| iRecover™
introduction |
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iRecover is a comprehensive read-only Windows
based data recovery
utility. Whatever caused your data to become in-accessible, download and install iRecover
and you'll be recovering your lost data within minutes.
iRecover highlights and features:
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Easy to use:
You can
recover data yourself as long as you are reasonably
familiar with computers. iRecover is ideal for the
entry-level computer user; all you have to do is select a disk
and a recovery mode.
More technically minded users can benefit
from a wide range of configuration options. You can override
file system type and parameters, and control disk access
parameters (useful when dealing with disks containing bad
sectors). |
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Complete:
iRecover offers support for all major file systems: FAT,
FAT32, NTFS (all versions) and Linux Ext2/3/4. iRecover
is a one-stop solution for undelete, unformat, partition,
RAID and image recovery. Both Windows 200X/XP/Vista/Win7 basic
and dynamic disks are supported.
iRecover offers a powerful RAID 0 and RAID
5 recovery module that will automatically detect RAID
parameters such as stripe size and disk rotation.
iRecover allows you to create a RAW image file of a
volume, a disk or an entire (reconstructed) RAID array and
recover data from the image file. |
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Powerful:
With iRecover,
nothing is assumed (the 'zero assumption principle'); it never relies on
file system structures on the (damaged) disk and figures
everything out by itself.
iRecover will automatically
detect the file system type and file system parameters, such as
cluster-size. It will even do so if vital file system
structures such as the boot sector and partition table
are lost. It will recover data even if other file recovery
software does not!
iRecover allows you to recover data from broken
RAID 0 and RAID 5 arrays (hardware and software):
unlike other RAID-capable recovery software you will
not have to enter RAID parameters such as stripe size and
disk rotation order, iRecover will automatically try
to detect these parameters. RAID 5 arrays can even be
processed if one member is missing!
Volumes and arrays rapidly grow larger and larger. We have
tested iRecover on arrays containing up to 5.000.000
files.
(for data recovery software the number of files
detected is a limiting factor, file and volume sizes are
not) |
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Safe:
iRecover
only reads the 'victim' disk! While scavenging the disk for
file system structures iRecover constantly monitors
the disk's physical condition (if the disk is S.M.A.R.T. capable).
If any S.M.A.R.T. attributes exceed critical levels iRecover
will warn you and halt operation until it's safe
to continue. For example, one of the attributes that can be
monitored through S.M.A.R.T. is a disk's temperature. If the
disk gets too hot iRecover will pause to allow the
disk to cool down and then continue. |
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Fast:
As disks grow larger, data-recoveries tend to take more time
as more data is detected and needs to be analyzed. iRecover now includes a smart
Quick-scan for NTFS drives (automatically invoked if
applicable). The Quick scan dramatically improves scan
speeds on NTFS formatted volumes!
During
a test performed on a reference PC (P4 3.2 GHz, 2 Gb
RAM, SATA disk),
scanning a 150 Gb volume containing about 150.000
files took 21 minutes. For your
convenience we have scanned that same disk with
other popular and 'true' data recovery software:
| Application |
Scan time |
Files detected |
| iRecover |
21 min |
260.000 |
| GetDataBack |
56 min |
156.000 |
| R-Studio |
61 min |
233.00 |
| FileScavenger |
56 min |
325.000 |
Remarks:
The scan was performed with default settings: some
tools include deleted files in the scan, some don't. For example, FileScavenger
includes
deleted files, GetDataBack does not. The
test volume contained about 65.000 deleted files.
Some tools also include files found based on signature
scan. As a result the same file may be detected
multiple times; through file system analysis and
through content analysis.
Some tools discard empty, temporary and meta
($filename) files.
In the end ALL tools were able to correctly
restore just about all of the 150.000 files that were present
on the un-corrupted file system.
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| Suggestions
for use |
If you are
recovering data from a system drive
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The safest thing would be to shut down Windows and boot the PC
from a parallel Windows installation, or to move the disk to
another PC and attach it as a (slave) data drive. Then run
iRecover to salvage data from the corrupt disk.
Or,
Create a bootable Windows CD/DVD with BartPE that runs
iRecover. For more
details click here.
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If this is not
possible then:
- stop all non data
recovery related processes and tasks. These include
automatic update tasks (Windows, Virus Scanners), backup
jobs, network sharing services, peer to peer download
programs, cd-burn sessions etc. Under no
circumstances should you attempt to defrag the drive or
allow chkdsk to run. You may want to consider
disconnecting the PC from the internet before shutting
down firewalls/virus-scanners.
- Download (on a different PC) the DIY
DataRecovery.nl Product CD ISO image
> Burn the ISO image using your CD burn software >
Insert the CD in the PC containing the disk that data needs
to be salvaged from and select the option to run
iRecover from the CD directly.
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