Troubleshooting
The scenarios shown below originate from actual help service offered to customers.
'DEMO version' message for registered copy
I have purchased and copied software onto the USB. When starting Active@ File Recovery, I get a message at program title that reads 'DEMO version' and I'm not able to restore files larger than 64kb.
- Active File Recovery is an application aimed to save and recover lost files or those deleted by mistake. What stands out the most on Active File Recovery is how easy it is to find folders that are apparently not on the hard drive anymore. The program works with FAT and NTFS units, and all kinds of disks, diskettes and memories.
- Uneraser is a freeware undelete software that can recover deleted files, as well as files and folders located on deleted/damaged/re-formatted volumes: NTFS, ReFS, FAT/exFAT, Linux Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 / JFS / BtrFS, Apple HFS+ / ApFS & Unix UFS / JFS / XFS file systems.
Possible Cause
Active File Recovery is an application aimed to save and recover lost files or those deleted by mistake. What stands out the most on Active File Recovery is how easy it is to find folders that are apparently not on the hard drive anymore. The program works with FAT and NTFS units, and all.
You forgot to copy to your USB disk file called SETTINGS.INI. This file contains your registration key.
Solution 1 Look for SETTINGS.INI at the installation folder and copy it to the same place where you start Active@ File Recovery from.
Solution 2 Install software directly to the USB disk. All necessary files will be copied there.
Maximizing Chances of Recovering Files
I deleted a file. How much time do I have before data recovery is no longer possible?
Discussion
It is not possible to predict time like this in hours or days. Microsoft Windows can overwrite a deleted file immediately if it selects the same data clusters for the new files being created.
Solution To maximize chances of recovery try not to write anything onto the drive where a deleted file is located before you start using recovery software. We advise you to turn off the machine immediately, and attach your HDD to another machine running Windows, or to boot using a portable copy of the Windows OS from bootable CD/USB (Active@ Boot Disk).
Getting the Trial Version
How can I download the trial version of Active@ File Recovery utility?
Solution You can do it from the www.file-recovery.com Web site. The trial version has full functionality of the final program. The only limitation is the maximum size of the file being restored (64kb).
Restoring Files
I have deleted a very important document. It was deleted before Active@ File Recovery was installed on my computer. Is it possible to restore it?
Solution If the file has not already been overwritten (by some other files) then chances are good for recovery.
When you discover that an important file has been deleted, download and install Active@ File Recovery and search for this file. It may be a good idea to avoid disk activity on this particular hard drive as follows:
- Do not delete other files
- Avoid restarting the computer
- Do not open a large number of programs concurrently (increased OS paging and swapping activity takes place on the hard drive)
All of these activities are disk storage intensive. A new temporary file might overwrite or partially overwrite the deleted document. More drive storage events will make finding a particular file more complicated.
The more free hard drive space you have on your computer, the greater the chances for a successful retrieval of deleted file contents. It is always a good idea to extract and install Active@ File Recovery to a different physical hard drive - one that does not contain important deleted file(s).
Windows XP
Does Active@ File Recovery work under Windows XP?
Answer: Yes, it does.
It also works under Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows 8 beta. All versions of Windows based on x64 platform are also supported. But it doesn't work under Windows 2000.
Browser Support
I have Opera as my default browser. Will I be able to install and use Active@ File Recovery?
Answer: Yes. To download and install software you need to have Internet Explorer or Opera, or any other browser that supports file download. The browser is required only to retrieve the file. After software installation the browser is not needed to run the utility.
Non-English File Names Support
Does Active@ File Recovery support localized (e.g. French, Spanish) file names?
Answer: Yes. Provided the file system supports localized file names, the software will support special characters (ANSI or Unicode).
Long File Names Support
Will Active@ File Recovery recover long file names?
Answer: Yes. Provided the file system supports long file names, the Active@ File Recovery will support them. Some combinations of Operating Systems and File Systems, like DOS installed on FAT12 or FAT16 may not support long filenames, thus neither the operating system, nor file recovery software can operate with long filenames on these disks.
Disk Image
What is a Disk Image? Why is it needed?
Answer: Disk Image is a mirror of your logical drive, or the entire HDD that is stored in one file. A Disk Image file can be useful when you want to back up the contents of the whole drive, and restore it or work with it later.
Before you start recovering deleted files, it may be a good idea to create a Disk Image for this drive, if you have enough space on another drive. If something goes wrong while recovering the files (for example, recovering them onto the same drive could destroy their contents), you will be able to recover these deleted files and folders from the Disk Image that you have wisely created.
DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ONTO THE DRIVE CONTAINING THE DATA THAT NEEDS TO BE RECOVERED!Even data recovery software installation could spoil your sensitive data. If the data is really important to you, and you do not have another logical drive to install software to, take whole hard drive out of the computer and plug into another computer where data recovery software has been already installed.
DO NOT SAVE THE DATA ON THE SAME LOGICAL DRIVE YOU ARE RECOVERING FROM!If you save recovered data onto the same drive where the deleted data was located, you can corrupt the data you are trying to recover. If this happens no software will be able to recover it. It's essential to save the data onto another logical, removable, network or floppy drive.
CREATE A DISK IMAGE IF YOU HAVE AN EXTRA HARD DRIVE, OR OTHER LOGICAL DRIVES HAVE ENOUGH FREE SPACE TO CONTAIN THE IMAGE!Disk Image is a mirror of your logical drive that is stored in one file. This can be useful when you want to backup the contents of the whole drive, and restore it or work with it later. Before you start recovering the deleted files, it may be a good idea to create a Disk Image for this drive, if you have enough space at another drive. Why? Because if you do something wrong while recovering the files (for example, recovering them onto the same drive could destroy their contents), you still will be able to recover these deleted files and folders from the Disk Image that you have wisely created.
Freeware and Shareware Downloads
Active@ Data Studio
12 Disk Tools in One Package! Active@ Data Studio is a set of desktop applications and a bootable CD/DVD or USB Disk for booting up any system into a Windows Recovery Environment.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ KillDisk
Destroy all data on Hard Disks, Solid State Disks (SSD) and USB disks and Memory Cards, excluding any possibility of deleted files and folders data recovery. Supports U.S. DoD 5220.22-M and more than 20 international data sanitizing standards.
Learn more »Download Active@ Boot Disk
Complete and functioning computer operating system on CD/DVD/USB disk. Gives full access to even non-bootable PC and provides a platform for data recovery tools.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ File Recovery
Efficient and easy to use tool for restoring deleted or lost files, damaged or re-formatted volumes, even if your PC doesn't boot. Includes advanced disk editor and Virtual RAID re-constructor to recover damaged RAID disk arrays.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Partition Recovery
Easily detects and recovers recently deleted partitions. Advanced low-level scan may detect partitions which were deleted a long time ago, even if you have created new ones and even formatted them.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ UNDELETE
Recover deleted files and restore deleted partitions from a variety of file systems such as FAT, NTFS, NTFS + EFS, MacOS HFS+, Linux ext2, ext3, ext4, Unix UFS. Advanced scan algorithms help to restore files even from severely damaged disks.
Active File Recovery Software Full Version Free Download
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Disk Image
Disk image software that makes an exact copy of any PC disk (HDD, SSD, USB, CD, DVD, Blu-ray etc.) and stores it into a folder. The disk images may be used for backups, PC upgrades or disk duplication purposes.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Live CD
Backup, Recovery & Security Toolset. Boot up any PC into a graphical environment from CD/DVD or USB! Active@ Live CD is a powerful set of tools that will help you in a number of data recovery and data security scenarios.
Learn more »DownloadNTFS Data Recovery toolkit
Tools for fixing NTFS partitions and files. NTFS Data Recovery Toolkit is a set of tools for analyzing problems with NTFS partitions and files, and Data Recovering in Manual and Automated modes.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ UNFORMAT
UNFORMAT is a software utility created to solve almost all data loss scenarios due to logical failure. It can recover deleted files on a disk or restore deleted or damaged partitions and volumes. As well as recovers data after using the FORMAT command.
Learn more »DownloadFree Data Recovery Software Download
Active@ UNERASER
Free software to recover deleted files. Active@ UNERASER recovers deleted files and folders on NTFS, FAT, exFAT, Linux Ext2/Ext3/Ext4/BtrFS, Apple HFS+ and Unix UFS file systems. It can even restore files from deleted and reformatted partitions.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Password Changer
Reset local user password and account attributes on Windows system in case of Administrator’s password is forgotten, lost or user account has been blocked, disabled or locked out.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Partition Manager
Create, delete, format and name partitions on your computer without shutting down the system.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Hard Disk Monitor
Check and monitor the health of your disks to prevent data loss using Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.). Detect bad sectors on a disk surface by running Advanced Disk Scan.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ ZDelete
ZDelete is a data cleanup and erase utility that can delete selected folders and groups of files without any possibility of data recovery afterward. Conforms to US Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ Disk Editor
Advanced tool for viewing and editing of raw data (sectors) on physical hard disks. Inspect file structures and edit data directly in volumes, partitions and files.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ CD/DVD Data Burner
Dialog-style software to burn Data CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs. Command line parameters are supported to automate the data burning process.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ ISO Manager
Create ISO 9660 / Joliet ISO images from either existing CD/DVD-ROMs or from a set of existing files and folders.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ ISO Burner
Active@ ISO Manager is easy-to use software to author, edit and burn CD/DVD-ROM ISO images compatible with the ISO 9660 / Joliet standards. You can create ISO images from either existing CD/DVD-ROMs or from a set of existing files and folders.
Learn more »DownloadActive@ DVD Eraser
Active@ DVD Eraser is an easy-to-use free software to erase Blu-ray, DVD-RW, DVD+RW or CD-RW media to clear the old data from the discs.
Learn more »Download