Suggestions for Recuva :)

[redhawk]

I have some suggestions for Recuva:

 

- put "View Mode" options on the main window rather than just in "Options", "General" sometimes it's nice to switch between modes quickly.

- while previewing images add option to right click "copy to clipboard" the entire image (the same way as Firefox)

- add filter options so useless unrecoverable files are never listed or included as thumbnails.

- discard corrupted image files claimed as excellent they're technically damaged and should be labelled as so.

- do not include corrupted image files as thumbnails they're never going to be visible anyway.

- discard images files that have been simply moved to another location because they're not really deleted files.

- when typing in the filter box delay sorting the file list until typing stops after a few seconds (it makes Recuva run sluggish otherwise)

- date creation / date deletion and filesize filters to help locate specific files of interest.

- allow user definable file format headers or text search patterns so that "Deep Scan" may locate and recover lost data.

- allow files to be search if partition table is damaged / over written - currently Recuva will not "Deep Scan" under these conditions.

- rename deleted file names that are unrecoverable or when performing secure overwriting - leaving filenames unchanged can be just as incriminating as the files that had just been destroyed.

 

Richard S.

[Saad]

[BobDrivesTruck]

edit

[marmite]

I have some suggestions for Recuva ...

+1 - a well thought-out and practical set of functional and usability enhancements.

[^Bobby^]

Jeez, you hit almost every exact point I was going to make when I logged on today lol.

 

the one that I didn't see included is that if Recuva can find all of those files it would be nice to be able to "wipe" them clean. Restore them to another drive/folder and then "wiping" the contents of that folder is what came to mind. Great program!!

Now to find a good "wipe" program.

^Bobby^

[piriuser1]

When secure overwriting, consider the following suggestions:

1. renaming the file to random letters

2. renaming any directory the file is in, to random letters (or just notionally moving it to its own randomly-named dir off the root)

3. changing file size to 0

4. changing date to a fixed date

 

Other programs offer some of these features. Since Recuva can secure overwrite, might as well do those things too.

 

EDIT: I forgot to note that CCleaner does some of these things already (renames the file and directory to random combos of letters Z and ".")

EDIT 2: Although note that if there are nested dirs, it appears only the upper-most one gets renamed.)

- I also removed the name of a third party utility as unnecessary to this post.

[Armagetron]

I would suggest a more detailed sorting function for file extensions. You enter *.doc and all files with this extension were listed.

[Augeas]

Not that this is particularly on topic, but you already have that facility. Type *.doc or .doc (or whatever extension you are looking for) in the Filename/Path box and as if by magic your wish will be granted.

[ZackZeals]

- How about support for Linux, for any of your apps. or at least support ext file systems.

 

- What about an option to see all connected storage devices, not just mounted storage devices.

 

- What about the ability to fix file systems, something similar to the -f parameter with chkdsk in windows. or at least be able to check the file system integrity.

 

- What about being able to scan the drive and even files themselves for damaged or bad sectors, and even an option for recovery if any are found.

 

- GET RID OF THE Yahoo Toolbar OPTION!!!

[ZackZeals]

When you select a row or file in the list, make it highlight the entire row; Full-row select. This would make it much simpler to see what information is being viewed, especially when you cannot display the entire row length on the screen at once and you must scroll horizontally.

 

Make the application collapsable / minimizable when it is scanning so that it may be moved out of the way.

 

Add the ability to pause then start / resume again in the middle of a scan or process.

 

Make the columns re-organizable; simple drag-and-drop resort. This way you may list information in the rows in different orders. Also add the ability for it to save / remember the current settings for the column and sort orders so when the application is started again they do not have to be set again by the user.

[BloodSand]

- rename deleted file names that are unrecoverable or when performing secure overwriting - leaving filenames unchanged can be just as incriminating as the files that had just been destroyed.

 

Richard S.

I agree with you on the file names being left behind, that needs to be securely overwritten to.

I also think that a feature that would move files off of the space where a file is overwritten, so that it and it's file name can then be over securely overwritten, would be a great addition to the program. I got files from 2007 that can't be securely overwritten because they are overwritten with system files, and some I did overwrite but the file names remain.

[John G.]

I have some suggestions for Recuva:

 

Great suggestions here -- really like most of them!

 

- put "View Mode" options on the main window rather than just in "Options", "General" sometimes it's nice to switch between modes quickly.

 

Just to make sure you are aware, you can right-click on the results and quickly change modes without going to Options. Just FYI.

 

- add filter options so useless unrecoverable files are never listed or included as thumbnails.

- discard corrupted image files claimed as excellent they're technically damaged and should be labelled as so.

- do not include corrupted image files as thumbnails they're never going to be visible anyway.

- date creation / date deletion and filesize filters to help locate specific files of interest.

 

Indeed -- my biggest "wish it was better" situation for Recuva is when I am hunting for images in Thumbnail View. I SO wish that sorting worked even when in Thumbnail mode. I really, really want to be able to sort by file SIZE when in Thumbnail View -- I think this would help a lot with being able to quickly ignore fairly worthless images. And some of your suggestions would also help with that (i.e. just filter out all files under a specified size, for example -- or allow me to just hide all files where a thumbnail cannot be generated since there is little point to those files when in Thumbnail View).

 

- allow files to be search if partition table is damaged / over written - currently Recuva will not "Deep Scan" under these conditions.

 

Indeed -- the dreaded "unable to read boot sector" problem. I wish Recuva could just ignore that and read the entire disk -- ignoring partition information -- looking for possible files. Even if we had to specify some information (i.e. expected file structure and such) to help it along.

 

Great stuff -- thanks for suggesting many great ideas that I think lots of us would love to see!

 

- John...

[John G.]

Well, been a couple of years since I posted the above, so I thought that I'd stop by today to see if anything had been implemented... Is work like this still being done on Recuva? Any chance that we'd see some changes like these anytime soon? I'd really love to have some better options for the Thumbnail view when looking at images. Things such as:

 

1. Allow sorting while in Thumbnail View -- by size, for example, and also by creation/modified dates.

 

2. As suggested by someone else in this thread, allow a filter option to remove any images that don't see valid -- where there is "no preview available" -- so that we don't have to see thousands of boxes that say "no preview available" that are pretty worthless in Thumbnail view.

 

3. Tell Recuva to go ahead and continue pre-loading images in the Thumbnail View past the page that I am on! I want it to just go ahead and pre-load everything that it can, so that I can QUICKLY page through looking for images that are lost. Right now, you go to the next page, wait for it to load that page of images, then go to the next page, and wait again. I want it to just GO and pre-load ahead so that I can easily page through and view already rendered preview images.

 

And then, as an issue unrelated to Thumbnail View -- the ability to have Recuva go searching even if the partition table is corrupt and the "unable to read boot sector" problem occurs. Allow a Deep Scan anyhow if at all possible.

 

Thoughts? Any chance of this? Especially the Thumbnail View options?

 

- John...

[Super Fast]

+1

 

I agree with these suggestions. Especially Recover lost partitions.

 

Windows sees scrambled MFT partitions as "RAW". Recuva fails to see them as well. Handy Recovery can display & undelete every file in these "lost" partitions.

 

Hope to see Recuva support this as well!

[Augeas]

Although rare, it is quite legitimate to have image files without an embedded thumbnail.

[gibbylinks]

I would like it to work with "Portable Devices" e.g. My Sony Xperia mobile has built-in memory that appears under "Portable Devices", but can't be mapped with a drive letter. Recuva can't see it.

 

Thanks

[Andavari]

Can Windows even see it though, if not then how could Recuva see it.

[Super Fast]

Can Windows even see it though, if not then how could Recuva see it.

 

Easy.

 

Scrambled partitions are seen by Windows as RAW. Recuva also fails to see them. Handy Recovery can see & undelete every file in these "lost" partitions.

 

If Handy Recovery can, why not Recuva?

[bandcoach]

Only thing I would like to see added to Recuva is the ability to also sort on file type/extension.

 

Have just had a calamitous month with a fairly new WD 2tb drive that has developed several bad clusters, accidentally (autopilot thinking) overwrote part of the drive before doing a safety copy of several important files, now searching through 700K+ files to find the ones I need. .

 

Being able to do a sort on file extension without resorting to the search function would be a reasonable addition to the interface (only another column to add to the view structure)

[hazelnut]

Does this help at all?

 

http://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/using-recuva/advanced-mode/specifying-what-to-search-for

[Andavari]

Easy.

 

Scrambled partitions are seen by Windows as RAW. Recuva also fails to see them. Handy Recovery can see & undelete every file in these "lost" partitions.

 

If Handy Recovery can, why not Recuva?

 

Ah, I didn't know that about Windows seeing them as RAW. That Handy Recovery program is commercial though and costs $49.00, so I guess we can only expect so much for a freeware program however maybe Piriform will add the ability into Recuva at some point, fingers crossed.

[John G.]

Well, been a couple of years since I posted the above, so I thought that I'd stop by today to see if anything had been implemented... Is work like this still being done on Recuva? Any chance that we'd see some changes like these anytime soon? I'd really love to have some better options for the Thumbnail view when looking at images. Things such as:

 

1. Allow sorting while in Thumbnail View -- by size, for example, and also by creation/modified dates.

 

2. As suggested by someone else in this thread, allow a filter option to remove any images that don't see valid -- where there is "no preview available" -- so that we don't have to see thousands of boxes that say "no preview available" that are pretty worthless in Thumbnail view.

 

3. Tell Recuva to go ahead and continue pre-loading images in the Thumbnail View past the page that I am on! I want it to just go ahead and pre-load everything that it can, so that I can QUICKLY page through looking for images that are lost. Right now, you go to the next page, wait for it to load that page of images, then go to the next page, and wait again. I want it to just GO and pre-load ahead so that I can easily page through and view already rendered preview images.

 

I suggested the above about 3 years ago now -- and I'd STILL love to see them. I will gladly buy a Pro version of Recuva if it implemented even just ONE of the above 3 options. I pretty much use only the thumbnail view extensively and it could be SO much better with just a few tweaks!

 

- John...

[John G.]

Holy cow! I just got the latest version and noticed that it DOES now have a "sort" option in thumbnail view finally! Not sure when that appeared along the way -- but I thank you for adding it! Scratch #1 off of my list above!

 

And we kinda get #2 since you can "sort by State" -- although, then you can't sort on other things which kinda makes it useless to me. I'd much rather have a on/off/checkbox option for "display/hide 'no preview available'". But, with the sorting by size, it really doesn't matter to me that much.

 

Now if we can just get #3 in there -- so I don't have to wait for each page to load the thumbnails and can instead just let it background load and flip through them quickly, I'll be all set.

 

But, that being said, I said that I'd buy Pro if you did just ONE of the 3 -- and you clearly did! So, I'll stick to my word and be buying Pro within a few days! Thanks!

 

- John...