III.IV. Step 3 - Recovery Tree
Step 3 should look like this:
III.IV.I Step 3 screen
The screen will remind you of Windows Explorer. On the left side of the screen you see a tree of recovered
directories and folders and a folder called "Lost files" created by GetDataBack, containing the files without directory
information.
When you open a folder on the left side, the files in this folder are displayed on the right side.
First have a look at the left side. Does the directory tree look familiar to you? Do you see the folders that were on
the drive you want to recover the data from? Does it seam that the directory structure is complete for this
partition?
Now open up a folder that interests you on the left side and look on the right side. Do you see the files that you
expect to be in this folder? Do you see the correct file names and does it appear that the files are all there?
Now open up a few files in order to test them. The fact that you see the folders, files, file names, the right file size
etc. is a good sign, but doesn't necessarily mean that the file content is there and that those files will be usable.
You will not be able to test huge files or files that need to be imported correctly into their native application, like for
example Outlook PST-files.
Select files that are easy to check - for example Word documents (*.doc), pictures (*.jpg), graphics (*.gif). Open
these files by double-clicking them or by using the build-in file viewer (F3). Please note: To open files by doubleclicking
them (for example Word documents with MS Word) their associated application needs to be installed on the
Recovery Computer.
Do the files open fine, meaning you can see the file content, the text, picture etc.?
If so, repeat the same process with a couple of more file in different folders.
If all or at least the majority of files open okay, your recovery is looking good.
In order to actually save your recovered files you will need to copy them off the "bad" drive to another location.
This can be a location on the Recovery Computer's Master drive, any other drive attached to this computer, a USB
drive or you can copy the files to a network destination. Make sure this location has enough free space for all the
files you need. Never copy the recovered files back to a location on the drive you just recovered them from (the
"bad" drive), or you will overwrite them and they will be gone forever!
You may copy either selected files and folders by tagging them on the right side or the whole thing by selecting the
top entry on the left side that says [FAT] or [NTFS]. Select the files/folders/volume you need and press the copy
button or Recovery>Copy on the main menu.
To enable the copy function and to save your files you will need a license key for the software. You can purchase a
license key online 24 hours a day on our website at http://www.runtime.org/buy_now.htm. You will receive the
license key to your email address and on a confirmation screen within minutes after submitting the order form. If
you prefer not to order online, give us a call during office hours or send us your order by fax. You do not have to
run the software again - just enter the license key at any time in the demo version of GetDataBack. Go to
Help>Register in the main menu of the software and enter your registration name and key there.
Now copy over your files. As soon as the copy operation has completed (which can take quite some time depending
on the amount of data and the speed of your computer or network connection), make sure that all the files you
need arrived safely on the destination drive. Do not at this point recycle your "bad" drive or format it or reinstall a
new operating system. Keep the drive in its current state until you're absolutely sure that you salvaged all the data
that you need. Only then you should you decide whether or not you want to rebuild the system on this drive
(reformat it, reinstall Windows and your other programs etc., copy back the recovered data to this drive). Never
reuse a drive that has any physical problems, any bad sectors or a drive where you're not sure why the data on it
became suddenly inaccessible.