Buying ZAR software

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi,

I only realized that I could choose only 4 directories after I finished scanning my corrupted external HDD.

These 4 directories here, is it limited to a directory with just files and no subs at all?

When I purchase ZAR, what should I do with the current demo version? Will I need to scan all over again?

Please please advise.. I desperately need all the files back :( I'm happy to see the folders and files displaying now but so sad I can't get them all and afraid if I rescan, it's going to make things worse?

You can see my cries of help here (http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=13647643#post13647643) and here (http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/hard-drive-support/428754-external-hdd-has-converted-raw-filesystem-what-should-i-do-hardware.html)

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Four directories are just that, four directories and whatever files may be there, but not subdirectories and not the files in the subdirectories.

You can save the scan result, by clicking "Save" in the folder tree view, and load it with a full version IF you do not change the disk configuration between save and load.

Otherwise it is a rescan.

Rescan is reasonably safe because unplugging the disk from USB does not cause any kind of bad sectors, or other possibly progressing damage to the disk. If there were bad sectors, one can reasonably expect they will grow over time with disk usage. However to achieve this sort of damage you need something more than just unplugging the USB (like, drop the drive).

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your reply. I'm purchasing the software in a bit and I have pressed saved and saved the scan results to my Desktop

I have a question, currently, ZAR says 'Validation found 143037 (96%) valid and 5890 damaged files of 317380 checked'

The damaged files represent the remaining 4%, to total it up to 100% checked files, right? It's not only 96% because ZAR hangs?

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi Alex,

I just bought the software and backing up my files now, I really hope it works :)

Btw, I paid using Paypal and a weird thing happened right after I made the payment, I'm brought to a page that says

A previous order record was found: Our records show that you have already placed a similar order within the past 24 hours. If you do not want to place a new order, please check your email for the last order's receipt and confirmation notices. If you would like to proceed and place a new order for the product, please check the box below.

And it asked for my Credit Card number etc, but I ignored this page since the email containing my Serial Number and Unlock Code has already been sent.

Will this be okay? Is this a glitch?

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi Alex,

I tried retrieving one of my folder and I think everything's alright, and I'm going to retrieve more after this

I have some questions though, I noticed some weird files that isn't mine like

'_OBO (1).PSD, _OBO (2).PSD' and most of them are not marked in green but just white. Can I ignore it or should I retrieve them as well in order to make the files in green work?

And the files marked in red, those are probably files that have been deleted by me and is also retrieved right? And I should ignore it as well?

FYI, I've read the sticky about ZAR recovers more files than possible, but I just would like to clarify. Thanks in advanced for your assistance :)

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi there,

A lot of files I retrieved are filled with gibberish texts especially Excel files, why is this happening?

[bitterpillsweet]

Another thing I realized is this, say I have an excel file called Sales.xls which is an excel file

In the folder, these files are recovered
Sales (1).xls
Sales (2).xls
Sales (3).xls
Sales (4).xls
Sales (5).xls

There are chances that I might get the latest file which isn't thankfully corrupted among those probabilities of files

But there's also occasions that Sales (1).xls isn't really an Excel file nor does it contain what Sales.xls is supposed to contain. I've bumped into a situation where Sales (1).xls is really Quotation.doc

Is this normal? Why does this happen?

If it's normal in file recovery process, I definitely understand and this means I have to check all the files I recovered one by one and that's alright with me.

I just need some information, hope you don't mind :)

[Alexey V. Gubin]

1. Validation:

96% valid + 4% broken = 100% of checked. These are files which the validator knows how to check. There are other file types which it does not know how to check, but they typically have a distribution of good/bad similar to that of checked files. 4% are either validation errors (misidentified or something) or actually damaged files.

2. Duplicate order:

As of now, I've reviewed the data for the past 72 hours and I see no duplicate charges/orders. However, there is a possibility the data has not arrived yet or something so I will keep an eye on it for a while.

3. Files like _OBO (2).PSD

On FAT filesystem, when a file is deleted and no long name is available, the first letter of the file name is irreversibly lost (replaced by the deleted file indicator). On recovery, it is replaced by an underscore "_".

4. White versus red icons:
White icon means the validation module does not know how to determine if this particular type of file is good or not. So, the color map is
Grey = Not yet processed.
White = Tried to process but do not know how to handle.
Red = Does not look good.
Green = Looks good.

5. Duplicates and gibberish:

Consider rescanning once again, setting "Recover live files only" when you are prompted for a recovery mode on a second screen (at bottom). This should significantly reduce the number of duplicates.

If you delete the file, or your editor deletes the original when saving, multiple references to the file are often kept. One of them refers to the current version of file, and others to the past deleted versions. The content for the deleted files does not survive for long, and gets overwritten as the filesystem reuses the disk space. However, ZAR cannot determine which of the copies is in the best shape, and, furthermore, which of the copies you actually need. So all versions are restored.

So I suggest you rescan once again to "Only recover live files"; any duplicates remaining after this are to be checked manually. Or you may leave it as is and manually check the current set - probably significantly more work and little more chances to get the neccessary file back (it is unlikely but possible that a past/deleted version of the file is in better condition than a latest/live version).

[bitterpillsweet]

Thanks for the comprehensive answers, Alex!

I'll do a rescan today as you suggested and see how it goes. Overall, I'm really happy what ZAR does!

I have one last question, this is probably no biggy but gets on my nerves a little (laughs) - is it normal in files recovery process that the filenames become all in capital letters? It doesn't happen to all my folders and files but MOST of them

Is there any way I can stop them from turning into caps?

Thanks a million again for your answers and time

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi Alex,

I've been running the scan for almost 7hours now with the option to recover only current/live files. Unfortunately, I think it's not moving forward

The 'Current operation and its progress' has been empty and not showing any green bar as in it's progressing

And the text says "Disk scan: Full - identifying data (0%)

And in the Volume Map, I don't see much color changes for the past 2-3 hours as well.

When using the recovering only current/live files, does ZAR scans slower?

If I stop the scan now, and restart, would it damage the hardisc?

Oh Edit: 10 mins after I posted this post, the scan showed 1% progress and the green bar is finally showing. LOL.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

1. File names are all caps because lower case letters are not allowed in short (8.3) file names on FAT. Hence anything that matches eight characters file name, three characters extension will come out all caps.

2. Stopping and restarting the scan does not damage the disk.

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi Alex,

Thanks again for the answers :)

[bitterpillsweet]

Hi Alex,

I've got a question about ZAR.

It doesn't recover empty folder, does it?

I remember having a couple of empty folders to indicate the next project number I should use, so when I checked the folder where I keep all my projects, there is no for example, 'NEXT_345' folder to indicate next project number is 345

Hope you can get back to me, thanks!

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Uh oh, you need to rescan again. In "Advanced configuration", under "Common filesystem analysis" there is a checkbox - "filter out empty files and folders". Uncheck it and rescan. However, this might have some side effect - sometimes you get more than you bargained for. So prepare that it pulls out quite a few empty folders; because some algorithmic limitation, most of the time excessive number of empty folders are extracted. This is why we have this filter function and it is activated by default.