Copyright: Copyright Alex Mokrov 2005
Citation: Alex Mokrov, 2005


Back2Life

Back2Life for TC - plugin for Total Commander (ex Windows Commander) that allows you to undelete erased files in your favorite file manager!


Introduction

The Recycle Bin for Windows has been designed to protect files from accidental erasure, but what happens if you want to recover a file deleted from the Recycle Bin itself? Or, what if your deleted file didn't get to the Recycle Bin? Viruses will not send anything to the Recycle Bin! Give Back2Life a chance to find and unerase those files!

With Back2Life for TC you can treat erased files just like normal ones and unerase them right in Total Commander file manager!


License agreement

BY INSTALLING, COPYING, OR OTHERWISE USING THE SOFTWARE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE LICENSE AGREEMENT.

This software is provided "as is" and is without warranty of any kind. The author of this software does not warrant, guarantee or make any representations regarding the use or results of use of this software in terms of reliability, accuracy or fitness for purpose. You assume the entire risk of direct or indirect, consequential or inconsequential results from the correct or incorrect usage of this software even if the author has been informed of the possibilities of such damage. Neither the author nor anybody connected to this software in any way can assume any responsibility.

You may install a copy of the Software on a computer and freely move the Software from one computer to another, provided that you are the only individual using the Software.

You may not transfer, rent, lease, lend, copy, modify, translate, sublicense, time-share or electronically transmit or receive the Software, media or documentation except permanent basis provided you retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms of the License Agreement. You acknowledge that the Software in source code form remains a confidential trade secret of author and therefore you agree not to modify the Software or attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software.


Program features

Back2Life for TC 2.3 supports:

•	Recovery of files on normal and reformatted drives

•	Operating systems: MS Windows 95/98/Me and NT/2000/XP

•	Disk types: local hard disks, removable disks (Floppies, ZIP, JAZZ and other), USB Sticks (Flash drives), digital camera memory flash cards

•	File system types: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS

•	NTFS normal, compressed and sparse files

•	File type matching technology for files erased under Windows NT, 2000, XP and up.

•	Restoring stand-alone files and entire folders with erased files (including subfolders)

•	Standard and Smart recovery algorithms (for FAT systems)

•	Cluster-use map display for erased files

•	Estimate of file damage

•	Long file names

•	Non-English characters in file names

•	Showing properties of disks, files and folders

Back2Life doesn't support:

NTFS encrypted files

Program works with Total Commander 5.5 and up. Some features will work only with Total Commander 5.51 and up

Standalone version of Back2Life with many extra features can be found here.


Special thanks

•	To God (first of all for the life!)

•	Christian Ghisler

•	Alexei Rudenko

•	Alexander Mamontov (J-34)

•	All users who sent their comments and suggestions


Install and Uninstall

To install Back2Life for TC on computer:

  1. Unzip the archive to any directory

  2. Launch Total Commander and choose Configuration -> Options -> Operation -> FS-Plugins

  3. Click "Add"

  4. Go to the directory where the archive was unzipped, and select Back2Life.wfx

  5. Click OK.

Please note: If you install Back2Life for TC right before undeleting files, DO NOT unzip it to the drive where these files are located, because they can be overwritten!

You can now access the plugin in "Network Neighborhood" as [Erased files]. Read more how to use it...

To uninstall Back2Life for TC:

  1. Launch Total Commander and choose Configuration -> Options -> Operation -> FS-Plugins

  2. Click "Remove"

  3. Select Erased files

  4. Click OK.


How to use it

Plugin usage:

After the plugin is installed, you can access it in "Network Neighborhood" at the name [Erased files].

Open any disk shown there and you will be able to browse for erased files and folders! Please note the difference between FAT and NTFS systems.

The Back2Life plugin lists only erased files, but both existing and erased folders. Erased folders are shown with gray icons. To check whether a folder has any erased files, press the space bar to calculate the size of the folder's content (only erased files counted).

To view the properties of a file or a folder select it and press Alt+Enter. For erased files you may see the cluster-use map.

Data recovery:

To recover a file or a group of files and folders, highlight them and copy to the existing directory in another panel of TC by using F5. To recover a single file you may press Enter to open the Recover dialog and to choose the recovery path and extra recovery options.

Please note, unregistered version of Back2Life recoveres files that are less than 64K in size.

You can't recover files to the same disk they were erased from. You can't copy or move any file to the erased folder, or rename erased content.

Plugin properties:

To access the plugin properties, press Alt+Enter on [Erased files] title in "Network Neighborhood" listing. Here you can set:

•	Plugin interface language

•	Default recovery method (used with copy and drag-drop recovery, and F3 preview)

•	Other file-system related options (see Difference in scan and recovery options)

Plugin commands:

•	F3, F4 - preview and edit erased file. Please note that you cannot preview or edit an erased file located on the same drive with the Windows\Temp directory.

•	F5, drag-n-drop operation - recover selected files (folders) using a default recovery method.

•	Enter - show the Recovery dialog for a single erased file

•	Alt+Enter - show the Plugin, disk, file or folder properties

•	Alt+SHift+Enter - calculate the size of all folders (only erased files counted)

•	Alt+F7 - search for erased files. Searching for text in erased files is not supported

•	Ctrl-R - refresh erased folder

•	Space bar - calculate the size of the folder (only erased files counted)


Registration

The only limit of unregistered version is a nag screen - so you may use it to test and to recover as many files as possible. But if Back2Life has helped you to save important data, please honsetly consider registering. Each new version comes with a new registration key, but registered users can obtain this key for free (send new key request to support@grandutils.com)

Back2Life for TC 2.3 costs 10 Euro. You may also choose to pay with one of the following currences:

•	 US Dollar

•	 Australian Dollar

•	 Canadian Dollar

•	 Japanese Yen

•	 Pound Sterling

•	 Swiss Franc

Available payment options:

•	Credit card - Visa, MasterCard/Eurocard, American Express, and Diners Club

•	Switch/Solo - debit cards from Switch and Solo (UK)

•	Bank/wire transfer - transferring to an account in Germany, France, or the UK

•	Check - bank transfers from US banks and checks drawn on US banks. From customers outside of the USA only guaranteed bank checks such as Money Orders or Cashier's Checks accepted

•	Cash - send cash by mail

Please follow the link to proceed with secure on-line registration. This service uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption technology to transfer your data securely. The encryption is certified by VeriSign.

If you have questions about orders, payments, delivery, or if you have already ordered software and would like to view data relating to your order, please visit our Customer Care Center.

The Software will be registered with your full name.  As soon as payment is received, you will be e-mailed the registration key that will turn off the limitations of your unregistered copy and give you the full function of Back2Life for TC.


Standard and Smart recovery methods
FAT file systems allow the use of either Standard or Smart recovery algorithms. Default algorithm is Smart.

The major difference is that Smart algorithm saves the sequence of unused clusters (this means that reused clusters are skipped), while Standard saves a daisy cluster chain.

Therefore Smart algorithm is only helpful for files with damage ratio more than 0% and less than 100%.  If file damage is zero percent, the Smart method makes the same result as Standard.


Difference between FAT and NTFS

Basically, FAT and NTFS filesystems have many differences, but in Back2Life for TC undelete plugin only two of them are noticeable:

1. Difference in scanning disk and browsing folders

Unlike FAT, NTFS doesn't allow scanning one folder at a time, but requires the entire disk to be scanned at once. So every time you open NTFS disk it will be scanned (with progress window) and then when you browse disk folders in Total Commander Back2Life will browse the static list of previously scanned files and folders. So when you delete a file on this disk in WILL NOT automatically show up in plugin. In order to refresh the view in every NTFS folder there is a special link named ":: Rescan this disk ::" - double-click it to rescan entire disk and see the changes in current directory.

FAT system allows scanning one folder at a time, so erased disk behaves just like regular disk.

2. Difference in scan and recovery options

FAT system has extra options:

•	Directory matching at scan time

•	File type matching at scan time

•	Standard and Smart recovery methods

•	Save all variants of uncertain files at recovery time

The last option is only available with the recovery of a single file (press Enter on erased file).

It is recommended to recover files using different options to get the best recovery chance.

NTFS has no special options.


Recommendations

As soon as you discover that vital files have been erased, the most important thing is to prevent erased files from being rewritten. To do so, avoid any use of the disk where the file was erased until after the files are recovered. Also remember that Back2Life shouldn't be installed to this disk - install it to floppy if no other disk is available.

The following three things are important for restoration considerations:

(1) The less time since the disk has been defragmented, (2) the sooner you make a restoration attempt, and (3) the smaller the size of the file - the more chances for success we have. <Your conclusions here>


Save all variants of unsertain files
Sometimes when a file is erased under Windows NT, 2000, XP and higher the exact file location is uncertain. If Perform File type matching option is selected, Back2Life will try to detect such location automatically. But in case it fails, select Save all variants to force Back2Life to save all possible variants - they will be saved to disk with the name extensions "_variant_xxx". After recovery you may try to open every one of such files to determine which is the one you need.

It's recommended to recover files first without using this option, and use it only for those files that appeared unreadable after recovery.


Register/About
Shows About plugin dialog where you can enter registration and set default plugin properties.


Recover single file
Recover and save selected files and folders to disk.


Recovery path
Recovery path specifies a location where all selected files and folders (with subfolders) will be saved to. If Recovery path points to nonexisting folder, Back2Life will create it automatically.


Perform File Type matching
Select this option to compare file extension and file content. While taking some extra time, this can help to correctly locate files deleted under Windows NT, 2000, XP and up (because sometimes when a file is erased under these Windows OS the exact file location is uncertain).

Later in Recovery dialog (recover single file by pressing Enter) you can make Back2Life to recover all possible variants of such files, if needed.


Perform directory matching
Select this option to check the location of FAT folders. While taking some extra time, this can help to correctly locate folders deleted under Windows NT, 2000, XP and up (because sometimes when a folder is erased under these Windows OS its exact location is uncertain).