Disk Drill by LaWanda Warren

Disk Drill by LaWanda Warren

GOAL OF PROJECT If you're a forensic investigator or even an everyday computer user and you want to recover some files or images from corrupt hard drive or even an external hard drive, then Disk Drill can be an extremely useful tool. What sets Disk Drill apart is its slimmed down interface and almost userfriendly documentation. If you're looking for a data recovery app with a good feature set and some reassuring hand-holding, Disk Drill is a solid choice and you can't go wrong installing the free version to take advantage of Disk Drill's "Recovery Vault" feature, which can make recovery more reliable, by tracking a "smart history" of your files (including file names, locations, and activity). When recovering a file, Disk Drill's workflow is simple, you can switch over to "Recover data mode" from "Prevent data loss" mode, then with a couple of clicks you can choose the drive and then type of scan you want to run, which vary in terms of speed and thoroughness. As with similar apps, Disk Drill also offers S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, backup to disk images, and both quick and deep scan options. Disk Drill can help you recover data on HFS/HFS+, FAT, and NTFS drives, as well as flash drives and memory cards (Recovery Vault helps with HFS/HFS+ and FAT). BACKGROUND RESEARCH Recovery Vault is a unique technology, which lets you prevent unexpected data loss on your Mac or any HFS/HFS+ or FAT media. If you have occasionally deleted a file or folder, Disk Drill will recover them saving all their properties and original locations, unlike any other Mac recovery software. Recovery Vault works invisibly in the background recovering all file types and is absolutely NOT resource hungry. Disk Drill, recovers data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS and other file systems right on your Mac. It helps you undelete Mac OS files using its two powerful Mac recovery methods, quick or deep scanning. Disk Drill data recovery for Mac OS X locates and recovers deleted files from any mountable media like your main drive, external hard disk, memory cards, and ipods Classic. Disk Drill can recover deleted files for Mac OS X such as photos, music, documents, applications, and other file formats. 2

PROJECT DETAILS (INTRO) Disk Drill is invaluable do it yourself data recovery software for Mac OS. It is always ready to recover your Mac data no matter what happened and no matter how the data was loss (accidental deletion, Disk Utility error, data corruption, etc.). To support data recovery on all existing file systems and undelete all imaginable file types Disk Drill features three scanning and recovery methods: Undelete from Recovery Vault Recover any file or folder exactly as it was before deletion on disks and partitions protected with Recovery Vault. All file types supported, all original properties are recovered, this method is extremely precise Quick Scan for HFS+, FAT & NTFS only Scans existing journal or file table for deleted items. Requires a working disk or partition. Is very fast, but not precise as not all deleted files still exist in the areas of search Deep Scan To really get deep Regardless of what happened to your disk and which file system was there before, Deep Scan attempts to extract every bit of data still remaining in any binary mess: formatted drive, lost partition, etc. It's slow and based on file signatures it already knows. The list of known file types is constantly updated. Deep Scan is your last call for help if nothing else works or if data loss is really severe. While it's not capable of recovering original file names and locations, as well as other meta-data of recovered items, Deep Scan does an impressive job of getting files that were deleted or lost. With Disk Drill, you are also able to recover lost data from so many other drives and devices such as: Hard Drive Recovery Recover data on any hard drive right on your Mac: internal and external (USB, FireWire, esata) hard drives are supported. You can recover data from any drive you can mount in Mac OS X. File Recovery for Mac Disk Drill Mac recovery software finds deleted or damaged files, recovers file data with deep scan or undeletes files with quick scan. Disk Drill is a simple file recovery software for Mac OS X. 3

LAB Recover Memory Card Insert any memory card or USB drive into your Mac directly or using a card reader, scan it with Disk Drill & recover any deleted data on Macintosh. Partition Recovery Has accidental repartitioning lead to data loss, recover data from partitioned or formatted disk drives right on your Mac. Mac Photo Recovery Recover lost or deleted data like photos or music after you empty trash on your Mac. Disk Drill for Macintosh recovers just deleted photos or those you deleted long ago (if they were not overwritten). Disk Drill is perfect photo recovery software for Mac OS X. ipod Recovery Recover deleted and lost music, videos, podcasts and other data from your ipod Classic, Nano, Mini or Shuffle. Just enable disk access to your ipod in itunes to start immediate ipod data recovery with Disk Drill. There is nothing worse than deleting a file by mistake, with Disk Drill its the fast and easy way to recover deleted files on Mac OS X. You can recover deleted files from your internal hard drive and almost any other type of storage device you can connect to your Mac, including external hard drives, and USB flash drives. Quick recovery is possible for all major file systems including HFS/HFS+, FAT and NTFS. It has never been easier to restore deleted files on your Mac and best of all; you can scan your hard drive or device and see which files can be recovered for free. In the following steps I will show you how you can recover a deleted file by using Disk Drill: 1. Download and install Disk Drill Double-click the "diskdrill.dmg" file. Drag the Disk Drill icon to your Applications folder when prompted. 2. Connect Your Device to Your Mac If the deleted files you wish to recover are on an external device, connect it to your Mac now. 3. Launch Disk Drill Application Go to your Applications folder and double-click on the Disk Drill icon to launch the program. 4. Select the Drive to Be Scanned 4

You should see a list of the drives and devices available to be scanned. Select the drive (and then the partition if necessary) that you wish to recover your deleted Mac files from. 5. Undelete from Recovery Vault If you downloaded Disk Drill before your files were deleted, and you had its "Recovery Vault" function enabled to protect the particular disk you need to retrieve deleted files from, then this is your best option. Click "Undelete from Recovery Vault" to begin scanning. If Recovery Vault did not protect the disk in question, then proceed to Quick Scan instead. 6. Quick Scan for Deleted Files If you can't undelete from Recovery Vault, Quick Scan is your next best option. Quick Scan is a powerful tool that allows you to recover your files with their metadata intact - including file names. Click "Quick scan for deleted files" to begin scanning. Note: If Quick Scan is grayed out, or if it didn't locate the files you need, try Deep Scan, which may find files Quick Scan could not. 7. Deep Scan for Lost Data If you were unable to use Recovery Vault or Quick Scan, or if those scans didn't produce the files you needed, don't lose all hope. Deep Scan may still be able to restore the deleted files on your Mac. Deep Scans take quite a bit longer, so be prepared to wait a while for it to finish. Note that deleted files recovered by Deep Scan will most probably not have their original file names - they are instead assigned generic file names such as "file123.doc". 8. Select Your Deleted Files At the end of a scan, Disk Drill will show a complete list of the deleted files it was able to find. There are several ways to sort the results to make finding the particular deleted files you need easier: You can search by typing a keyword into the box with the magnifying glass on the upper left. You can also adjust the time to show only the files deleted within the last few days or weeks. Click on any of the column headers to sort the list by that value. File names are not preserved with Deep Scan, so you will need to narrow your results by date and file type. 5

If you find a file, but aren't sure it's the one you want, you can right-click on it and select "Preview" to view the file. Once you have found the deleted files you wish to recover, check the box next to each file name. 9. Restore Your Deleted Files Once you have selected your files, select the location where you want to store the recovered files and then click the Recover button in the lower-right corner. CONCLUSION If you are one of the lucky ones, who haven't already experienced data loss then, Disk Drill Basic is a great, free way to help ward off the inevitable. If you are one of the unlucky ones who have already lost data, photos or mp3s, then one of the paid versions of Disk Drill will be the option for trying to recover any lost data. Disk Drill comes in three different versions Pro, Enterprise and Expert. 6

REFERENCES http://www.cleverfiles.com/ http://download.cnet.com/disk-drill/3000-2094_4-75307728.html http://mac.softpedia.com/get/system-utilities/disk-drill.shtml 7