Before starting checklist

ZAR has been discontinued

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.

1. Check that you have a known-good hard disk with enough free space on it.

WARNING: Never recover data to the damaged drive. Doing so will cause further filesystem damage. It is possible to recover data to a known-working partition on the same physical disk, but it does require special consideration.

2. Make sure that you understand volume locations. That means you should have clear understanding of the following question: "where is the damaged volume located? what size it was?".

3. You need administrative access to the computer in order to be able to access the disk(s) directly.

4. If physical damage is suspected, review the runtime control panel settings as described here.

5. Make sure there is no "hibernation" involved if you are moving undamaged disks around several machines. Ensure the machine is properly shut down before unplugging the good drive from it. This does not apply to the damaged drive. If the drive failed with a system in a hibernated state, attempting to complete a shutdown on it may actually make the things worse, so you should just take the drive as it is.