MacMedic™ Data Recovery

Earlier sections introduced you to MacMedic™ and its repair features.  In this section, you will learn about MacMedic™'s advanced recovery features including:

•	Doing an Emergency Data Recovery™
•	Recovering an Initialized Disk
•	Recovering Accidentally Deleted Files

WARNING - IF YOU USE ANOTHER DISK UTILITY THAT ALLOWS YOU TO STORE A COPY OF THE CATALOG TREE, AND YOU RESTORE THIS COPY TO YOUR DRIVE AFTER SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE, THE DRIVE COULD BE SERIOUSLY DAMAGED TO THE POINT THAT MACMEDIC™ OR ANY OTHER DISK UTLILTY MAY BE UNABLE TO REPAIR OR RECOVER DATA FROM THE DISK.
TOTAL RECALL, INC DOES NOT RECOMMEND THE RESTORATION OF OUTDATED COPIES OF CATALOG TREES TO WORKING DRIVES.

Preparing for an Emergency Data Recovery™
One of the most powerful features of MacMedic™ is its ability to recover lost data.  With MacMedic™ you will be able to recover data from just about any file system failure.  You can launch the data recovery directly from the MacMedic™ Main Menu, or as prompted by MacMedic™.  To begin a data recovery session:

1.	Clicking on <Recover> from the MacMedic Main Menu.
2.	Have another disk ready for your recovered data.
3.	Select the type of recovery you wish to perform.  (See below for details of each recovery method).

The most important thing to do when preparing for an Emergency Data Recovery™ is to have media ready for the recovered data.  It is our recommendation have a single disk ready for the data.  Using multiple disks for data recovery can lead to unreliable results.  For example, if you are attempting to recover 1 gigabyte of data from a damaged drive, you should have another drive with at least 1 gigabyte of free space available.

First Select Your Source Volume
Before selecting the type of recovery you wish to run, select the volume from which you want to recover data.  On a badly damaged disk, you probably won’t see a volume name, just a manufacturer name (like "Quantum" or "Seagate").  Verify that the manufacturer name that shows up is also the right SCSI or AT ID number of the disk that you wish to recover.  If the disk that you want to recover does not list, then click “Rescan”.  If the disk still does not show up, then the device is physically bad and cannot be recovered by software.

Quick Tip- Because a disk shows up in the drive selection window does not mean that the disk is recoverable.  MacMedic™ uses powerful technology to read the disks on the bus, which means that the disk will show up when the software can get a response from the device.  If the disk is physically bad, it could still show up in the Volume Selection window.  Proceed with caution!

Selecting Your Recovery Method
You need to decide what type of recovery to perform.

If you need to recover a disk that does not mount or show up on your desktop, perform an Emergency Data Recovery™ by double-clicking the drive or by clicking the <Recover> button.

If you want to recover a disk that has recently been initialized, click the <Fast Unerase> button.

If you have thrown away files that you need to recover, first try the <Signature Scan> button.  If the files' types aren't completely listed in the file type list, try the <Fast Unerase> button.

If you started to initialize a disk and then stopped mid-way through the process, try <Recover> first.  If no files are found, then try the <Signature Scan> button.



As a rule of thumb, start with Emergency Recovery first.  If your data is not found, then you can proceed with the Signature Scan™ or Fast Unerase™.  Details for each procedure will be explained later.

If Your Volume is not in Volume Selection Window
If you do not see your volume to recover from in the Volume Selection window,  your only choice is to call Total Recall Data Recovery and speak with an advisor who can tell you what your data recovery options are.  The number to call is (800) 743-0594 or (719) 380-1616 if you are calling from outside the United States.


Using Emergency Recovery
There are three types of scans in the Emergency Data Recovery™ option:  Scan Level One, Scan Level Two, and Scan Level Three.  Starting at Scan Level One, MacMedic™ performs some directory-structure diagnositics, ensuring that it can find as much data as possible.  If it finds an error, MacMedic™ will automatically jump to a higher Level to retrieve your data.  Otherwise, it will list all the files it found.  If the data you want to recover cannot be found, press the <Next Level> button.

 
























Once you find the data you wish to recover, select the file(s) by clicking on them (you do not need to hold down the Shift key), or by pressing the <Select All> button.  If you do so, all of the files will be selected, and the button will change to <Unselect All>.  If you wish to de-select files, you can click them in the list, or press the <Unselect All> button if you had previously selected all the files.

You may also select how you wish to view your files by the popup menus located above the file selection list.  If you select <File>, all the files it found will be listed;  otherwise, if you select <Folder>, all the folders it found will be listed.  You may then view all the files/folders in the list by <Name>, <Size>, <Date>, <Creator>, or <Type>.

If you wish to return to the Volume Selection screen, press <Cancel>.

Scan Levels One and Two are essentially the same;  the difference bewteen the two is that Scan Level One uses your volume's current Volume Information Block (VIB).  Scan Level Two searches for a backup of your volume's VIB to use for recovery.

Using Scan Level Three
If Scan Levels One and Two are unable to recover your data, Scan Level Three is the most robust of the scan levels.  In fact, if this scan level cannot find your data, then doing a file and folder type recovery is probably impossible.  See the section entitled Undo Delete™ for more information.

Quick Tip - You can jump directly to Scan Level Three by choosing it in the Expert Menu.  This is especially convenient if you know you are working with a disk without a VIB.

 




Once Scan Level three is invoked, MacMedic™ will scan the drive, searching for information to create a VIB in memory.  When it does, you will see a dialog box similar to the following:


 



















MacMedic™ is actually creating a Volume Information Block necessary for good data to be recovered from this disk.  This process is required for each partition that you want to recover data from.  Select the VIB that has the name of the volume that you want to recover.

Button Explanations
Not it - 
Tells MacMedic™ to continue scanning the disk and create another Volume Information Block.

Use This Name - 
Choose this Volume Information Block you want to scan for data.

Cancel - 
Cancel Scan Level Three and return to the MacMedic™ Volume Selection screen.

Once you locate a Volume Information Block that has the volume name and 
volume size that you want to work with, select <Use This Name>.

MacMedic™ will then scan the disk for files.  If no files are found, you will need to create another VIB by selecting <Different MDB>.  If that does not work, you will have to scan the disk for data using the Undo Delete™ method.  See that section for details.

If you are uncertain if the given VIB is valid, feel free to continue to scan the disk for another valid VIB with the partition name that you want to recover data from.  As long as there is no physical damage to the disk, you are at no risk of data loss at any time while using MacMedic™ to attempt data recovery.

Recovering Your Data
As MacMedic™ scans the disk, looking for data to recover, you will prompted to verify that it has found all of the data that was on the disk.  If all of the data has not been located, or if MacMedic™ found multiple extents of your Catalog Tree, you can continue searching.