How to Use Power Data Recovery to
Recover Lost Data
MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free is an all in one data recovery toolkit running on
Windows platform. By using it, you can easily find all your lost files from hard disks,
removable devices (USB flash drive, memory stick, SD card, CF card, and so on), and
even CD/DVD, as long as the lost data haven’t been overwritten by new files.
--Source from
http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/free-data-recovery-help/how-to-start.html
How to Prevent Lost Data from Being Overwritten by New Data
Once lost files are overwritten, it will be impossible to recover them even if users employ
hardware technology. To protect lost files from being overwritten, we should pay attention
to the following aspects:
1.Stop writing any data to computer once we are aware of data loss.
2.If data loss appears on system partition, shut down computer, dismount the hard disk,
plug it to another computer, and do data recovery on this computer. That is because
temporary files or Windows/software updates may be generated when we are running a
OS.
3.Power Data Recovery had better not be downloaded and installed to the partition where
data loss emerges.
How to Use MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Step 1: Launch the Program and Choose an Appropriate Functional Module
Like using any other third party program, users need to download and install the free data
recovery software to computer at first. Then, launch the program to get its main window
below:
In the middle there are 5 functional modules in total, namely “Undelete Recovery”, “Lost
Partition Recovery”, “Digital Media Recovery”, “CD/DVD Recovery”, and “Damaged
Partition Recovery”. Different modules aim at restoring lost data under different situations
from different storage devices:
1.“Undelete Recovery”: specially recover deleted files and folders no matter it is deleted
by users themselves or viruses.
2.“Lost Partition Recovery”: recover data from the partition which is deleted by accident or
lost due to installing Windows OS.
3.“Digital Media Recovery”: if you want to recover digital media files like photos, audio
files, and video files, choosing this module is a wise choice, for it will filter all non-media
files.
4.“CD/DVD Recovery”: recover deleted files on CD/DVD or recover files from formatted
and erased CD/DVD.
5.“Damaged Partition Recovery”: this is the most powerful module in Power Data
Recovery, for it can help recover data from existing partition for any condition. For
example, it is capable of retrieving data from formatted partition, raw partition, and
partition Windows asks to format it.
The former 4 modules focus on hard disk and removable devices while the last one
targets optical disc only. Users need to choose the most appropriate module according to
actual demands.
At the bottom of the main interface you can click 5 places to get help:
Bootable Edition: this guides you to the website where MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Boot Disk can be downloaded or bought. Of course, you will be shown how to make such
a bootable disk via Bootable Media Builder.
Support: click here and the website showing Power Data Recovery FAQ, case studies,
and so on will pup up.
Website: tap on this functional button and you can go to the official website of Power Data
Recovery.
Register: click this functional button to get the window below (if you have registered,
there is no such option):
Here limitations of the free edition are shown, and you are able to register Power Data
Recovery directly if you have a license key.
Upgrade Free Edition: if you are using the free edition, this message will appear. It
shows recovery limit of the free edition as well as the left file capacity users can recover. In
addition, if you want to upgrade the program, they can click “Upgrade Now” button to get
the website where information about MiniTool Power Data Recovery Personal License is
introduced.
Step 2: Select the Target Device to Scan
After choosing a module, users need to select and scan the partition or disk where data
loss appears. Take “Damaged Partition Recovery” module for example.
All partitions are listed here, and users need to select the one which is suffering data loss,
and then scan the selected device. There are 5 functional buttons available and 1 edition
explanation at the bottom of the damaged partition recovery interface:
1.Home: click this button and we can go back to the main interface of Power Data
Recovery at any time.
2.Support: click here and the website showing Power Data Recovery FAQ, case studies,
and so on will pup up.
3.Bootable Media: the website introducing MiniTool Power Data Recovery Boot Disk will
emerge.
4.Register: Register Power Data Recovery.
5.Refresh: if you haven’t seen the needed device in this interface, please click “Refresh”
button to refresh devices. When you plug a new device, clicking this button will make the
device appear in the partition list.
6.Settings: with this feature, users can make the program scan needed files only by file
system and file types. For example, if we just want to recover pictures or photos, we can
check the option “Graphics/Pictures”.
7.Back: by clicking this button, we will go back to the main interface where 5 functional
modules are shown.
8.Full Scan: if users apply this feature, Power Data Recovery will scan the entire device
sector by sector to furthest find desired data, and it will take more time.
1). Total Files Found: there is a dynamic value showing how many files have been found.
2). Remaining Time: there is a changeable time showing how long the scanning will last.
3). Progress Bar: it tells us how much the scanning is completed.
4). Information for files and file system: this shows file system of the device, file
records found, and so forth.
5). Cancel: by clicking this button you can end the scanning at any time.
After the full scan is finished without cancel, our program will tell you how many partitions
are found in the selected device.
9.Open: it helps quickly scan and open the selected device. Compared with “Full Scan”, it
saves a lot of time but may not find your needed files or recovered files cannot be opened
correctly. First of all, you can try using this feature to see whether desired files are found
and correct. If not, go back to this interface and choose “Full Scan” to make a deep
scanning.
Step 3: Preview and Recover Needed Files
After successful scan, all found files will be shown:
And users need to look for desired files from all these results. However, if you want to find
needed files quickly, it is very necessary to know the layout of scanning results.
1.Save Path: it shows save path for all found files and folders, and users can find needed
files quickly if they know where the lost files are stored. In addition, all found files are
classified by type, which makes it easier to find desired files when users do not know
where the lost files are saved but know file type. For example, as long as we select jpg, all
photos with jpg format will be shown in the middle:
2.File List: after we select a directory in Path list, all files under this directory will emerge
in the middle of the interface, with file name, creating date, modification date, etc.
3.Thumbnail for the selected file: as long as we select a file in the middle, there will be a
thumbnail at the right side.
4.Preview: it allows users to preview some types of files, like photos.
5.Attributes for the selected file: apart from thumbnail, attributes such as file name and
file size for the selected file will emerge on the right, too.
Moreover, there are some other useful features on the top:
6.Preview: the same as 4.
7.Find File: this feature makes it possible to find a specified file directly as long as users
remember the file name. For example, if we know the lost file is named with picture 1, we
can type picture 1 and then click “Find Next” to locate the file directly:
8.Advanced Filter: filter needless data by file name, file size, creating time, and so on.
This feature is very useful when the name of found files has been changed (if the device’s
file system has been damaged or file system cannot locate files, all files will be without
correct file name). For instance, if we only want to recover word documents, we can
choose “*.doc, *.xls, *ppt” to filter out *.zip, *.wav, *.jpg, and other types of files.
9.Export Scan Result: after scan, we can export all scanning results to a specified place,
which makes it possible to load previous results without rescanning.
Note: there is no such option under the “CD/DVD Recovery” module. In addition, please
do not export results to the location where data loss appears, because it may overwrite
lost data.
According to all these features users can find desired files with ease. Once files which
need recovering are found, please check and then save them to a specified location by
clicking “Save” button which is at the lower right corner:
At last, specify a location to save all recovered files and click “OK”.
Tip: do not save recovered data to the device where data loss appears, for it may
overwrite lost data.
Once the following message appears, we succeed in recovering lost files:
Load Scan Result MiniTool Power Data Recovery provides 2 options to load previous scanning results if you
have used Power Data Recovery to scan a device:
1.Load manually saved scan result: we have said we can export scan result to a
specified place. If we have made such an export, now we are able to load saved results by
clicking this feature.
2.“Previous Scan Result of…”: it saves the latest scanning results. For example, if we
scan partition D last time, scanning results for partition D can be loaded automatically as
long as we click “Load Result” button at the right bottom.
Note: With these 2 options, users can save a lot of time, but the free edition does not
provide this function. For this support, users need to purchase a license.
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