I ran the ZAR trial version and now I can't

[tawdy]

access the drive on which ZAR was run. How can I get the drive to work? Has the data on the drive been compromised by ZAR?
Win200XPsp2 - backup external Maxtor drive.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

ZAR is a read-only data recovery (http://www.data-recovery-guide.com/data-recovery-approaches.aspx) software. It just reads the data off the disk. So in itself, it does not cause any damage. The only thing that can happen is that something quits working because of the stress.

With an USB external drive, typical suggestion is that you get the drive out of the enclosure and attach it directly to the motherboard IDE (ATA/SATA)port. This eliminates any possible problems associated with USB-to-IDE converter and its cabling.

[tawdy]

Tried that and can't get the drive back. Have I now lost all data I had on the drive? I cannot access it.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

1. Does BIOS detect the drive?
2. Is the drive listed in "Disk Management"? (Right click My Computer, select "Manage", then select "Disk Management" in a left-hand panel).

[tawdy]

Yes, the drive is recognized. However, it is shown as having 100% free space. Data is gone.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

In this case a procedure listed here
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/partition-recovery-tutorial.htm
should work.
If you do not see the drive listed at step 3 of the tutorial, then
1. Close and restart ZAR
2. On a first screen click "Advanced Configuration"
3. In there, click "Revert to defaults", then OK to close configuration
After that retry the scan

However, be aware that in the past, we had similar occurences (where the drive will cease to function after ZAR is run), and when we determined the reason for it, it is typically due to some hardware issue, which may be not quite apparent at first glance. Make sure the cabling is fine, that the external enclosure is working fine, that system memory (RAM) is OK, and the like.

[tawdy]

I have the trial version. It is the one that messed up my drive. It is limited. Must I buy the full version in order to attempt to recover my drive and data?

[Alexey V. Gubin]

I've just sent you a private message regarding this.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Just make sure you have your hardware functioning properly.