Active
UNDELETE

Questions and Answers

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Sales-Related Questions

Orders and payments

How to buy your products without a credit card? What are the payments terms?

The preferred method of order is the on-line ordering with a credit card. In this case the software's download link will be sent to you by e-mail within several minutes.

If you wish to pay without a credit card you can send us Bank Money Order,Certified Cheque, PO (on orders of 500$ US or more), Bank Money Transfer along with the completed order form: http://www.active-undelete.com/downloads/OrderForm.pdf. Usually it takes up to 10 business days to complete your order offline.

For additional information visit: http://www.active-undelete.com/orderfax.htm

I just placed an order for your software via PayPal and I have not received my registration keys or access links to the software.

If you have used an e-Check payment method, it can take several days for this transaction to clear through PayPal You may wait for the transaction to clear or you may place a non e-check order through PayPal and contact us at sales@lsoft.net for assistance to cancel the first transaction.

Re-download software

Is there a way to re-download the purchased copy of Active@ UNDELETE and install it again.

Should you ever need to download your licensed software again, you can do it anytime at our Clients Center.

What do I need to do to get the update from the previous version to the latest one?

You can do it anytime at our Clients Center. All upgrades are free within 90 days after purchase.

Product Delivery FAQ

How is your product delivered?

All our products are delivered electronically. After order completion a download link is immediately available to access the registered version. A follow-up email is also sent within several minutes that include instructions to access the software in the future.

How can I change the email address for my order/profile because I am changing the provider?

When accessing your order from a download link, you may click on the "Change E-mail" link. Should you have any questions, you may contact sales@lsoft.net

I am not able to download the software after purchasing the annual support. I click on the link "Re-Download", and it keeps returning me to order information page for my order.

The order information page contains a button which reads "Click to E-mail Me Registration Info". Please click this button and an email will be sent to you with your registration keys and download access link.

I have previously purchased an earlier version of the software. Can I download the latest version?

Yes, you may. Please use the download access link that was emailed to you when you purchased the product. Accessing this link to provide you options to get the latest edition. You may also visit our Customer Communications Center to login in with your email address.

I recently purchased the support renewal and immediately checked for an update to my product. It indicated there were no new updates in the UPDATES section of the Customer Support Centre.

Simply go back to the Orders/Downloads section within your profile and click to RE-DOWNLOAD your actual software product. You will automatically be given the latest edition of the software. An email will be sent to you with new registration keys and a download access link.

Technical Questions

Scan Techniques

What is the difference between Quick Scan and Low Level Scan?

Scanning logical drives is a required step for recovering files and folders – during the scan all deleted (and existing) file and folders are detected. There are two ways to scan a drive or a partition:

  • Quick Scan - quick and sufficient and can detect deleted files in most of the cases if file structures remains intact. If partition (or Logical Drive) is severely damaged and file structure is beyond recognition, it is recommended to use Low Level Scan.
  • Low Level Scan - where files will be detected by a unique file signature. In addition, any deleted partition that may contain files will be detected also.

What is the difference between Scan for Deleted Partitions and Low Level Scan?

Scan for Deleted Partitions collects all information about deleted partitions based on user specified options (such as Scan type, scan area etc.).

In case of Low Level Scan, selected Disk Area will be scanned with attempts to detect deleted files by its signature. This scan is almost the same as Drive's Low Level scan.The only difference is that it may go beyond the drive's boundaries.

How much time does it take to make a Disk Scan on 100 Gb size HDD?

Estimated scan time may take from several minutes to a few hours and critically depends on various disk conditions, such as:

  • Disk Condition - the more corrupted sectors the hard disk drive has, the slower the read access for particular area is;
  • Disk Usage - the less free space your hard disk has the more time it takes to scan it through;
  • Data de-fragmentation - the less data is fragmented on the disk the faster scan process collects all information about files and their condition;
  • Scan Type - selecting certain scan type may affect estimated scan time;
  • Number of files selected by signature during the scan process will affect estimated scan time significantly. Reduce the amount of files you wish to find and you can get you scan results much faster!

How to minimize time spent on Disk Scan?

There are several operations you can do to minimize the scanning time:

  • Use faster CPU (central processing unit) for faster searching algorithms processing.
  • Stop anti-virus software.
  • Unload all unused application at the moment that may use much operating memory or produce HDD activity;
  • Close Windows File Explorer

Estimated scan time may take from several minutes to a few hours and critically depends on various disk conditions, such as:

  • Disk Condition - the more corrupted sectors the hard disk drive has, the slower the read access for particular area is;
  • Disk Usage - the less free space your hard disk has the more time it takes to scan it through;
  • Data de-fragmentation - the less data is fragmented on the disk the faster scan process collects all information about files and their condition;
  • Scan Type - selecting certain scan type may affect estimated scan time;
  • Number of files selected by signature during the scan process will affect estimated scan time significantly. Reduce the amount of files you wish to find and you can get you scan results much faster!

What is the ! Lost & Found ! folder?

The !Lost & Found! folder contains files and folders that have no parent directory (parent folder was deleted and its entry was overwritten).

Work with scan results

What is the !Lost & Found! folder?

The !Lost & Found! folder contains files and folders that have no parent directory (parent folder was deleted and its entry was overwritten).

What is the best way to find my deleted data after Drive Scan completes?

Almost all files (in NTFS) may change their primary location after the Delete operation completes. The reason for it is the lost connection with parent ID attribute.

After the scanning process is complete the deleted files can be found in the !Lost&Found! folder.

We advise you to use one of the following tools to organize your scan results and proceed to actual file recovery:

  • File Filter bar. Using this tool in different views you can filter out files by their attributes and by name masks. File Filter bar can be used in Recovery Explorer view, Document view or Search Results view;
  • Search - you can search selected drive or folder for files or folders providing certain criteria, such as file mask, recovery status, date, size range or file attributes. See application manual for details;
  • File Preview - special panel view, that allow to preview scrolled files before actual recovery.

Recover deleted Files and Folders

I have deleted a very important document. Is it possible to restore it?

More likely yes, if the file has not already been over-written (by another file).

As soon as you discover that an important file is deleted, download and install Active@ UNDELETE to separate drive (e.g. install Active @ UNDELETE to any other drive then the one where document where deleted) and search for this file.

It is a good idea to avoid disk activity on the particular hard drive where the file should have been. Here are some tips:

  • Do not add or delete files or applications on this drive;
  • Avoid restarting the computer, if possible;
  • Do not invoke a large number of programs concurrently (this causes increased page-swapping activity)

Any of these activities might overwrite or partially overwrite a deleted document. Any changes to the Files Table will make finding a deleted file more complicated.

The more free hard drive space you have on your computer, the greater the chances of a successful recovery are. It is always a good idea to extract and install Active@ UNDELETE to a SEPARATE physical or logical hard drive - one that does not contain important deleted files.

How long do I have before data recovery is no longer possible?

It is not possible to predict a time like this in hours or days. Microsoft Windows can overwrite a deleted file immediately if it selects the same data clusters.

To maximize recovery chances try not to write anything onto the drive where a deleted file is located before you start using recovery software.

Is it possible to recover files that might have been "overwritten" since deletion?

Try the our Free DEMO and see if you can find an older version of the file you are trying to recover. Ensure it is recent and about the right size. If the DEMO can find it there is a chance to recover it. There is no guarantee that the file will not have been overwritten since deletion.

Restore deleted or damages partitions

Can I use your program to search and recover the lost data from the deleted/reformatted partitions?

In this case, instead of the original partition entry we would have a new one and everything would work fine except that later on we could recall that we had some important data on the original partition.

If you've created MBR, Partition Table, Volume Sectors backup before the problem (for example, Active@ Partition Recovery and Active@ UNERASER can do this), you can virtually restore it back and look for your data (in case if it has not been overwritten with new data yet).

Some advanced recovery tools also have an ability to scan the disk surface and try to reconstruct previously deleted partition information from the remnants of information (i.e. perform virtual partition recovery). However there is no guarantee that you can recover anything.

How do I recover lost hard drive partition?

In Active@ UNELETE partition restoration process can be divided into three steps:

  1. Scan physical dist for deleted partition using file system filter - see Scan for Deleted Partitions.
  2. Analyze scan results, determine valid partition. Optional: recover deleted data from detected partition you wish to restore.
  3. Finally - restore detected partition. See: Restore detected partition

What to do if my partition is damaged or deleted?

Active@ UNDELETE displays in the list only existing drives. If partition is damaged or deleted, you need to perform an extended scan to detect and access it.

You can also try one of these other quality products from Active Data Recovery Software:

  • Active@ Partition Recovery - can help recover damaged or deleted partition structure in most severe cases.
  • Active@UNERASER - Can help unerase or copy files and folders from an existing,deleted or damaged partition onto another safe drive.
  • Active@ File Recovery for Windows. This is standalone application that can help to recover files and folders from an existing, deleted or damaged partition onto another safe drive from within a Windows environment.

Common FAQ

How can I prevent the future unauthorized data recovery?

  • Active@ KillDisk - Powerful and compact software that allows you to destroy all data on hard disks, USB drives and floppy disks completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders. It's a hard drive and partition eraser utility.

A user has been removed from the computer. Is it possible to find some folder/files from the deleted user account (profile)?

If you have local rights as administrator you may detect and recover files deleted under other user accounts only if they are not encrypted.

I get an error saying "Unknown exception..." What does this mean?

In case if you receive this message, please contact out technical support team: support@active-undelete.com.

Please attach to your e-mail application log files as well, which can be found in application directory Active@ UNDELETE.

What is a Disk Image? Why is it needed?

A Disk Image is a mirror of your logical drive or physical device that is stored in one large file. A Disk Image file can be useful when you want to back up the contents of the whole drive, and restore it or work with it later.

Before you start recovering deleted files, it may be a good idea to create a Disk Image for the entire drive, if you have enough space on another drive. The reason for doing this is for insurance. If you do something wrong while recovering the files (for example, recovering files onto the same drive they came from), you will be able to recover these deleted files and folders from the Disk Image that you have wisely created.

Active@ UNDELETE provides extensive functionality to recover files from a Disk Image. You can create an image of a logical drive, a device or a partition. Save the disk image as one large file or split the image into chunks thesize you prefer for later use.

How can I minimize risk of data loss?

No one wants to lose vital data stored on a hard disk. To ensure the integrity of data,backup copies can be the best line of defense. When the unthinkable happens, and data cannot be lost data.

The table below outlines the main causes of data loss, showing the frequency of occurrence:

Cause Chance
Accidental removal of files and folders and then emptying Recycle Bin ~ 75%
After physical damage of critical sectors on HDD ("bad clusters") some drives become unreadable ~ 6%
Loss of information due to a power failure or power surge ~ 5%
Deletion of logical drive or partition itself then recalling important data on it ~ 3%
Damage of MBR, Partition Table, Volume Boot Sectors by virus ~ 3%
Other ~ 8%

Don't Forget following these Recovery Tips to avoid data loss.

CREATE DISK IMAGE IF YOU HAVE EXTRA HARD DRIVE, OR OTHER LOGICAL DRIVES ARE BIG ENOUGH!

Disk Image is a mirror of your logical drive that is stored in one file. This can be useful when you want to backup the contents of the whole drive, and restore it or work with it later. Before you start recovering the deleted files, it may be a good idea to create a Disk Image for this drive, if you have enough space at another drive. Why? Because if you do something wrong while recovering the files (for example, recovering them onto the same drive could destroy their contents), you still will be able to recover these deleted files and folders from the Disk Image that you have wisely created.

DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ONTO THE DRIVE CONTAINING YOUR IMPORTANT DATA THAT YOU HAVE JUST DELETED ACCIDENTALLY!

Even data recovery software installation could spoil your sensitive data. If the data is really important to you, and you do not have another logical drive to install software to, take whole hard drive out of the computer and plug into another computer where data recovery software has been already installed.

DO NOT SAVE ONTO THE SAME DRIVE DATA THAT YOU FOUND AND TRYING TO RECOVER!

While saving recovered data onto the same drive where sensitive data was located, you can intrude in process of recovering by overwriting table records for this and other deleted entries. It's better to save data onto another logical, removable, network or floppy drive.

DO NOT MAKE DISK DEFRAGMENTATION.

You should not use any disk de-fragmentation utilities such as CHKDISK & SCANDISK. The HDD sectors containing information of the previously deleted files can be overwritten with the new data.

I accidentally erased compact flash card, about six weeks ago. What are the chances of recovering the photographs?

Active@ UNDELETE supports the recovery from the flash cards. It is not possible to predict a time like this in hours or days. Microsoft Windows can overwrite a deleted file immediately if it selects the same data clusters. Download and install Active@ UNDELETE DEMO application, run scanon a Flash card and observe the results. If deleted files are detected and can be previewed in File Preview Tool, then more likely you can have your photos back.

Does Active@ UNDELETE support localized (e.g. French, Spanish) files names?

Yes, provided the OS and file system support localized file names.

Will Active@ UNDELETE recover long file names?

Yes, provided the OS and file system support long file names.

Does Active@ UNDELETE support dynamic disks?

Yes, Active@ UNDELETE supports dynamic disks. In most recent version (version 8.x) Active@ UNDELETE can assemble broken dynamic arrays.

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