Getting started

Using virtual storages

Active@ UNDELETE allows you to create virtual entities for better access — virtual disks and virtual partitions to emulate the real once without affecting data on physical devices. Thus, user can emulate actual physical disk by assigning different values of disk geometry properties and read data from device with different sequence and interpretation.

Besides direct emulation of physical disk or partition (volume) user can use disks (or part of them) and disk images to create virtual RAIDS — emulation of real physical disk array that allows to read data from disassembled RAID.

Create virtual disk

Using virtual disk will let you access actual data by using alternated disks geometry without a single modification on disk.

Virtual partitions

Emulates disk partitioning for advanced data access.

Virtual RAID

Virtual disk assembly - emulation of real RAID controller for data access.

 

Create virtual disk

Virtual disks can be used to mock real physical device with altering their attributes such as bytes per sector.

To create virtual disk in Active@ UNDELETE proceed as follows:

1. Select physical disk to emulate

• In Partition Manager select physical device item in devices list or in Disk Navigator;
• Select physical disk Recovery Explorer. Use Expert device view, Partition view or Enhanced view modes;

2. Open Create virtual disk dialog

• Click Create Virtual Disk button in Partition Manager or in Recovery Explorer or use command Actions > Create Virtual Disk from main menu;
• Right-click the selected item and click Create Virtual Disk command from the context menu

Enter disk caption to label new virtual disk in Recovery Explorer, sector size and boundaries of used space of actual physical disk.

Figure 31: Create virtual disk dialog

Caption

Assign text label for virtual disk to recognize in Recovery Explorer. Optional.

Sector size

Sector size in bytes. By default original physical disk sector size is used. Most disks have sector size 512 or 4096 bytes.

Sector offset

Start offset within a sector in bytes. By default almost all disks have zero offset. However some disks or some security software (as well as malware) can create volumes starting from non-zero offset within a sector.

First and last sector

Select virtual disk boundaries, by default - entire original physical disk is used.

3. Click Create button

 

Virtual partitions

Unlike Create virtual disk a virtual logical partition emulates a real logical drive or partition using a assigned geometry values. If you have a logical drive that is recognized by Windows and you cannot access the data in that drive, you may be able to gain access to your data by creating a virtual partition copy and change its attributes to gain an access. Active@ UNDELETE allows you following actions with virtual partitions:

Create virtual copy of existing partition

Create virtual copy of real partition changing any attribute of its geometry without affecting disk partitioning.

Create virtual partition

Besides a copy of real partition or volume you can create custom partition linked to any physical device without changing data.

Edit virtual partition

You can change attributes of virtual partition at any time.

To delete virtual partition select it in Recovery Explorer and click Delete button in toolbar or use context menu command Delete or click Del key for the same purpose.

 

Create virtual copy of existing partition

1. Select a partition (volume)

In Recovery Explorer, select a logical drive or a partition.

2. Open the Create Virtual Copy dialog

• Use command Actions > Create Virtual Partition from main menu
• Right-click the selected item and click Create Virtual Partition command from the context menu.

3. Adjust dialog options

Partition to copy will be selected automatically. Use sliders to specify partition boundaries - offset and size. Mouse click on partition box will select virtual partition boundaries.

Figure 32: Create virtual copy dialog

Caption

Text label to mark created virtual partition in Recovery Explorer or in Partition Manager.

File system

Select file one of the supported file systems: FAT, FAT 32 or NTFS.

First sector

Offset of virtual partition in sectors or in MB.

Size

Size of virtual partition in sectors or in MB.

4. Click Create button

After command is complete, newly created virtual partition will appear in Recovery Explorer ready for applicable actions, such as volume scan etc.

 

Create virtual partition

To create virtual partition in Active@ UNDELETE proceed as follows:

1. Select disk (physical device)

• Select a disk (physical device) node in Recovery Explorer. Use Expert Device View, Partition View or Enhanced View modes
• Select a disk (physical device) node Partition Manager device list or in Disk Navigator tree

2. Open the Create Virtual Partition dialog

• From the Partition Manager toolbar click Create Virtual Partition button
• Use command Actions > Create Virtual Partition from main menu
• Right-click the selected item and click Create Virtual Partition command from the context menu

3. Adjust dialog options

Use sliders to specify partition boundaries - offset and size. Mouse click on partition box will select virtual partition boundaries.

Figure 33: Create virtual partition dialog

Caption

Text label to mark created virtual partition in Recovery Explorer or in Partition Manager.

File system

Select file one of the supported file systems: FAT, FAT 32 or NTFS.

First sector

Offset of virtual partition in sectors or in MB.

Size

Size of virtual partition in sectors or in MB.

4. Click Create button

After command is complete, newly created virtual partition will appear in Recovery Explorer ready for applicable actions, such as volume scan etc.

 

Edit virtual partition

Virtual partition properties can be changed without affecting actual data on disk.

1. Select a virtual partition

In Recovery Explorer, select a logical drive or a partition.

2. Open the Edit Boot Sector Template

• From the Recovery Explorer toolbar, click Edit Partition
• Right-click the selected item and click Modify Partition from the context menu

3. Adjust dialog options

In the Edit Boot Sector Template dialog, make changes to the Boot Sector Primary and Boot Sector Copy separately or simultaneously. See the Edit boot sectors for details.

4. Save changes

Click Save button to accept changes