus Pro Engine will solve this and reconstruct the file
with a high rate of success.
TP
Adaptive is able to determine signatures by analyzing existing
files. When only a few files are analyzed,
there is a chance that the found common sequence of bytes is too
specific. For example when only files are
analyzed of pictures taken on the same day or in the same
month, there is a chance that the day or the month becomes a part of
the signature. Therefore, Adaptive searches all your disks gathering
the most possible for analyzing. Once and a while reusing Adaptive
for the same file type will refine the signature or if needed
determine a sub type.
Saving
to the medium will severely limit the retrieval of the former
contents.
Suppose
you have used your medium three times and each time formatted the
medium or deleted all the files. The first time the medium was used
to the limit, the other times partly. Recoverable are the files
represented by the thick green dashes.
The
files represented by the red dashes are overwritten and not
retrievable anyhow.
3
-
- - - - - - - - - -
2008-01-01
2
-
- - - - - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - - 2007-12-25
1
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -
- - - - - - - 2007-12-24
Extension
is the part of the filename after the dot, e.g filename.dot, and
indicates the type of the file.
The
scanning and recovering speed is at least as fast as normal loading
of files and depends on the physics of the medium, the connection
and the speed of the disk drive for caching the
results.
Some
typical speeds:
- High
speed medium with FireWire connection up
to 30 MB/sec
- High
speed medium with CardBus connection up
to 15 MB/sec*
- Normal
speed medium with USB 2 connection 6-9 MB/sec
- Small
cards, slow readers 2-4 MB/sec
- USB
1 connections 0.5-0.7 MB/sec.
*
1GB Sandisk Extreme III CF card on a 3 GHz
Pentium 4 with CardBus connection fully
recovered in less than 70 seconds. Using
DeepScan the whole card is fully recovered in less than 90
seconds.
With
a card reader and USB connection, the typical speed is 6-9 MB/second
for fast cards and 2-4 MB/second for slower cards.
You
want to know how fast your medium is? Press Test Speed and after a few seconds, you will
know.
The
measured speed is reading speed and applies to this specific medium,
connection type and computer hardware configuration.
You
can have a very fast card with a slow reader. The connection speed
will be slow due to the reader.
Therefore,
the Speed Test is useful in comparing side-by-side media or
connections, for example to compare cards or a direct camera
connection with a reader or CardBus.
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RecoverPlus
Pro 
