Recover My Files: Knowledge base

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Before you begin...

Don't panic, most deleted or missing data can be recovered;

  • Minimize the use of your computer until you have had the opportunity to try data recovery software;
  • Avoid writing any new data to the problem drive (or you may overwrite and destroy files that could otherwise have been recovered).

Try Before You Buy

Run Recover My Files in evaluation mode. If you can see your files (view the photos and read the documents) in the search results screen, then purchase an activation key to save them (you do not need to run a second search).

Where should I install Recover My Files?

Ensure that you install and run Recover My Files with full administrator rights. This is needed for low level disk access to recover your files.

A good methodology, if possible, is to connect the problem drive to another computer as the secondary drive. This enables you to install Recover My Fils on the C: drive of the 'good' computer, and use it to scan the secondary 'problem' drive to recover your files. This methodology make it far less likely that Windows, or you, will write new data to the drive.

Of course this methodology is not always practical, as you may well have lost your files from your current C: drive and have no alternative that to continue to use Windows on this drive. Recover My Files is a small program (approximately 10mb), so installation of the software onto the problem drive, whilst not recommended, is a small risk.

If you see your files - Save Them!

It may sound silly, but when attempting to recover data, if you get to the position where you can see your missing files in the Recover My Files preview window - save them! Don't mess about trying lots of different options or ideas, or put off the saving to another day. Once the files are recovered and you have a nice secure copy of these files on another drive, then you can experiment all you want.