Active
UNDELETE

Using scan results

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Searching patterns

Wildcards

A wildcard is a character that can be used as a substitute for any of a class of characters in a search. Wildcard characters are often used in place of one or more characters when you do not know what the real character is or you do not want to enter the entire name. In Active@ UNDELETE three types of wildcard are used: star or asterisk(*), question mark (?) and number sign (#).

Examples of using wildcards:

Wildcard character Example Description
Asterisk (*) Example Description
Asterisk (*) docum* Use the asterisk as a substitute for zero or more characters if you are looking for a file that you know what it starts with and you cannot remember the rest of the file name. The example locates all files of any file type that begin with "docum" including documents.txt, document_01.doc and documentum.doc.
docum*.doc To narrow the search to a specific type of file, include the file extension. The example locates all files that begin with "docum" and have the file name extension .doc, such as document_01.doc and documentum.doc.
Question mark (?) doc?.doc Use the question mark as a substitute for a single character in a file name. In the example, you will locate the file docs.doc or doc1.doc but not documents.doc.
Number sign (#) doc?.doc Use the question mark as a substitute for a single character in a file name. In the example, you will locate the file docs.doc or doc1.doc but not documents.doc.
Number sign (#) doc_###.doc Use the number sign (also known as the pound or hash sign) as a substitute for a single number in a name. In the example, you will locate the file doc_012.doc or doc_211.doc but not doc_ABS.doc.

Regular expressions

Regular expressions are special search patterns, more capable then wildcards to define search criteria.

Examples of using regular expressions:

^\d\d?$ — match integers 0 to 99

^\S+$ — match strings without white space

\b(mail|letter|correspondence)\b — match strings containing 'mail' or 'letter' or 'correspondence' but only match whole words i.e. not 'email'

&(?!amp;) — match ampersands but not &

\b(Eric|Eirik)\b — match Eric or Eirik

 

Application log

This log view monitors each action taken by the application and displays messages, notifications and other service information. Use the messages in this screen to observe and further understand the flow of the recovery process.

To open and activate Application log view do one of the following:

  • From main menu choose View > Application Log or
  • Use F8 keyboard shortcut at any time
Supported file signatures. Active@ UNDELETE

Figure 74: Application log view

To prepare a log file, turn on Display Trace Events and Write Log on Disk options in the Application preferences.

It is best to save the log file to a physical disk that is different from the disk that holds the deleted data. By doing this, you reduce the risk of writing over the data that you are trying to recover.

Log filter

Show or hide specific entry types in log view:

Show warning entries

Show non-critical warning entries

Show advanced entries

Show advanced entries related to application behaviour and data analysis

Show console entries

Duplicate console entries into main log view

Show system entries

Show entries related to operating system activity and state

Font size

Change size of mono-space font used in log view for better experience

Write log on Disk

Writes log entries in dedicated file on disk, located in application directory. Off by default.

Expand and Collapse

Expand or collapse all log entries respectively

Clear

Clear log for current application sessions

Tip: We recommend that you attach a copy of the log file to all requests made to our technical support group. The entries in this file will help us resolve certain issues.

Console view

Additional log view (pane) to show log entries related to active feature view to display active process (e.g. file recover or disk scan) entries and urgent (critical) messages.

Property views

Selected item properties

To show detailed information about any subject of an application, such as disk, partition, volume, file etc use information views. In general, when open it follows selection changes and show information about selected item automatically. Besides only displaying valuable data it also allows to copy that information into clipboard by using context menu commands.

Copy Value

copy only value of selected field in the information view

Copy Field

Copy formatted name and value field pair

Copy All

Copy all information as formatted set of name and value pairs.

Example of copied information about file. Active@ UNDELETE

Figure 75: Example of copied information about file

Property view

To show property view for selected item do one of the following:

  • Click View > Windows > Properties
  • Click F4 keyboard short cut or
  • Use context menu command Properties for the same effect
Example of copied information about file. Active@ UNDELETE

Figure 76: Property view example

S.M.A.R.T. Information

Another information view that displays SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data of selected hard drive, if supported. To show this view:

  • Click View > Windows > SMART Info
  • Use context menu command SMART Info for the same effect
SMART information for physical device example. Active@ UNDELETE

Figure 77: SMART information for physical device example

Hardware diagnostic file

If you want to contact our technical support staff for help with file recovery, a file that contains a summary of your local devices is helpful. Active@ UNDELETE allows you to create a summary listing file in XML format. This data format is “human-readable” and can help our technical support staff analyze your computer configuration or point out disk failures.

To create a hardware diagnostic file from the File menu, click Save Hardware Info As... command.

Note: To save time when contacting our technical support staff, we highly recommend that you provide us with a hardware diagnostic file.

 

Application preferences

You can change many of the settings that affect the application's behavior in the Preferences dialog. To open the Preferences dialog, do one of the following:

  • From the Tools menu, select Preferences
  • In the Application Command bar select Support tab, click Preferences
  • Press F10 keyboard key

See description of each tabbed preferences page below

General settings

General settings. Active@ UNDELETE

Show splash screen

Enable\Disable splash screen at application start.

Show Welcome window

Show\Hide welcome dialog at application start.

Check for available updates at application start

Each time when Active@ UNDELETE starts it will request for available update\upgrade and prompt for download if newer version is available for download.

Auto load last saved session

When this option is on, at application start Active@ UNDELETE will load latest saved session state, such as environment configuration, opened Disk Images and Scan Results. See Using scan results

Reset wizards to default

Restores original wizard settings and page sequence to default state.

Environment options

Environment options. Active@ UNDELETE

Show "How to..." pane

Show\Hide left side context help panel. Context help will automatically changed when active view (tab) is changed to show related hints and brief description of every view.

Show Property pane

Show\Hide selected item property pane.

Show S.M.A.R.T. pane

Show\Hide SMART information pane for selected physical device. Displayed only for SMART compatible devices.

Show command bar

Show\Hide right side command bar that contains shortcuts to most usable commands and actions.

Show Output pane

Show\Hide output (console) pane — simplified version of Application Log view.

Show view info pane

Show\Hide property pane contains attribute and properties for current view, e.g. search criteria for search result view.

Show Status bar

Show\Hide application status bar

GUI style

Switch global look-n-feel application style.

Toolbar style

Toggles toolbar icon and text styling.

Use sound

Enable\Disable application sound notifications.

Show preview pane

Show file preview pane by default

Show preview pane in hexadecimal mode

When this option is on, file preview by default will be always shown in hexadecimal mode without any attempt to load it as an image or a document.

Environment options

Environment options. Active@ UNDELETE

Application GUI style

Switch global look-n-feel application style.

Toolbar style

Toggles toolbar icon and text styling.

Use sound

Enable\Disable application sound notifications.

Show preview pane

Show file preview pane by default

Show preview pane in hexadecimal mode

When this option is on, file preview by default will be always shown in hexadecimal mode without any attempt to load it as an image or a document.

Recovery Explorer options

Environment options. Active@ UNDELETE

Show system files

Show\Hide system files in Recovery explorer. In most of the cases these files are not recoverable.

Show no ready devices

Show\Hide devices that has not read state and can not be scanned.

Show Logical Drive scan dialog by default

When this option is OFF, double click logical drive (volume) node in Recover Explorer view will initiate scan with default (most usable) options. Only when CTRL button is pressed down at the same time or this option is off, Scan Volume dialog will appear and let you to change scan options.

Default disk initialization

Specify devices type that will be initialized at each application start and will be displayed in Recovery Explorer.

Save log file to disk

Enable\Disable saving log entries to the file. Use Default log path to specify log file.

Disk Editor options

Disk Editor options. Active@ UNDELETE

Auto load objects

Load (open) edited objects in Disk Editor at each application start if they present in system.

Open as Read Only

Open objects in Read Only mode by default.

Show Data Inspector pane

Show\Hide Data Inspector pane by default

Show Bookmark pane

Show\Hide Bookmark pane by default

Show Cluster Chain pane

Show\Hide Cluster Chain pane for edited files by default.

File view mode

Toggles default file view mode - files can be viewed as data

Auto apply template

If this option is ON, then most suitable data structure template for opened object will be applied and set visible.

Use template coloring

Toggle between template coloring or transparent template fields presentation.

Hexadecimal offset

Toggle between decimal and hexadecimal offset format

Show ASCII

Show\Hide ASCII decoding column

Show UNICODE

Show\Hide UNICODE decoding column

Bytes per line

Defines bytes per line representation. Minimum 8 bytes and maximum 255 bytes per line.

Lines per wheel scroll

Number of lines on each single mouse wheel scroll action.

Pages per scroll

Pages to scroll on each PageUp or PageDown keyboard button action.

Font name

List of mono-space font faces available in system to use in Disk Editor view.

Font size

Toggle between relative font size.

Device backups options

Device backups options. Active@ UNDELETE

Backup location

Define individually Physical Device (disk) backup file location. See Rollback partition changes on page 115 for details.

File signatures options

Device backups options. Active@ UNDELETE

File signatures list

Review available (supported) file signatures. User defined file signatures (if any) are shown in separate group.

Add file signature

Click Add button to add user define file signature. See Custom (user defined) file signature templates

Edit file signature

Click Edit button when custom file signature is selected or double click custom file signature node to open edit dialog.

Import Custom file signatures

Click Import button to import custom file signatures define in third party configuration file

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