Cream of the Crop 21/Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso/virus/datarec2.zip/README.TXT

Text File | 1996-08-14 | 9KB | 251 lines

TIRAMISU - SOPHISTICATED DATA RECOVERY V2.0
(c) 1996 by Plug'n Play, Uwe Gissemann


INTRODUCTION

TIRAMISU is a software for reconstructing data from a crashed hard drive.
It helps when the drive is

    - hit by a virus
    - formatted
    - 'fdisk'ed
    - zapped by a power failure
    - damaged by applications

TIRAMISU scans the drive even when there are physical damages. The found
data are analyzed and reconstructed. TIRAMISU can handle drives without
readable boot sector, readable Fat or readable directories. It can
handle drives that are not recognized by DOS anymore.

TIRAMISU automatically creates a VIRTUAL DRIVE in memory. This virtual drive
looks like a usual file manager. You can see the lost directories and files
of your crashed drive. Now files and directories can be viewed and copied
to a safe medium.

The extensive use of our sophisticated pattern recognition technology
enables TIRAMISU to put the right pieces of data together again. Even
disks with very few administrative informations left can reach a high
recovery quality.
TIRAMISU recovers much more data than any other 'disk doctor'.

TIRAMISU is NON DESTRUCTIVE and READ ONLY. It does not put any data onto
your crashed drive. Recovered data are restored to another destination
(disk, diskette, network, interlink).

TIRAMISU works on DOS and Windows platforms. Better Windows95 support
has been added in version 1.03. Multi partition recovery has been added
in version 2.0.

A version for NOVELL is available too. A version for HPFS is under
development.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

- 286 processor and up
- 4 MB RAM and up

Depending on the size of the drive to be recovered we recommend a 486 with
8 MB RAM. Installing 5 MB of EMS (Version 4) is recommended.


GETTING STARTED

1) Boot diskette

Create a boot diskette with a CONFIG.SYS similar to this:

        files=25
        device=himem.sys
        device=emm386.exe

Make sure you have specified the correct drive parameters in BIOS setup.
Boot the computer and start the program TIRAMISU.EXE.


2) Specify swap area

By default TIRAMISU uses EMS as swap area. If for some reason there is
no or not enough EMS you can specify a swap area on disk.
Select OPTION -> DATA RECOVERY, tag 'DISK ALLOWED', specify path.
CAUTION: Do not swap to the drive you intend to recover.


3) Hit TIRAMISU! for the drive you want to recover.

TIRAMISU starts processing. Depending on your system's speed and the size
of your drive this can take 5 minutes or even up to 1 hour.


4) Copy some or all files to a safe medium using F7

Now you see the virtual drive and you can view and copy (registered
version only) the files to any DOS-available destination.

THAT'S IT! ISN'T IT EASY?


RESTRICTIONS

TIRAMISU handles only drives with 16-Bit Fats, which applies to most
systems. Only old (10 MB) drives have another Fat (12-Bit).

Since TIRAMISU is very memory hungry, your PC might run
out of memory. If you face this problem, install a memory manager with as
much RAM and EMS as possible.
Watch the available memory displayed at the bottom line. The value displayed
at the far right shows the free RAM. The E:XXX shows the free EMS and the
F:XXX shows the fragmentation.
The RAM should not go below 50000.


OPTIONS

There are several options you can change in the OPTIONS->DATA RECOVERY
screen.

- Swap Area
By default TIRAMISU stores memory intensive data in EMS. If your have no
or not enough EMS available you can allow swapping to a drive. Be sure to
choose a drive you are not just recovering.

- Excluded Main Directory Entries
This option tells TIRAMISU to ignore files entries that have been created
during a previous run of another disk doctor (Norton, Scandisk,...).

- Logging
Use this option to create a log file of TIRAMISU's processing. This might
be interesting for debug purposes.

- Automatic Identification
The first thing TIRAMISU does is to retrieve the original structure of
the file system: place of Fat1, Fat2, main directory, number of sectors
per cluster, number of clusters.
If you tag off this option TIRAMISU shows you what it thinks what kind
of file system it found. Usually you confirm this by pressing OK. If you
can not confirm the structure TIRAMISU found, you can continue the
identification procedure by pressing SEARCH AGAIN. After a while TIRAMISU
will make a new proposal.

- Start Identification At Sector X
By default TIRAMISU starts its identification procedure at sector 0.
However you might be interested in recovering another but the first
partition. Then you can enter a value in this field.
Example: Let's suppose you have a 600 MB drive with two partions (400 MB
and 200 MB). You want to recover the second (200 MB) partition. The first
partition uses 400 MB space on the hard drive. These are approximately
800000 sectors (one sector has 512 bytes). Consequently you should enter
the value 800000 in this field.
You should tag the "Automatic Identifation" off. So you can verify if
TIRAMISU retrieved the correct file system structure.

- Bad File Entry Acceptance
TIRAMISU uses statistical algorithms to decide if file entries are
included into the recovery process. If you set this option to 0
TIRAMISU is very strict. If you set it to 100 TIRAMISU is very loose.
50 is a good value. Increase it if you miss some files in the resulting
virtual drive. Decrease it if you get scrambled results.


TROUBLE SHOOTING

Sometimes you might think the computer is frozen and TIRAMISU is
crashed. Be patient! Some procedures might take up to one hour. If
TIRAMISU crashes you usually get an error code.

If you get only scrambled results this could be due to the TIRAMISU
drive structure recognition routine. Try this:
Select OPTION -> DATA RECOVERY, tag 'AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION' off.
Press TIRAMISU!. After a while you get a window that proposes a certain
drive structure. If you are not satisfied with what you see you can
press 'Search Again'. TIRAMISU tries to retrieve another structure.
Finally press 'Ok'.

You can change the Option "Bad file entry acceptance". 0% means a
very strong directory recognition routine. Use only if TIRAMISU crashes.
100% means a very loose directory recognition routine. Use if TIRAMISU
goes through but you miss some directories. 50% is a good standard value.

You should not use any other 'disk doctor' before running TIRAMISU. If you
did so, please 'undo'.
If you cannot 'undo' you can tell TIRAMISU to ignore the file entries
the 'disk doctor' created (something like FILE0000.CHK...).
Select OPTION -> DATA RECOVERY, modify the field 'Exclude Main
Directory Entries'.

Upload a new version from our Internet site (address below).

If you find any bugs, please send a description to one of the addresses
below.


REGISTRATION

TIRAMISU IS DISTRIBUTED AS SHAREWARE. FEEL FREE TO COPY, DISTRIBUTE OR
UPLOAD IT TO ANY MEDIUM. The unregistered version has all functions
for recovering your crashed hard drive. But only the registered version
of TIRAMISU allows you to COPY files from your recovered drive.

The registration fee is DM 145. (Equal to US $99)

The registration allows you to COPY recovered files for a PERIOD OF ONE
WEEK. In effect this is a PAY PER USE registration.

The procedure is this:

    - Run TIRAMISU and check if it can restore your data (VIEW your files)

    - Select HELP -> REGISTRATION. You see a 16- or 17-letter code.

    - Submit this code to the TIRAMISU registration service (preferably
      by fax, use the form you can find in REGISTER.TXT):

      Tel. [phone]       (Germany)
      Fax  [phone]
      Email [e-mail]
      http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/data_recovery

      Address:          Plug 'n Play
                        Uwe Gissemann
                        Scharnweberstr. 43
                        D-10247 Berlin
                        Germany

    - Send DM 145 (or US $99) or credit card information (VISA or DINERS).

    - The registration key will be forwarded to