Data Recovery
The MFT method is the best type of recovery because
a). you get the file and folder structure back;
b). an MFT record contains a cluster "run list" for a file - meaning that if the file is fragmented on the disk, the MFT record tells you where each part of the file is and in what order to assemble it.
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The Header and Footer method is great to, because if the MFT is corrupt, missing or destroyed, the Header Footer method will get your files back.....
However.....
a). The header footer method will not give you file and folder names;
b). The header footer method cannot track fragmented files.
When you select the specific file types to search for, Recover My Files travels sequentially down the disk and tests the data found to see if it matches the selected file types. When it finds a header, it travels down the disk looking for the footer.
If Recover My Files goes a pre-set distance down the disk from the header and does not find the footer (or it can't work out how far down the disk the footer should be) then it stops, and gives the file a default size. It then tests what it has found and makes a decision as to whether it thinks the file is valid - it if fails the tests, it is not included in the search results.
If you go into the OPTIONS box you will see under the "Lost Files" options, the ability to set the file size to a specific length. An example of a situation where this may be used is:
You have taken 90mb TIFF photos on your camera card and are trying to recover them. The Complete File Search for TIFF files does not give you good results, because the returned files are all 10mb in size (i.e. reached the default file size for TIFF and had not found the footer).
So you can set the required file size at 95mb, RMF finds the header, then jumps 95mb down the disk, and provides this as the file found.
This works well on camera cards, because usually photos are stored in consecutive sectors and are not fragmented.
When you open this file with a graphics editor and then save it, it will chop off the excess data at the end.
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