Data Recovery
Hi,
The short answer to your question is:
* If you run a "Format Recover" search (instructions are in the first sticky post of this forum) and;
a). in "Folder View" of the search results screen you can see the files and folder structure;
b). when you click on a file (graphic or document) you can see the picture or read the text;
then you file and folder structure can be saved and will work.
If you click on the files in "Folder View" and are not able to preview graphics or documents, then the data that has been found and listed is probably not valid and the saved files will not work.
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The longer answer to your question is that there is basically 2 methods of recover:
1. MFT Method
Each computer has an index at the start of the disk called the master file table which contains the file and folder names of every file on the PC and the storage cluster locations of the files.
When Recover My Files finds a file with its original file and folder name, it is using the MFT record.
MFT records can become badly corrupt, so it is possible that you can find an MFT record for a file, but the record does not point to the correct location on the disk - hence the data saved in the file is not valid.
2. The Header and Footer Method
If the MFT found is not valid (see above) it is still possible to get files off the drive. If you run a "Complete File Search" for specific file types, the program will find files by their unique file type header and footer. These files are called "Recovered_Filetype_1" (because the name of the file is stored only in the MFT).
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In summary: The best way to tell if your data can be recovered is to see if you can preview it in the search results screen.
I hope this helps.
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