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2 Installing and Starting Data Rescue

This chapter provides basic instructions on installing and starting Data Rescue. If you are using Data Rescue for the first time, you should read this chapter in detail.

2.1 Install/Uninstall Data Rescue

If you have the Data Rescue bootable DVD, it is not necessary to install Data Rescue and you may boot from the Data Rescue DVD to run the program.

If you plan on installing Data Rescue to a disk, you should NOT install it on the disk you are trying to recover files from. If you are trying to recover files from a disk that you normally use as a boot drive, you will need to either boot from the Data Rescue bootable DVD, or else set up a different drive to boot from and install Data Rescue on that drive. You may install Data Rescue on your recover / workspace disk and run it from there. It does not necessarily have to be installed on or run from your boot disk.

The following are instructions for users with a downloaded version of Data Rescue.

To install Data Rescue:

  1. From the location to which you downloaded Data Rescue, double-click on the Data Rescue image (.dmg) file to mount it on your computer.
  2. Drag the contents of the Data Rescue drive (the mounted disk image) to your Applications folder or elsewhere, if desired.

Caution: do not install or copy Data Rescue on (or make any other changes to) a volume from which you want to recover files. Doing so may reduce the chances of recovering files from that volume.

To uninstall Data Rescue:

  1. Drag Data Rescue into the Trash.

The following are instructions for users using the bootable emergency DVD. Booting from the emergency DVD is ideal for situations where files were accidentally deleted or the operating system fails to boot from the internal hard drive:

To boot from Data Rescue:

  1. Insert the Data Rescue DVD into the DVD Drive.
  2. Restart the computer holding the “C” key.
  3. Continue holding the “C” key until the Apple logo is displayed.

2.2 Before you start Data Rescue

Data Rescue requires access to a safe location for its workspace files and to store your recovered files. In the interests of performance, your best option is to plug in an external, freshly formatted hard drive, or to use a separate internal drive. Make sure the capacity of this drive is great enough to contain all the files you plan to recover from your damaged hard drive, plus space for Data Rescue’s workspace files.

It is not recommended to try and use a slow drive such as a network drive, USB 1.0 drive, etc. for temporary storage because doing so will have a severe performance impact on Data Rescue.

2.2.1 Note on Data Rescue’s Workspace

What is the Workspace?

The workspace is a drive, or a folder on a drive, that is used during a scan to store persistent information found during a scan.

Choosing a Workspace

Before you can perform a scan on a drive, you must choose a workspace location. Once in the Choose Workspace window, you will be presented with a list of all potential workspace locations. By default, the startup drive will be selected automatically if it’s a valid location.

Valid and Invalid Workspace Locations

Not all locations will be valid choices. A potential location must:

Erasing a non-Mac Location

If a location selected is not a valid Mac file system, Data Rescue can erase it so that it can be used as a workspace location if it’s identified as “erase required”. In this situation you can select the location and click Choose. A Erase window will be displayed to confirm the operation. Once erased, you can go back to the Choose Workspace window and re-select the location once again. Please note, erasing a volume will destroy all file data on it. This feature is most often used for when a new drive is purchased from a retail store and is not properly formatted for use with a Mac.

Choosing a Workspace
Choosing a Workspace

2.3 Starting Data Rescue

Launch the application by double-clicking the Data Rescue icon in the Data Rescue folder. If Data Rescue has not been run before, an authentication window will be displayed. This prompt authorizes Data Rescue to access your disk devices with special privileges.

Authentication Window
Authentication Window

Enter the username and password of an Administrative user. (If you are the only user of your system, then you are most likely the administrative user, and you can use your own name and password.) If you do not have an administration password for your computer, please contact your system administrator to log in for you.

2.3.1 Selecting the Home Folder on the Boot DVD

If you are running Data Rescue from the boot DVD, it will ask you to select the Home Folder at startup. The Home Folder is a location that you must provide only when booting from its startup DVD. It is used to store preferences, registration, FileIQ settings and more.

Usually when Data Rescue is used from the startup disk as a normal application, it can use the user’s home folder (e.g. /Users/you/) as the home folder. However this option is not available when booted from the DVD, which is read-only, so you must provide Data Rescue this location instead.

Generally, you should select a folder on a separate physical drive from the drive that you want to scan. If you use the drive you want to scan you could potentially damage the possibility of a full recovery.

Data Rescue will provide you with a list of potential locations for the Home Folder. If a folder contains a name below it, then this means that that folder has a valid registration file and is most likely the home folder you should choose.

If you are unsure of what to use, choose Skip and Data Rescue will use a temporary location that will be erased once the computer restarts. This temporary location is stored in memory and will not affect any attached hard drives.

Choosing a Home Folder
Choosing a Home Folder

After clicking the OK button and Data Rescue has not been activated yet, an activation window will appear.

Data Rescue Activation Window
Data Rescue Activation Window

If you have a serial number, enter your name and serial number information and click on Activate to enable the full features of the software. If you are sampling Data Rescue, click on the Demo button. In Demo mode, Data Rescue will allow you to scan the drive, but you will only be able to recover one file of 10MB or less.

After the Activation window, you will be shown the Welcome window. The Welcome window provides quick access to commonly used features. Choose Start New Scan to begin scanning a drive. This will be the main option for the majority of users. If you have already completed a scan, you can choose Browse Completed Scans to go to the Scan Results and find files for recovering. Lastly, if you have a scan that was suspended (paused), you can resume it with the Resume Suspended Scan option.

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