How to use Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery(FAT)

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Quick User Guide
After successful installation of the software, run the application by clicking Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) data recovery icon either from the desktop or from the programs list in the Start menu START-->PROGRAMS-->Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery-->Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT).EXE

As you launch Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) wizard, the wizard window appears as shown in Figure (a).



Select Recover your data option and click on Next to continue. As you click on Next button, a window will be displayed to select the source disk from which you wish to recover your data (see Figure (b)



Select a source drive and the processing mode to process the drive. Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) software provides two processing modes.

Display default partition(s)

Search for lost partition(s)

By default the processing mode is set to Display default partition(s). In this mode, the partitions will be displayed using partition table. However if the partition table is damaged and no information about logical drives is available, a message to select "search for lost partition(s)" is displayed. Check "search for lost partition(s) option and click on next button. this mode will scan for logical drives to get the partitions.

As you click on Next button, the application analyses the drive and lists all the found partitions in the table as shown in Figure (c).



Select a partition for processing and click on Finish button. The application processes the partition and displays the found files and folders in a tree structure as shown in Figure (d).



You can save scanned information from "save scan information" option in Tools menu. You can open scan info file whenever required using "open scan information" option in File menu and recover data to desired destination location. You can also save entire tree/selected tree to any desired location using "Save all" from Tools menu or right click on Folder/ File and select save option.

Recover deleted files and folders
How to recover deleted file(s) and folder(s)?

When we delete a file it isn't actually deleted but only its entries are deleted. Please follow these steps to recover deleted file or folder.

After launching the wizard, select Recover your data option.

A window to select physical drive is displayed. Select a physical drive you wish to process, to locate deleted file or folder.

The application lists all the partitions found in the selected drive. Select a partition from where you need to recover deleted files.

Application starts scanning for files ad folders in the selected partition.

After scanning the drive using Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) software, all the found files and folders will be displayed in the tree structure.

If the deleted files were in Recycle bin, then you can locate them in the "Recycled" folder formed in the tree structure after scanning operation. However the deleted files and folders inside the recycled folder will no longer have their original file names and will be displayed as Dk* in the recycled folder.

If the files were deleted using SHIFT+del, then these files and folders can be found in the directory where they were originally located. They are marked by a crossed-out file name.

Recover lost/missing partitions
How to recover data from lost/missing partitions?

Recovering lost and missing partitions using Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) is fairly simple task. To recover data from a drive containing lost or missing partition, follow these steps:

Never save the data to the partition or drive from where you are recovering data, as it may result in overwriting of data, and would result in permanent data loss.
 * Connect the drive from which data needs to be recovered to the system where Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery software is already installed.
 * Launch the application and further the wizard.
 * Select the hard drive which was attached for recovery.
 * Select option "Recover your Data".
 * Select option "Search for lost partition(s)", and further select option "Thorough Scan".
 * Software would display a dialog box confirming sector range to scan, do not change any values and press "OK" to initiate the scanning process.
 * Thorough Scan is a time consuming process, so leave the software until the process is finished.
 * Once process is over logical drives would be listed in the dialog box to select.
 * Select the logical drive from which data needs to be recovered, you can identify the logical drive by it's starting location in the drive.
 * Once drive is selected, software automatically would scan it for files and folders and would display the data in a tree format.

Recover data from formatted partitions
When you accidentally or knowingly format any logical drive to the same file system again i.e. FAT 32 formatted again to create a FAT32 partition, which means you again have chosen the same file system to manage your data.

Please follow these steps to recover data from formatted drives.
 * Connect the drive from which data needs to be recovered to the system where Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) software is already installed.


 * Launch the application and further the wizard.
 * Select the hard drive which was attached for recovery.
 * Select option "Recover your Data".
 * A window to select physical drives is displayed. Select the physical drive which has formatted partition.
 * Let the processing mode be set to default. The application analyses the drive and all the logical drives.
 * Select the formatted partition, from which data has to be recovered. Once partition is selected, software automatically would scan it for files and folders and would display the data in a tree format.
 * If you do not find your files and folders in the tree structure formed, then run Turbo scan option from Tools menu. In this operation, the application performs rigorous search to find files and folders and will list all the found files and folders.

Recover data from reformatted partitions
When we format a logical drive from FAT32 to any other file system, at that time we actually are reformatting the drive and selecting a separate file system for the logical drive to manage the data. For e.g. a FAT32 partition can be re-formatted to FAT16, NTFS or Ext3FS etc. Please follow these steps to recover data from reformatted drives.


 * Connect the drive from which data needs to be recovered to the system where Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) software is already installed.
 * Launch the application and further the wizard.
 * Select the hard drive which was attached for recovery.
 * Select option "Recover your Data".
 * Select option "Search for lost partition(s)", and further select option "Thorough Scan".
 * Software would display a dialog box confirming sector range to scan, do not change any values and press "Ok" to initiate the scanning process.
 * Thorough Scan is a time consuming process, so leave the software until the process is finished.
 * Once process is over logical drives would be listed in the dialog box to select.
 * Select the logical drive from which data needs to be recovered; you can identify the logical drive by its starting location in the drive.
 * Once drive is selected, software automatically would scan it for files and folders and would display the data in a tree format.

If you do not find your files and folders in the tree structure formed, then run "TurboScan" option from Tools menu. In this operation, the application performs rigorous search to find files and folders and will list all the found files and folders.

Wizard Window


Select any one option from Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) Wizard Window


 * Recover Your Data
 * Recover Data From Disk Image
 * Create Disk Image

As you select the options, the information about the selected option is displayed on right side of the window panel. Select anyone option and click on Next button to continue.

Select physical drive for recovery


Select a physical drive from which you wish to recover data. After selecting the physical drive, select the processing mode to process the selected drive. Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) software provides two processing modes

Display default partition(s) Search for lost partition(s)

Select any one processing mode, by default its set to Display default partition(s), and click on Next button to continue.

Select logical partition for recovery


Select FAT partition from the partition table you wish to recover data from and click on Finish button to continue.

Disk imaging


Figure: Select Source and Destination

Select source disk whose image is to be taken and the destination path to save the image file. After selecting source disk and destination path, click on Finish button to start imaging process.



1. Image file extension will be ".dd2".

2. Before imaging, make sure that you have enough space in your hard disk to store image file.

3. If you have bad sectors in your drive, then it is recommended to create disk image of the drive and then to process image file, this eventually helps in ignoring the bad sectors and avoids continuous read attempts directly on the disk in real-time situation.

4. The less number of read attempts ensures no further increase in bad sectors and no further loss of data.

Select an image file for processing


Select an image file with ".dd2" extension and select any one processing mode, by default its set to Display default partition(s). Click on Finish button to continue.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) Wizard
A Brief Introduction to Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) Wizard Window

As you launch Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) wizard, the wizard window appears as shown in Figure (a).



Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) wizard window has four main options to perform which are briefed as below

Recover Your Data

Helps You Recover lost data from attached FAT drives and save data in desired destination.

Recover Data From Disk Image

Helps You Recover Your lost data from an image file created from FAT drive.

Create Disk Image

Helps you to clone your faulty drive to image file.

When you select any option in the wizard, you can read the information about the selected option in details panel on right side of the Wizard window.

Use Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) to Recover Data
How to recover data from disk?

Data recovery using Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) is a fairly simple task. Follow the steps below to recover lost data from attached FAT drive.

Select Recover Your Data option on wizard window as shown in Figure(a).



As you click on Next button, you can see a window to select physical drive, you wish to recover data from. As you select the drive you can see information of drive selected on right side of the window panel (see Figure(b))



Select any one of the processing modes to process the selected drive. Disk Doctors FAT provides three processing modes.

Display default partition(s) This mode can be used to recover lost data, if partition table is not damaged, to get logical drives list from the attached FAT hard drive.

Search for lost partition(s) This mode can be used if partition table is damaged and no information about logical drives is available. Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) searches for logical drives and lists all the found logical drives.

Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) would display default partitions if partition table is healthy as shown in Figure(c).



Select a logical drive you wish to recover data from and click on Finish button. Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery (FAT) analyses selected logical drive and searches for files and folders in it.

All the actions performed during the process is recorded in the process log in the application min window. You can save the process log or clear it from save process log and clear process log options in the Tools menu.

After searching for files and folders, all found files and folders will be displayed in tree structure as shown in Figure (d).



You can save data in desired destination location using "Save All" option or can save only selected data by right click on Folder(s)/ File(s) and select save option. menu. If you do not want to recover data but do it later then, you can save the scanned information using "Save Scan Information" from Tools menu. You can open saved scan information whenever you desire using "Open Scan Information" option in File menu and recover it to the desired destination location.

Data Recovery From Disk Image
How to recover data from Disk Image?

Using Image file, you can recover data from the image file and save recovered data to desired destination location. i.e. to a hard drive, network mapped drive or any remote ftp location.

Following steps have to be performed, to recover your lost data from an image file, created from FAT drive.

Select "Recover data from disk Image" option in wizard window(see Figure (a)) and click on Next button.



A window to select image file is displayed as shown in Figure(b).



Select an image file for recovery, with .dd3 extension and processing modes to process the image file. Disk Doctors FAT provides three processing modes


 * Display default partition(s)


 * Search for lost partition(s)

By default, the processing mode is set to "Display default partition(s)". As you click Next button, the application will process the image file and lists the found partitions as shown in Figure(c).



Select a partition for processing and click Finish button. Disk Doctors FAT analyses the partition and displays found files and folders in a tree format as shown in Figure (d).



If you have bad sectors in your drive, then it is recommended to clone the drive or to create disk image of the drive and then to process cloned drive or created image, this eventually helps in ignoring the bad sectors and avoids continuous read attempts directly on the disk in real-time situation.

The less number of read attempts ensures no further increase in bad sectors and no further loss of data.

Create Disk Image
How to create Disk Image?

Disk image is a file containing complete contents and structure of a data storage medium or device. You can clone your faulty drive to image file.

If you do not have a spare drive but have enough space to create an image then this is the best option Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery can provide you.

Image created can then be copied to a different disk. The result is same as disk cloning.

Follow these guidelines to create image of your disk

Make sure that you have enough space in your hard disk to store image file.

Select Create disk image option from wizard window and click on Next button(see Figure (a)).



As you click on Next button, a window is displayed to select the physical drive whose image has to be taken. Select the physical drive and destination path where you want to save the image file as shown in Figure(b).



Image file extension will be ".dd2". Click on Finish button to start imaging process. After imaging process is complete, a pop up message will arise to intimate process completion and all the activities performed during imaging process is entered in the process log for further reference.

If you have bad sectors in your drive, then it is recommended to clone the drive or to create disk image of the drive and then to process cloned drive or created image, this eventually helps in ignoring the bad sectors and avoids continuous read attempts directly on the disk in real-time situation.

The less number of read attempts ensures no further increase in bad sectors and no further loss of data.