RecoverNT 3.5
RecoverNT is a versatile utility, both as an undelete program and as a file-recovery tool: It can undelete recently deleted files and recover files from a reformatted or corrupted drive. You can install the program on your PC or run it from CD-ROM. I ran the program from CD-ROM.
Rather than ask you to specify deleted files to search for, RecoverNT scans an entire drive and displays a list of all deleted files, letting you choose the ones to restore. Running a thorough scan of your drive increases your odds of restoring deleted files, especially older files. However, the scanning process is time-consuming because RecoverNT reads the drive directly, sector by sector, and rebuilds the file system to access deleted data. Running the scan on my 700MB FAT16 partition took more than 10 minutes. However, you can shorten the scan by clearing the Search Disk check box when you choose the drive you want to scan. RecoverNT then runs a cursory scan of your drive; this scan takes only a few seconds and finds only recently deleted files. I tested the program with the Search Disk option on and off. Both methods found all the recently deleted files on my FAT16 partition.
The program's UI displayed a toolbar and a few drop-down menus. To initiate my NT FAT16 test, I selected the D drive from the File menu. After the scan finished, RecoverNT displayed a directory tree; I opened each directory and found the names of all files, both existing and deleted, on the disk. I could switch among four views: Large Icons, Small Icons, List, and Detailed. The first three views displayed only the filenames. The Detailed view displayed the filename, last-modified date, starting cluster, and size. To access a file, you can double-click the filename, and the program immediately restores the file and opens it in its associated application. Or you can save the file to disk by specifying File, Save, then choosing a location. I chose the File, Save option, and the utility then prompted me for the directory path under which to save the file. RecoverNT won't let you save a file on the drive from which the file was restored, so you need to save undeleted files to a 3.5" disk or separate partition.
When you use the Search Disk option, RecoverNT offers five additional views of your found files. The Basic Root view, which Figure 3 shows, displays the directory structure of your disk with both existing and recently-deleted files and directories. The Searched Root view displays files and directories that the software has physically scanned on the disk. This view shows files that are still on a reformatted disk; the Basic Root view doesn't show these files. The Garbage Directory view lists all directories with files that are potentially corrupted and probably irrecoverable. The All Files view, for NTFS volumes only, lists all found files but displays them without their directory structure. The Total Directory view shows everything that the other views show. I opened each recovered file in its native application; all 30 files were intact and readable.
Under NTFS, only the Basic Root and All Files views are available. During the NT NTFS quick scan, the software couldn't find any recently deleted files or directories. I needed to enable the Search Disk option to look for all files; the program took more than 30 minutes to scan the 700MB NTFS partition. After the scan was complete, I needed to change the View setting to All Files to display each deleted file. The program found and recovered all 30 test files; each file was readable.
The program also successfully recovered all files under Win2K FAT16 (with Search Disk on and off) and NTFS (with Search Disk on). However, RecoverNT performed poorly under Win2K FAT32. Four of the six directories that I had deleted were inaccessible, so I couldn't restore the 8 files from those directories. Of the 22 recovered files, only 8 were readable. LC Technology acknowledged the incompatibilities with FAT32 and said the company was working on a patch to fix the problem.
RecoverNT also revived the files I deleted on a 3.5" disk, as well as files I deleted using File Manager and WordPerfect. To test the full recovery process, I reformatted my D drive, copied the test files to the drive, reformatted the drive again, then ran RecoverNT. The program found and recovered all the files and directories that were on the partition before I reformatted it the second time.
One RecoverNT characteristic that I found inconvenient was that on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition, the software stripped the first character of and truncated the long filenames for all deleted files and directories. Under FAT, the other products that I tested followed more typical and convenient renaming behavior; for more information, see the sidebar "What's Left in a Name?" LC Technology said that recovering the long filename information would increase the product's already lengthy scan time too dramatically. Although the company plans to unveil a simpler undelete product that is more similar to File Rescue and File Scavenger, the new product wasn't available in time to review for this article.
RecoverNT sells for $169 per client license, but the vendor offers a discount for multiple licenses. The program requires 16MB of RAM.