drive but the one your lost data is
on, unzip it, then launch it directly.
Puran will reveal it can perform
four types of scan: click OK,
select your drive and click Scan to
perform a quick scan of the drive.
A list of files will be displayed
along with their size and condition,
although this should be taken with
a pinch of salt (many files may be
listed as ‘excellent’ but ultimately
prove unrecoverable, while some
listed as ‘poor’ are recoverable).
Click the drop-down menu to
filter the list by file type, such as
pictures or documents. Select a
file from the list and if the preview
reveals an image of at least part
of the contents of the file, click
Recover to save a copy to another
drive, then try opening it. With a
bit of luck, you will have recovered
your file. As we said previously,
your chances vastly improve the
more recently the file was deleted.
If the quick scan doesn’t reveal
your missing file, Puran supports
a Deep Scan mode, which takes a
lot longer (particularly on non-SSD
drives) but can root out files not
spotted by its quick scan. If you’re
overwhelmed by the files thrown
up in the search, click the Edit
button next to ‘Scan Custom List’ to
restrict your search to specific file
types only.RECOVER WITH RECUVA
Puran’s quick scan supports
both NTFS and FAT drives, which
should cover most bases, but it
can recover data from other file
systems too—so long as they’re
visible to Windows, Puran shouldbe able to handle them. It’s even
capable of detecting lost partitions
and formatted drives, enabling you
to potentially recover data from
those too.
If Puran is unable to recover
your data, don’t panic just yet. Other
free tools exist, but our experience
with them is mixed. In the past, we
would have recommended Recuva
(www.ccleaner.com/recuva),
but it has stopped distributing
its portable version, despite not
having been updated since 2016.
Nevertheless, if you have a copy
already installed (or your missing
files are on a different drive to your
Windows installation), then it’s
worth trying.
Recuva comes with its own built-
in wizard to guide you through theprocess of recovering your files—
it’s likely that you’ll need to leave
‘All Files’ selected. Click Next,
then click Browse under ‘Specific
location’ to select the folder
containing your missing file. If in
doubt, consider choosing C:\Users\
{Username} (where {username} is
your Windows username), as this
is where most of your missing files
should normally reside. Click Next.
If the files only recently went
missing, don’t enable the deep
scan just yet. Click Start and wait
for the scan to complete. A list of
files will be displayed—those ones
colored in green should still be
recoverable. Tick those you want
to restore and click Recover to save
them to a different drive, then try
opening the file to see if it’s been
successfully recovered.MORE FREE TOOLS
iCare Recovery Free (www.icare-
recovery.com/data-recovery-free.
html) is another fully portable tool
that can attempt to recover deleted
files for free. After downloading
and unzipping, launch iCare-
Free.exe and choose ‘Deleted
File Recovery’. Select your drive
from those listed and click Next to
perform the equivalent of Puran’s
quick scan on your drive.
Once complete, iCare Recovery
will build a directory tree of
potentially recoverable files,
allowing you to locate the file you’re
looking for simply by navigating to
its folder using the navigation pane.
Once you’ve drilled down to theUse Puran’s
preview to
determine if
an image file is
recoverable.Recuva offers
a wizard to
help you find
your files.MAR 2022 MAXIMU MPC 43
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