Image recovery

ZAR has been discontinued

After about twenty years, I felt ZAR can no longer be updated to match the modern requirements, and I decided to retire it.

ZAR is replaced by Klennet Recovery, my new general-purpose DIY data recovery software.

If you are looking specifically for recovery of image files (like JPEG, CR2, and NEF), take a look at Klennet Carver, a separate video and photo recovery software.

Digital image recovery mode is specifically tailored to recover photographs taken using a digital camera. These shots are typically stored on some sort of a small-size, small-capacity removable storage, like Compact Flash memory, Memory Stick, Secure Digital and so on. These storage types are collectively referred to as a "memory card".

Setting up

You need to set the system up in such a way that your memory card is accessible as a disk drive (with a drive letter like E:). A setup involving an appropriate card reader device is good for most situations. If you do not have the card reader, or cannot use it for some reason (e.g. camera is using internal non-removable memory), you should try using the camera itself to access the memory card. It may be required that you turn on "Use logical drives" in disk access options to achieve proper access (this depends upon the implementation of the camera device driver).

Source (damaged) device and performance considerations

The "image recovery" mode is tailored to work with digital camera memory, which is relatively small. Thus, the following limitation applies:

Recovery off the hard disks is not supported¹.

¹This means we tested and found the results unsatisfactory (i.e. not worth the effort) most of the time.