Recover Lost Files from Existing Logical Disks

Note: If you have done all the operations listed below, but still cannot find your lost files, you need to perform an exhaustive search for the files on the logical disk.

Right-click the disk in Windows Explorer and select Find recently deleted files with R-Undelete on the shortcut menu

Note: If you try to start R-Undelete under an account without administrative rights, an Insufficient rights message will appear. To enable R-Undelete to recover the data, select Logon on the message and enter a User Name and Password of a user with administrative privileges on the following Authorization dialog box.

R-Undelete analyzes data on the disk and displays all files which records have been found. Then deleted files, which records still remain, can be recovered. If files have not been found, that means that their records have been deleted. To find such files, Detailed Scan is required.

Please note that R-Undelete shows only those files/folders that match a specified file mask.

Click the panel regions to learn their functions.

Panel view options

You may select which columns will be shown on the Contents pane. Right-click the table header and select the required ones. You may also arrange the data as required. Select the required arrangement on the Mark files for recovery panel.

Mark a file/folder to recover by clicking the box left to the object, or select Mark on the shortcut menu. You may mark several files/folders in different parent folders. You may mark all objects in the folder by selecting Mark All on the shortcut menu. To unmark an object, click the box left to the object once more or select Unmark on the shortcut menu. You may unmark all objects in the folder by selecting Unmark All on the shortcut menu.

R-Undelete can search for a particular file. Go to the Searching for a File topic for details.

File content may be previewed before recovery. Go to the Previewing Files topic for details.

Sometimes R-Undelete can find the files but not the entire file paths to them. It puts such files into the Extra Found Files folder. Try to search for the files there. If that does not help, try to find them by using file search globally on the entire disk. Go to the Searching for a File topic for details

If you still cannot find files that you want to recover but are sure they have existed on the logical disk, you need to use Detailed Scan to find them.

NEVER TRY TO SAVE RECOVERED FILES/FOLDERS TO THE SAME LOGICAL DISK WHERE THEY RESIDE!!!

Recover real folders structure	Enabled when the files are sorted by their extensions or date. If this check box is selected, R-Undelete recovers the real folders/files structure on the disk rather than that of sorted files.
Recover all content of a selected folder, ignoring specified file mask:	If this check box is selected, R-Undelete recovers all content of selected folder(s), ignoring specified File Mask.
Recover alternative data streams:	If this check box is selected, R-Undelete recovers alternative data streams for NTFS files. Has no effect on FAT files. See Extended Information Recovery for details.
Recover security attributes:	If this check box is selected, R-Undelete recovers security attributes for NTFS files. Has no effect on FAT files. See Extended Information Recovery for details.
Do not recover hidden and system attributes	If this check box is selected, R-Undelete will remove the Hidden and System attributes from recovered files enabling the user to see them in the Windows Explorer.
Bad Sectors Options	You may specify how to process files with bad sectors. You may specify the number of attempts to read the bad sectors and a pattern to fill the bad block.

If you try to specify the same disk for the recovered files on which the deleted files resided, the Saving a recovered file to the same disk... message will appear. You may continue recovering the files on such disk, but at your own risk.

If there are file(s) with the same name in the output folder, the File already exists dialog box will appear. You may overwrite, rename, or skip the file, or abort recovery.

If a file to be recovered appears to have an invalid name, a Broken File Name dialog box will appear. You may correct the name and resume file recovery.

File name	Shows the current incorrect file name.
New name	Field for a new file name.
Edit broken symbols only	If this check box is selected, only invalid symbols may be corrected
Change all invalid symbols to	If this check box is selected, all invalid symbols will be changed to the specified symbol
Buttons
Rename	Click to resume file recovery
Rename All	Click to resume file recovery. All other files will be renamed according to the specified rule.
Skip	Click to skip this file
Skip All	Click to skip all files and stop file recovery

Click the Finish button to return to the Select the disk to recover files from panel or Exit to quit R-Undelete.