Background on Z-A Photo Recovery

After about twenty years, I felt ZAR can no longer be updated to match the modern requirements, and I decided to retire it.

ZAR is replaced by Klennet Recovery, my new general-purpose DIY data recovery software.

If you are looking specifically for recovery of image files (like JPEG, CR2, and NEF), take a look at Klennet Carver, a separate video and photo recovery software.

With the exceptions listed on the IR system requirements page, the honest answer is: "We have no foggiest idea".

Image recovery process was designed to get all the files of any type it knows off any accessible media. That means you need two conditions fulfilled:

1. File type (format) must be known
2. Media (typically a flash card) must be accessible

If your digital camera (or the other media, see below) matches these criteria, you will most likely get your images back.

If you can't get the results, this is most likely due to the problem with the above requirements.

If the flash card (media) is inaccessible you will be certainly aware of that. This is when you cannot find your memory card in the list, or the program hangs/crashes when attempting to scan the media. You need your memory card to be presented as a logical drive (with a drive letter like D: or E:) in your system in order for ZAR photo recovery to read it.

If your camera does not normally show its contents as a logical drive, you will need a card reader device. You may get it from your friend if you don't have one, as we found (to our surprise) that most people who take digital photography seriously have one anyway.

Generally, using a card reader device under Windows 2000 or XP should solve nearly any problem you may have accessing your memory card.

If you see that ZAR accesses the media successfully but still no photos are recovered, there is a chance that file format is not recognized. First of all check IR system requirements page to see if your particular camera model is listed as incompatible/irrecoverable. If it is, we cannot help you. This means we have already worked with this camera and were unable to provide any solution (i.e. bad things do happen). 

The incompatible devices list is sometimes revised, but that does not happen often.

There are just too many cameras out there for us to test them all. They use different file formats and different variations of the same format. We rely on you to get samples of the files so we can adjust the program to understand the particular format or variation. If you feel the data can be recovered but ZAR fails, feel free to submit your request on the support page with the following details:

1. Exact camera model
2. Exact operating system in use (Click Start -- Control Panel -- System to see full details).
3. The details on the access method (card reader used or not).

The camera compatibility list (here) is created and maintained based on your feedback. If you don't see your camera listed, this means no one had tried it yet, or no one emailed us their results. So rather than asking us if ZAR photo recovery will work with your camera you'd better try it yourself. Remember that most likely we do not know it anyway.

ZAR can also be used with the devices other than a digital camera. For example, one of our users reported a successful ZIP disk recovery. However, the following limitations apply:

• No access method for floppy drives - the disk I/O library is specifically designed to ignore them.
• No access method for CDs - the disk I/O library does not know how to handle them (a while ago there was an idea that implementing a CD reader would be nice, but it died because of perceived lack of user interest).
• Attempting to get all images off the hard disk is probably not a good idea. There probably will be just too many of them. If you ever try image recovery in such a fashion, make sure images are being saved to another hard disk, otherwise an infinite loop will occur or the disk ends up filled with copies of the same image.