Selecting the disk for data recovery

The next wizard screen performs a scan to identify the devices (hard drives, digital camera, USB drive etc) that are connected to your computer. Select the device you wish to search by using your mouse to place a tick in the box next to the device name.

When you are recovering deleted files in most instances you will be placing a tick in the box next to the drive letter. For example, if the files were deleted from your C: drive, place a tick in the box next to the C: drive.

If you are performing hard disk data recovery on a formatted or corrupt hard disk, there may no longer be any drive letters recognized by Windows on your hard disk, or the drive letters may be corrupt or empty of files. In this instance you want to search the "physical drive".

A physical drive is an actual piece of physical data storage media that you can hold in your hand - e.g. a disk, a floppy disk, a zip disk, a camera card etc. A physical disk can have more than one drive letter on it, for example a hard disk can be partitioned into drive C:, D:, and E:.

When you perform hard drive recovery on a physical disk, you are telling Recover My Files to ignore any partitions (drive letters) that are found on the disk, and treat the entire drive as a single block of data. In many cases this is the best way to undelete files and get data back.

Look for the "physical drive" which is the size of your problem drive ("physical drive 0" is usually where the C: drive is located, a secondary drive is "physical drive 1", etc).

The "Folders to Search" option allows you to add existing folders into your search. This allows you to search files that are NOT deleted, such as temporary files, or your Internet Cache, or to find a file that you have moved but can no longer find. Add a folder by double clicking with your mouse in the specified location, remove a folder by double clicking on the folder.

Wizard Screen 2- Selecting the device to search

Recover My Files download instructions

Current Version: 3.9.8.5992

1. Click the download button to begin the download.
2. If possible, save then install the Recover My Files installation program on a drive other than the one on which your files were lost.
3. Run Recover My Files, search your drive and preview the files found in the results screen.