Undelete plugin for TC!

[almk]

Beta 2 of Back2Life undelete plugin for TC is released. It can be found at
http://www.GrandUtils.com/Back2Life4TC/
or downloaded directly from
http://www.GrandUtils.com/Back2Life4TC/Back2LifeForTC_beta.zip

After official release this plugin will has status Shareware. All active beta testers will receive free license (time-limited offer).

Beta history is contained in Readme.txt file.

[albel]

2almk
Just a little wish:
imo, it'd be better if the name of the plugin corresponds to the icon I see in the Network Neighbourhood. E.g., Undelete, or Back2Life itself.

BTW., how is damage calculated? I've found totally erased files (containing just "ssssssss"), and the program is showing damage 0%?
Is there any difference between using F5 and double-clicking on the file for restoring it? What method is used by default for restoring by F5?

[fabiochelly]

How could we became beta tester ?
Will you implement NTFS support soon ?

[albel]

2fabiochelly
I think - just download the plugin and try to use it, also sending bug- or wish-reports to the author

[fabiochelly]

But I'm under win2k with NTFS.

[ghisler(Author)]

The plugin doesn't yet support NTFS, but the author told me that he's working on it! Btw, you can still test the plugin with floppy disks.

[fabiochelly]

OK. I'll try

[almk]

2almk
BTW., how is damage calculated? I've found totally erased files (containing just "ssssssss"), and the program is showing damage 0%?
Is there any difference between using F5 and double-clicking on the file for restoring it? What method is used by default for restoring by F5?

Damage is a ratio of currently used clusters to the total number of clusters of erased file. You can see this ratio graphically at file properties. Yes, totally overwritten file can show 0% - it means those clusters were reused and freed again. There's no way to detect how many times clusters were reused.

You may ask then why to give percentage ratio? I believe it is still better than estimation of "Bad", "Good" and "Excellent"... At least it gives THE LEAST figure of damage, though it can be higher.

2almk
What method is used by default for restoring by F5?

Alt-Enter on "Erased files" to see the plugin properties. There you can change default method (Standard or Alternative) to be used with F5 operation (the difference between methods is described in help).

NTFS support is about 75% done for standalone version. When it will be tested and published, I'll see how to add it to plugin (it will be a bit different). Can't say right now when it will happen.

BTW, is 64K OK for testing purposes? I planned to make it 100K, but by some reasons had to keep this a 16bit value.

[albel]

2almk
Yes, 10x, quite enough for most non-graphical Word & Excel documents

[Hacker]

almk,
1. Cannot access drive C:, gives a BSOD saying fatal exception 06 at 0028:00001020 (varies with time). Have to reboot.
2. I copied a file from C: to D:. deleted it from D:, copied a new file and deleted it immediately. I tried to undelete the new file but B2L gave me the contents of the old file. I repeated the process and it always gave me the contents of the file deleted before the one I was trying to restore.
C: is 80GB, D: is 10GB; they're separate disks; both FAT32; the disk on which D: is located also contains a Linux partition.
How do I find out the sector size?

TIA
Roman

[Renard_Roux]

2almk
Hi, i ve just discovered that you are from Mother-Russia. Privet!
Do you know that Ergo supports TC related forum at http://www.fileforum.ru/viewforum.php?f=17
And there is the Thread dedicated to your product. It would be great to see you there. Would you mind joining Russian TC community ?

[almk]

almk,
1. Cannot access drive C:, gives a BSOD saying fatal exception 06 at 0028:00001020 (varies with time). Have to reboot.

How do I find out the sector size?

Looking at your C size it seems to me that sector size is bigger than 512 bytes... I made a little utility to get some drive info, download it here, please (others are welcome too):
www.grandutils.com/Back2Life4TC/DrvInfo.exe

Usage is simple - DrvInfo C:

then send me output text file, please.

I will check about new-old file recovery problem.
Thank you!

[almk]

2almk
Hi, i ve just discovered that you are from Mother-Russia. Privet!

Privet.
Write me to support@grandutils.com

[almk]

almk,
2. I copied a file from C: to D:. deleted it from D:, copied a new file and deleted it immediately. I tried to undelete the new file but B2L gave me the contents of the old file. I repeated the process and it always gave me the contents of the file deleted before the one I was trying to restore.

... couldn't repeat such, need some more info, please:
1. Are the first and the second files of the same name or not?
2. WHen the second file is erased, is the first one visible among erased files? If it is, what is it's content about?
3. When you delete a first file, before copying the second, please take a look at file properties Start Cluster. Then when a second file is deleted, is it's Start cluster the same?

Thank you

[Nigurrath]

Hi all,
for whos curious about undeleting technologies I suggest this paper, also a excellent source for who wants to do a similar tool as opensource!

http://www.codeguru.com/system/Undelete.html

it's for FAt and NTFS..