Contacts and support

Company contacts

You can reach out to the developer of the UFS Explorer products using the contact form or by e-mail: info@sysdevlabs.com.

Frequently asked questions

In this section, you will find answers to the most common questions concerning the use of UFS Explorer. For any further information, you can write to the developer of the software.

Does the software modify the data on the source storage?

All the storages are opened in UFS Explorer in the read-only mode, thus, the software is unable to modify any data on them, whether explicitly or implicitly.

Will UFS Explorer restore any type of data?

You can use UFS Explorer to recover any type of files on supported storages, if they were not damaged beyond retrieval. However, it is important to keep in mind that the data in question must be present on the storage. For example, it is impossible to get back files that were overwritten with other data: by the system, shredding/wiping tools, low-level formatting and other operations. Also, under certain circumstances, the data may turn out to have never been written to storage, for instance, due to delayed writing that couldn’t be completed because of an unexpected problem.

Can I use UFS Explorer to fix my drive?

UFS Explorer falls within the category of data recovery software. It can analyze the storage, find the lost data and allows copying it to another storage device. It is not aimed to repair the structure of a storage or make any other modifications to its content. In general, it is unadvisable to use any "repair" tools, except when the required data has already been restored and saved to another location.

What quality of the recovery result can I expect?

The less writing occurs on the storage that keeps the lost information, the better quality of data recovery can usually be presumed, since it remains on the storage only until its space is used to place new data. Yet, the size of files and the amount of free space in general may also impact the chances to regain the data.

When parts of a larger file are scattered across the storage, there is a high probability that, at some point, it will become partially overwritten. Also, when the storage is running out of space, the system is very likely to use the vacant one to write new data.

Moreover, the success of data recovery depends substantially on the file system used on the storage, as different file system types employ different techniques to store, access and delete data from the storage device, providing more or fewer possibilities to restore the data.

What type of file system is applied on my storage?

If a file system is supported by UFS Explorer and wasn’t severely damaged, the partition on which it is used will be displayed in the storages navigation pane with a certain name. This name indicates the type of file system. For example, "NTFS partition" implies a partition with the NTFS file system.

Does UFS Explorer support an X file system?

The information about the file systems supported by different UFS Explorer products is available in their technical specifications. Also, you may check the support for the given storage by opening it in the trial version of the application.

How can I find the required partition in UFS Explorer?

Find the drive by its name or capacity. After that, look for a file system of a specific size or type listed under it. After that, you may open the file system in Explorer and make a decision based on the folders and files it contains.

Data is stored on software or hardware RAID which is not recognized by the operating system. How can it be accessed?

UFS Explorer RAID Recovery and UFS Explorer Network RAID support the reconstruction of RAID and build such arrays in a virtual mode for further data access. If the set wasn’t assembled automatically, it is possible to define its parameters manually via RAID Builder. The parameters that were detected incorrectly can also be modified using the "Edit RAID configuration" option.

The initial RAID configuration present on the drives/controller cannot be overwritten by the program, so you may perform as many attempts as you need to build the storage correctly.

My disk image file has been split into many fragments. How can I access the data on it?

The fragments of the disk image file can be combined using RAID Builder. Open the component, add the fragment files to the array in the correct order, and choose the "Span of storages" option for the "RAID level" property in the "Virtual RAID Configuration" pane. The assembled spanned storage will correspond to the complete disk image file and can be processed in UFS Explorer.

There are bad clusters on the drive. How can the data be read?

If the data is valuable, it is advisable to contact a data recovery service laboratory. If the data costs less than the data recovery service fee, or you have the required skills for handling defective drives, you may use the software to attempt data recovery. Anyway, it is strongly recommended to create a disk image file from such a drive using the Disk Imager mechanism and operate with this image in place of the source storage. If there are file system errors, it is advisable to use the file system reconstruction tools of UFS Explorer.

My external drive was not detected by the program, what should I do?

First of all, use the "Refresh" function to make UFS Explorer update the information about the devices that were connected recently. Next, check the data cable connection type and ensure that there is enough external power for the drive (e.g. 3.5' drives cannot be powered via USB). If possible, try using a neighboring slot.

After that, make sure the operating system can recognize the drive as a device.

In Windows, right click "Computer" and choose "Manage". Go to "Storage" and then "Disk management". As an alternative, you may open the Run command window by pressing the Windows Key + R. After that, type in diskmgmt.msc and hit the Enter key to launch Disk Management. Make sure that the drive is listed.

In Linux and macOS, there is "Disk utility" in the system applications section that can be used for the same purpose.

Important: If you have connected a drive from another OS to the computer running Windows, it may ask for "activation". Decline this prompt to prevent data loss.

The OS recognizes my external drive, but UFS Explorer doesn't. What should I do next?

Make sure that you start the software using the local administrator account. This is required to access physical drives.

If other drives (except the required one) are detected, this may indicate a bad cluster on sector 0 of the drive.

UFS Explorer doesn’t detect my system drive under macOS. What can I do?

If the software has been launched from the local administrator user account, but is unable to detect the internal storage device, ensure that your Mac doesn’t use the Apple M1 or T2 security chip. On such systems, data can be recovered only from external storage media. If not, you can try one of the following measures:

• In macOS 10.13 High Sierra and later, disable System Integrity Protection (SIP), the feature that prevents third-party applications from accessing the system disk.
• Alternatively, if the configuration of your Mac permits, extract the drive and attach it to another computer as a secondary storage. For this, you may employ an external hard drive enclosure.
• You may also boot your Mac using UFS Explorer Backup and Emergency Recovery CD. However, you should mind that saving the recovered data in the software running from a Live CD requires a Linux license for UFS Explorer (if the sizes of files exceed the trial limitations).