Used ZAR to attempt to restore ZIP disk w-RAW

[lavender448]

Have some old Zip disks created on a Windows 98 machine. Installed ZAR on a Win XP, SP3, NTFS machine. Read through the Advanced Configuration section and changed things that did not apply to Zip disks. Made all of the changes suggested. ZAR would not recognize the drive, so I changed it to search for A, B, etc. It recognized it then, so I ran the program. It only took about 20 - 30 minutes and came back with lots of fragmented files. I can see them, but when I try to open them, most of them will not open.

Thankfully, I did this on a disk that was not needed. The two remaining disks are needed information, so I cannot take a chance with them.

GetDataBack site said it would take up to 20 hours on a 100 Zip drive, so I could not imagine what it might take on a 250 Zip drive. That is why I tried ZAR instead... but was astounded that it took less than an hour.

What is the deal? Are there any advanced settings that are not suggested for RAW file settings? Should I change it to attempt 100 times? Will ZAR just simply not restore a RAW Zip disk?

Of course, you can tell I am a novice, but I was very careful to read the instructions and take it step by step. I REtried to recover the disk, but of course that was impossible.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Lavender448

[Alexey V. Gubin]

ZIP disks, you mean Iomega ZIP-250 disks?

ZAR is read-only, so you should be able to run it several times against the same disk, UNLESS

the disk breaks down due to wear and tear during the recovery
you write something (incl. recovered files) onto that disk

If there is a concern that disks may not survive long enough, then I suggest you make an image files of the disks. To create an image file, start ZAR, proceed to the point when it prompts you to select the physical device, right click the disk and select "Create an image file".
Image file is a sector-by-sector copy of the disk. You can run ZAR (and most of the other recovery software) against the image file as many times as needed.

Hopefully this clarifies?

[Alexey V. Gubin]

And also GetDataBack estimation about 20 hours for a ZIP-100 is most likely in error. It should be two-three hours or thereabouts.