RecoverPlus Pro

Lost your photos or files? Dont worry.

RecoverPlus Pro is your retrieval solution for all removable media

Specifications

Removable Media

Predefined Formats

Connection Types

Supported Cameras

Index

Get Started

In a hurry

DeepScan

Damaged Media

QuickUndelete

Backup

Scan Backup

Show FileList/Thumbs

Save Selected

Save All

Refined Scanning

SearchTypes

TP Adaptive

Miscellaneous

Open With

File Data

Explore Folder

Browse

Resizing Screen

Removable Media

Fixed Disks

System Disk

Caching Files

Selecting Files

Out of disk space

Preview Images

Preview

Sharpen and Rotate

Thumbnails

Render Width

Image Data

Some Explanation

Scanning speed

Test speed

Buy Activate Register

Updates

System Requirements

Limitations

Troubleshooting

Recommendations

Media Prep Utilities

Formatting

Deleting Files

Uninstall RecoverPlus

Contact/Support


 

Designed for

TransPict Recovery supports all removable media with a drive letter.

Removable Media

CompactFlash

SD Card

miniSD

Micro Drive

Memory Stick Duo

Memory Stick Pro

Memory Stick Pro Duo

Memory Stick Micro

MultiMediaCard MMC

xD Picture Card

DVD / DVDRW

CDR / CDRW

Zip Disk

Hard Disk

Floppy Disk

SmartMedia

Digital Recorders

Digital Cameras

Windows CE

Palm Pilots

Digital Cell Phones

etcetera



Predefined Formats

Images
JPG|JPE|JPEG|TIF|TIFF
GIF|BMP|PNG|PSD|EPS
PCX|RAW|CDR

Movies
MPG|AVI|MWV
MOV|ASF

Sound
MP3|WAV

DATA
PDF|ZIP|RAR|DOC
EXE|PST|CAB|WK4
MDB|SWF


RAW
CRW|CR2|NEF|SRF|SR2|ARW
MRW|DCR|KDC|PEF|ORF|CDR
MEW|RAF|X3F|RDC|DNG
FOVb|RAW|sRAW|cRAW

 


TP Adaptive
for
adding new file types
and
Proprietary Raw Formats

TransPict Recvovery supports all connection type with a drive letter.

Connection types

USB

IDE

PCMCIA

CardBus

FireWire

Removable Drives

Digital Cameras

See Limitations



Supported Cameras

Canon

Nikon

Minolta

Rollei

Leica

Sony

Kodak

Olympus

Fuji

Polaroid

Pentax

Sharp

Panasonic

Mamiya

Konica

Casio

Sanyo

JVC

Yashica

Vivitar

LG

Epson

Mitsubishi

Philips

IBM

Kyocera

Ricoh

Argus

HP

Samsung

Nec

Hitachi

Toshiba

Goldstar

Etcetera

See Limitations


TP Adaptive
for
adding new file types
and
Proprietary Specific Formats

It will make your day

 


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.

Get Started

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.


In a hurry when disaster strikes?

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
Command button

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.


Show FileList/Thumbs
Command button, toggle

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.


Save Selected
Command button

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.


Save All
Command button

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.

Refined scanning

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.


DeepScan

Checkbox

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%.


Damaged Media

Checkbox

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.



TP Adaptive

Command button

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.

Miscellaneous

Open With
Command button

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.


File Data

Right click with the mouse on the file name or thumb and you will see the file information shown by Windows Explorer.


Explore Folder

Command button

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.


Resizing the screen

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.


Removable Media

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

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.


SmartScan

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.  


Scanning the system disk

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.


Caching files

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!


Selecting files

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).


Deleting files

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.


Out of disk space

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.


Viewing Images

Preview

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).


Sharpen and Rotate

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.


Thumbnails

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.


Render Width

Command button

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.


Image Data

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.




Some explanation

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.


Scanning speed

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.


Test Speed

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.


Buy Activate and Register

Buying a license you will get a temporary activation code for immediate use within minutes after the purchase.
You will find this code and instructions in the confirmation of the purchase.

Unlock RecoverPlus with the activation code by clicking on About and then Registration.
Please type the data in the fields exactly as mentioned in the confirmation of purchase. The data is case sensitive.
The easiest manner is to copy the code from the invoice and paste the code into the code field.
Then press Activate. After activation, the program is unlocked and fully functional for a limited time.

The activation code has to be replaced by the registration code.
Therefore, please register your use at the Arcksoft server by registering the software within 15 days after purchasing.
Pressing on Register will establish an Internet connection with Arcksoft to retrieve the registration code. Only the encrypted activation and registration data are communicated with the Arcksoft server. Please be sure you have a connection to the Internet before issuing the registration request.
The registration code is issued automatically and with this code, the program will update itself to registered and fully functional.
Under circumstances (critical changes in the Windows registry), the activation code has to be renewed and the program will inform you.

Registration without activation is not possible. The validity of the activation code is time limited.
If you want to reinstall later on a new disk then sometimes a reactivation is needed.
Using the automated request of RecoverPlus, the key will be issued automatically to the email address of the user by pressing OK if the program asks you to do so.
Otherwise please contact support@arcksoft.com with:
your user name as on the invoice
your email address as on the invoice
your activation code as on the invoice
The new code will be sent to the same email address as on the invoice.
If you ganged your email address, then you will have to provide a copy of the invoice with your request.
After verification, you will get a new code and instructions for reactivating your license.
Renewal of the activation key is always free of charge.

If you want to clean up the activation and registration, type cleanreg in the activation key field and then press Activate.
Please note that reentering the activation code only will succeed within 15 days after purchasing the code.


Updates

Updates are free for the same main version number. When available, download the update from the Arcksoft server and install the update.
If connected to the Internet, RecoverPlus checks for updates two times a month and prompts for installation if an update is available.
If the installer prompts for de-install or repair, then de-install first before installing the new version. Your settings and registration are preserved.
RecoverPlus interacts with the Windows Installer. With the installation of the new version, all your settings and the registration are preserved. Without de-installing the former version, you have the possibility to revert to the former version. If desired, open Start, Programs, Configuration, Software and select the version you want to become active again.
Even with de-installing first, all settings and registration will remain as long as you do not remove the program directory.


System Requirements

*Windows Vista/XP/NT/2003/2000/ME/98SE
*32 megabytes of RAM (more recommended)
*Hard drive or a removable media type for storage of retrieved files

Cardreader if no drive letter being assigned by Windows. (costs approx. $15)
RecoverPlus is best seen at screen resolution 1024 x 768


Limitations

Devices with COM port or PTP connections, like Canon with a direct camera connection and Kodak EasyShare, are not mapped by Windows with a drive letter. In these cases, connect with a cardreader or install the driver for Kodak cameras for a work around.
To install just the driver for Kodak cameras, run the EasyShare install disk, select custom install and install only the "Camera Connection Software". You will not get any of the EasyShare software or the automatic transfer, but your camera will be recognized by the computer and show up in Windows Explorer as a hard disk with a drive letter.

Recovery reclaims what other programs fail to recognize.
 Add more and new file types like RAW with the unique learning engine TransPict Adaptive at no additional costs!
 Full control over each file type you want to recover with the benefit of increased reliability and recovering speed.
 TransPict Adaptive will make your day.
 Windows and most cameras are using a quick format. Not the whole medium is wiped but only the directory entries. After formatting, files on this media are retrievable with a high rate of success.
However, a few camera models perform a full format, destroying all the information on the entire media. Then after a (re)format, restoring is impossible anyhow! In these cases avoid the in-camera formatting and use deleting files. When formatting is desired, use the command line format with Windows 9x or with later versions of Windows the format option with a right click on the drive in My Computer.

Using SMprep.exe will also destroy all the information and files are no longer retrievable.
Taking new pictures or otherwise writing on the medium will limit a reclaim of the former contents to the extend of the writing.


Troubleshooting


RecoverPlus requires the VB6 runtime modules included in WinME, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, Vista and later.
For Windows 98 or if the program does not behave like expected, then please reinstall the latest VB6 runtime modules from www.arcksoft.com/vbrun60sp6.exe
Supported Operating Systems:
Windows 2000; Windows 2000 Advanced Server; Windows 2000 Server; Windows 2000 Service Pack 2; Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows 95; Windows 98; Windows 98 Second Edition; Windows ME; Windows NT; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; Vista

See Preview Recommended if no thumbnails are shown in the preview pane.

Some external thumbnailers/viewers are producing all thumbnails in landscape, sometimes cropping the pictures in portrait format.

Opening the picture with the viewer will show the picture with the right orientation.

Some direct camera connections do not show a drive letter in Windows Explorer or My Computer. In this case recovering is impossible with the direct camera connection. Using a card reader instead of the direct connection, you will see a drive letter and recovering is possible now.

Check 'DeepScan' before scanning if the medium is reformatted and recovering shows a partial result, for example only newer files or only older files.

If after a reformat only pictures are recovered taken before the reformat or only pictures taken after the reformat then check 'Deepscan' to recover them all.

A partial displayed picture is most likely a not fully recovered image, due to fragmentation. A fragmented stored original file cannot be restored completely by any program.
If possible the recovered part of the image is shown.

Saving to an empty card will store the files contiguously. Being not stored fragmented, the files are recoverable.

Storage on a fixed disk, often suffers from fragmentation.
Files are moved around the disk frequently by Windows or a defragger. So possibly you will get more instances of the same file while scanning. With some luck there might be a better one recovered.
 
With SmartScan enabled, there is a better chance to recover successfully some simply fragmented files.
Otherwise fragmented files are not recoverable by scanning anyhow!
The only chance is using Quick Undelete.

Avoid writing to the medium and please do not defragment the medium before recovering. It will not improve recovering at all but might overwrite otherwise recoverable parts of the disk.

If a graphic application like Photoshop or Paint shop informs you that images are corrupted or not recognizable or not the right kind of file, then try to load them into another graphic application and when successful, save them with that application.

If Photoshop is giving the error 'This is not the right kind of document' then see:http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332860.html
Update the raw converter and try again and/or use the DNG converter to convert the files to the DNG format.
Update link for Windows: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3364

Some recovered Canon Raw files might not be accessable.
Canon uses CRW and CR2 Raw formats. Fundamentally they are TIFF structured and very complex. Even a one byte difference in file length will cause the file to be inaccessable. RecoverPlus automatically repairs Canon CRW and CR2 Raw files. However, if the file could not be recovered in his full length, there is no way to fill in the missing bytes and this file will be inaccessable.
Sometimes the Adobe Raw converter can handle a corrupted Raw file.

Making thumbnails of partly recovered files, DPMagic can stall. If you are viewing in Explorer only a reset of the computer will stop the process. If RecoverPlus hangs while thumbnailing with DPMagic the process is stopped by terminating RecoverPlus.
Kodak KDC files might be recovered as TIFF files. Renaming the file extension into .KDC will solve this.
The same applies to other recovered files with a new extension, like JPE is recognized as JPG.
Using TP Adaptive for these file types will also solve this issue. User defined types are detected before the common types.

Resizing the screen will cause flickering of the screen during resizing. This depends partly on the original size and is due to repeatedly repainting the contents while dragging the window. Deactivating the show window while dragging in the screen properties of Windows will solve this.

A physically damaged medium can cause a fatal error or exception message by Windows or even a hang-up of Windows (blue screen). Try to solve this with reformatting the card. When the problem persists, the medium is probably not useable anymore.

Damaged data on the medium can also cause a fatal error or exception. Reformatting the medium will likely solve the problem.

Reformat the card when having problems reading the medium. See Formatting in Recommendations.

Fatal errors and abnormal program termination while scanning are most likely caused by severe reading errors. The operating system interferes. Check Deepscan, right click on DeepScan and when Damaged appears, check this check box for scanning at the lowest level possible.

If RecoverPlus is not starting properly using Windows Vista, then please login Vista with an administrator account.


Recommendations

Media Prep Utilities
Most media come with a utility to preperate the media like SMprep. These utilities are accessible from Windows Explorer, My Computer or from The Start Menu. Using the prep utility will destroy all data on the medium. The former content is not retrievable anyhow.


Formatting
When formatting a card, use the command line formatter in Windows rather then using format in Windows Explorer.
Some camera models do a destructive format, and the former content will not be recoverable after formatting.

Windows Explorer may do a destructive format, depending on the version of Windows.
In this case use the DOS command prompt for formatting. See Windows Help for getting a command prompt.
Assuming the drive letter of your medium is E: and having a DOS command prompt then type FORMAT E:
and press enter. A volume label is not required so press enter for a second time.
After completion and reporting formatting, type EXIT to return to Windows.
Running Windows 2000 you might have to use the /FS switch. In that case type FORMAT E: /FS:FAT and press enter.

After formatting the medium, you can perform a new scan with RecoverPlus Pro.

Deleting files
Deleted files are recoverable until they are overwritten. So deleting files instead of formatting will keep the possibility of retrieval.


Uninstall

Uninstalling RecoverPlus with the installer you used to install the program, will delete all the files that came with the installer. However, some files are created while using RecoverPlus and contain user settings. To remove all the files, delete the folder you used for the installation after uninstalling the program.
The same implies to uninstall used by choosing in Windows: Start, Configuration, Software, RecoverPlus, Uninstall.
Please note that the user defined file types you made with TP Adaptive will be deleted too while deleting the folders of RecoverPlus.


Contact

Support and contact: www.arcksoft.com/support.html


Arcksoft Data Recovery since 1985