Disk Commander

User's Guide

Disk Commander
Users Guide

Winternals Software LP 3101 Bee Caves Road, Suite 150 Austin, Texas 78746 (512) 330-9130 (512) 330-9131 Fax www.winternals.com

Copyright 2001 Winternals Software LP

Disk Commander

Table of Contents
1 2 3 4 Introduction................................................................................... 1 Requirements................................................................................ 2 Licensing....................................................................................... 3 Installation .................................................................................... 4
4.1 4.2 4.3 Version Overview...........................................................................4 License Information........................................................................5 Selecting a Version to Run.............................................................6

Win32 Version............................................................................... 7
5.1 5.2 Setup .............................................................................................7 Floppy Disk Creation and Use........................................................8

ERD Version.................................................................................. 9
6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Setup .............................................................................................9 Windows NT/2000 Installation CD-ROM ......................................10 FAT32 Support ............................................................................11 Service Pack Upgrade .................................................................12 OEM Drivers ................................................................................13 Floppy and CD-ROM Creation .....................................................14 Creating a Golden Hawk Bootable CD-ROM................................16

DOS Version................................................................................ 20
7.1 7.2 Setup ...........................................................................................20 DOS Floppy Disk Creation ...........................................................21

Using Disk Commander ............................................................. 22

8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 8.10 Selecting a Drive Letter to Recover..............................................23 Target Disk ..................................................................................25 Lost Volume Scan........................................................................26 Partition Table Backup .................................................................27 Volume Recovery.........................................................................28 Operations on Individual Partitions...............................................30 Operations on Entire Disk ............................................................31 Salvaging Files ............................................................................32 Salvaged Files .............................................................................33 Notes: ..........................................................................................34

Technical Support ...................................................................... 35

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Introduction
Welcome to Winternals Softwares Disk Commander. Disk Commander helps you recover data from drives that have become corrupt or inaccessible. With Disk Commander you can access files on FAT, FAT32 and NTFS volumes that have been deleted, damaged or reformatted. You can also repair certain types of partition table, MBR and boot sector errors that are often caused by viruses. Disk Commander also allows you to recover

deleted files, even those not saved in your Recycle Bin.

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Requirements
Disk Commander requires a Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 system for installation and setup, but it can be used to access data on a variety of systems. For maximum flexibility and access, Disk Commander is able to operate in three different environments, Win32, DOS and ERD: The Win32 version is ideal for situations where the damaged volume is part of an otherwise working system. It runs on Windows 95, 98 and Me and also on Windows NT 4.0 and 2000. The DOS version can be used on systems that have been rendered unbootable and must be booted from a floppy. It runs on MS-DOS 6.22 or higher. The ERD (Emergency Repair Disk) version runs from a set of Windows NT/2000 boot floppy disks and allows access to drives using SCSI, RAID and Windows NT/2000 volume sets found on many enterprise systems. It uses boot diskettes created from a Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 system.

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Licensing
Disk Commander is licensed by Administrative User. Purchase of a license permits one administrator to use this product to install and run one copy of the software to access an unlimited number of systems. If several people wish to use the software a separate license must be purchased for each individual. For additional information on licensing see the license agreement included with the software or contact [email protected]

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Installation
4.1 Version Overview
Disk Commander can be configured to run directly off your systems hard disk, by booting from floppy disk(s) or by booting from a CD-ROM. It also runs in Win32, DOS and ERD environments. You must run the Disk Commander Setup Wizard (figure 4-1) to select the environment and boot options you wish to use. The Setup Wizard allows you to select which

version of Disk Commander to run (Win32, DOS or ERD) and how you will run it.

Figure 4-1

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4.2 License Information

You must have a valid license key issued by Winternals Software (or your reseller) in order to run Disk Commander. Your license key will be requested the first time you run the Setup Wizard on a system. Type or paste your license key into the text box (figure 4-2), or use Browse button to locate and open the file containing the information.

Figure 4-2

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4.3 Selecting a Version to Run

Disk Commander runs in Win32, DOS and ERD versions. Use Table 4-1 to help you decide which version is best for you:
Supports long file names? Yes Supports partition repair? No Supports NTFS, volume sets, and SCSI/RAID hardware? Only if supported by the underlying OS. Yes

Runs from: Current hard disk Floppy disk (not bootable) Emergency Set of boot floppies Repair Bootable CD-ROM Disk (ERD) DOS DOS boot floppy Regular floppy disk Version: Win32 Table 4-1

Yes

Yes

8.3 names only

Yes

No Only if device supports DOS

Select the version you wish to run. You may create installations for multiple versions by running the Setup Wizard again (Figure 4-3).

Figure 4-3

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Win32 Version
5.1 Setup
The Win32 version runs on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. If the data you are recovering is on the system on which you are running the Setup Wizard (Figure 5-1) you can select the Run Disk Commander now option and begin work immediately. Otherwise, select the Copy Disk Commander to a floppy option, which will create a floppy disk from which you may run Disk Commander on the system containing the lost data.

Figure 5-1

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5.2 Floppy Disk Creation and Use

The Setup Wizard (Figure 5-2) will prompt you for the floppy on which to install Disk Commander. Once it has finished creating the floppy disk, take the disk to the system you wish to recover, insert the floppy in the drive, click the Start button, select Run, and type DskCmW32.EXE in the Open text box. Disk Commander must run from the floppy disk on the system you wish to recover; you cannot copy it to the hard disk.

Figure 5-2

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ERD Version
6.1 Setup
The ERD version can run either from a set of boot floppies or from a bootable CD-ROM that you burn yourself. (Figure 6-1) If you elect to boot from floppy disks you will need 4 blank diskettes if you are creating an installation for Windows NT 4.0, and 5 blank diskettes if you are creating an installation for Windows 2000. You can also elect to create a bootable CD-ROM. In order to use this option you must have a CD-Writer and appropriate CD-ROM burning software. The software must support the creation of bootable CD-ROMs that use a Custom boot record. (We recommend Golden Hawk's CRDWIN:

www.goldenhawk.com). Creating a bootable CD-ROM will allow you to boot Disk Commander more quickly than when booting from floppy disks.

Figure 6-1

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6.2 Windows NT/2000 Installation CD-ROM

The ERD Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) version of Disk Commander requires that you have the installation CD-ROM (or equivalent files) for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000. This is the CD-ROM that you use to initially install Windows NT or Windows 2000. The Setup Wizard (Figure 6-2) will attempt to locate the required installation files itself by looking on your CD-ROM drive. If your installation files are located elsewhere you can indicate their location by specifying the path to the I386 directory. Because the format of the NTFS file system changed with the release of Windows 2000 you should match the version of the installation files with the version of the system being recovered. Table 6-1 shows how to ensure compatibility between the versions.
If the system you are recovering is: Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 Windows NT 2000 Table 6-1 You may use a Windows NT/2000 installation CD-ROM that is: Windows NT 4.0, any version Windows NT 4.0, SP 4 or later; Windows 2000

Note that if your installation CD-ROM is NT 4.0 SP4-SP6 then you can use the resulting setup with either Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000.

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6.3 FAT32 Support

If you are creating a Windows NT 4.0 installation and installing onto floppy diskettes you have the option of including support for accessing FAT32 volumes (see Figure 6-3). FAT32 volumes are used by Windows 95/98/ME and Windows 2000, but are not normally accessible from Windows NT 4.0. If you are creating a CD-ROM or hard disk installation then support for FAT32 is always enabled automatically. When you are installing onto a set of floppy disks the additional driver required for FAT32 support will require you to insert two of the boot diskettes an extra time, prolonging the boot process. (If you are performing a Windows 2000 installation you will not see this screen.)

Figure 6-3

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6.4 Service Pack Upgrade

If you are creating a Windows NT 4.0 installation you have the option of updating the installation with a Service Pack (see Figure 6-4). Using Service Pack 4 or higher will enable Disk Commander to access IDE drives that are 8GB and larger (see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q197667). Service Pack 4 also includes an updated NTFS driver that allows Disk Commander to access NTFS volumes on Windows 2000 systems. If you have the Service Pack on CD-ROM you can simply browse to the I386 directory of the CD-ROM. If you downloaded the Service Pack and have it in compressed format, select the "Extract Service Pack to Folder..." button and the service pack files will be extracted for you. Then select the folder to which you extracted the files. (If you are performing a Windows 2000 installation you will not see this screen.)

Figure 6-4

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6.5 OEM Drivers

If you work with systems that use SCSI adapters that Windows NT/2000 does not natively support (i.e., hardware that requires additional drivers to be added for Windows NT/2000 to use it) then you can add those OEM drivers to Disk Commander (See Figure 6-5). To add an OEM driver, simply enter the path to the driver (the driver file should end in .SYS) or browse to it, and press the Add button. If you are installing Disk Commander onto floppy disks then adding additional drivers may cause Disk Commander to request you to insert the floppy disks additional times during the boot process.

Figure 6-5

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6.6 Floppy and CD-ROM Creation

The final phase of installation is copying the Disk Commander files to the floppy disk or CD-ROM image directory. 6.6.1 Floppy Installation

If you are creating a floppy disk installation you will be prompted for each floppy disk in turn (see figure 6-6). Label the disks Disk Commander Disk #1, #2, etc. When the diskettes have been created you can boot a system from them by inserting diskette #1 into the floppy drive and resetting the system.

Figure 6-6

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6.6.2

CD-ROM installation

If you are creating a CD-ROM installation you will be prompted for a directory into which the CD-ROM image should be copied (see figure 6-7). Once completed, use your CD-Writer software to burn the CD-ROM image. When you create the CD-ROM, be certain to follow these directions carefully, or the CD-ROM will not be bootable:
1. Add the image directory to the CD-ROM. When the CD-ROM is burned the \i386 directory should be in the root directory of the CD-ROM (i.e., F:\i386). Use the ISO 9660 file system (NOT Joliet). Mark the CD-ROM as bootable. Use the file BOOTSECT.BIN as the boot sector Image. Set Media Emulation to 'custom'. Set Load Sector Count to '4'. Set Load Segment to 07C0 (hex). Enable copying of Hidden and System files. Disable version numbers. Disable preservation of full path names.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Warning: Most commercial CD writing packages do not contain all of the features required to create a Windows NT/2000 bootable CD-ROM. One that does is Golden Hawks (www.goldenhawk.com) CDRWIN package. (Golden Hawk offers a full-feature demo version you can download free of charge that is sufficient for creating bootable CD-ROMs).

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6.7 Creating a Golden Hawk Bootable CD-ROM

The following steps guide you through the configuration of Golden Hawk's CDRWIN product for creating a bootable CD-ROM that runs the ERD version of Disk Commander. 6.7.1 Obtaining CDRWIN

Golden Hawk (www.goldenhawk.com) offers a full-feature demo version you can download free of charge that is sufficient for creating bootable CD-ROMs. 6.7.2 Configuring CDRWIN

When you run CDRWIN you are presented with the following window. Click on the tools button to open the CD-burning configuration dialog (Figure 6-8).

Figure 6-8

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If you have downloaded the free version of CDRWIN a dialog will appear that informs you that CD-burning operations proceed at 1x speed. The configuration dialog (Figure 6-9), will then appear.

Figure 6-9

First, enter the path to the directory in which you stored Disk Commander's CD-ROM files, either by typing it in or by dragging the folder from Explorer, into the File Backup List. Next, enter the name of the CD image file you will create in the Image Filename entry in the ISO9660 Image File area. Note that the name you assign is not important and that you will need approximately 10 MB of free space on the drive where you store the image file. You can delete the file after you have burned a CD. Click on the Advanced Options button and

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ensure that Use ISO9660 text for Joliet volume descriptor is unchecked (Figure 6-10).

Figure 6-10

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Click on the Bootable Disc tab and configure the dialog box as shown in Figure 6-11: Check Make Bootable Disc Set Media Emulation Type to Custom In the Image File Name field enter the path to the BOOTSECT.BIN file in the Disk Commander CD-ROM image directory Set the Load Segment field to 07C0 Set the Load Sector Count to 4

Figure 6-11

Dismiss the dialog by clicking OK, insert a blank CD-R disk into your CD burner, and then press Start on the right side of the File Backup and Tools dialog. Once your Disk Commander CD is created and you use it to run Disk Commander from CD on unbootable systems that support booting from CDROMs.
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DOS Version
7.1 Setup
The DOS version runs on MS-DOS 6.22, MS-DOS 7.0 (the version of DOS found on Windows 95/98/ME), and DR-DOS 7.0. If you do not have a bootable DOS floppy you wish to use then select the Create a new DOS boot floppy option (see figure 7-1) and your diskette will be formatted with DOS automatically, along with the necessary Disk Commander files. Warning: All files on the diskette will be lost. Otherwise, select the Copy Disk Commander to an existing floppy option to have the Disk Commander files added to a floppy disk you have prepared yourself.

Figure 7-1

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7.2 DOS Floppy Disk Creation

The Setup Wizard will prompt you for the floppy on which to install Disk Commander (see figure 7-2). Once it has finished creating the floppy disk, take the disk to the system you wish to recover and reboot the system. If you have created a new boot floppy Disk Commander will start automatically. Otherwise type DskCmDOS at the prompt to start Disk Commander.

Figure 7-2

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Using Disk Commander

You can use Disk Commander to:
Salvage files from a volume that your operating system is having trouble accessing. Salvage files from a volume that your operating system does not recognize or provide a drive letter for. Recover deleted files. Repair volumes that have been damaged by a virus or been accidentally deleted by FDISK or the Windows Disk Administrator.

Disk Commander consists of a Wizard that guides you through the recovery process (Figure 8-1). Warning: Some features of Disk Commander allow you to modify your disk in ways that can potentially damage or render your volumes inaccessible. Because all volumes on a disk share the same partition table it is possible that changes to one volume can impact other volumes on the disk. It is highly recommended that you use a conventional back up program to preserve as much of your data as possible before using Disk Commander to perform repairs.

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8.1 Selecting a Drive Letter to Recover

If the data you wish to recover is on a volume that is relatively intact and has a drive letter assigned to it, then you can select that drive letter (see Figure 82) and go directly to recovering files. If it does not have a drive letter assigned then there are several additional steps needed for Disk Commander to locate the partition. The version of Disk Commander you are running impacts which volumes may be recognized, since drive letter assignments are performed by the underlying operating system rather than Disk Commander. Therefore, if you are running the DOS version of Disk Commander, or the Win32 version on a Windows 9x/Me system, you will not be able to directly select NTFS volumes. Similarly a Windows NT 4.0 system will not normally recognize FAT32 volumes. Warning: If you are running the DOS or ERD versions of Disk Commander, then the drive letter assignments may be different than what Windows assigns. Please carefully examine the sizes and labels of all of the drives before making a selection. If you select a drive letter then you will be able to salvage files from the volume, but not make any kinds of repairs (normally if the volume is assigned a drive letter, then there are no further repairs that Disk Commander can perform). If you wish to make repairs to the partition then indicate the volume does not have a drive letter. By selecting a drive letter here you advance straight to the Salvage Files screen.

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Figure 8-2

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8.2 Target Disk

If the volume you are interested in was not assigned a drive letter, or you elected not to use the letter assigned, then you must help Disk Commander to locate the volume (see figure 8-3). Select which physical hard disk that contains the volume you need to recover files from.

Figure 8-3

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8.3 Lost Volume Scan

Disk Commander will always look at the partitions defined in the partition table for the disk you have selected, but it can also perform an exhaustive scan of your disk attempting to locate volumes that do not appear in your partition table (see Figure 8-4). The exhaustive scan takes a long time to perform and is usually not necessary to recover your data. You may want to skip the scan initially and see if Disk Commander can locate your volume without it. If it cannot, then back up your data and perform the scan. After you perform a scan Disk Commander will save the results in a file so you do not have to perform the scan again, even if you exit and restart the program.

Figure 8-4

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8.4 Partition Table Backup

Because Disk Commander allows you to modify your partition table, you may want to create a back up of the information stored there. Disk Commander allows you to back up the partition table entries, as well as the boot sectors of each of your partitions, and save them to a file (see Figure 8-5). The back up file can be stored in the Disk Commander installation directory (if running from a floppy disk it will be stored on the floppy disk) or on a floppy disk you designate. You can use the back up to restore your partition table and boot sectors in the event that your changes cause additional problems with your system.

Figure 8-5

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8.5 Volume Recovery

The Recover Volume screen is the main screen for analyzing and modifying your disk (see figure 8-6). This screen displays information about your disk in several ways. The top most pane shows the layout of partitions on your disk. Every disk starts with a Master Boot Record (MBR) shown in red, followed by one or more partitions and extended partitions. NTFS volumes are shown in blue, while FAT volumes are shown in green. Extended boot records (used to delineate logical volumes) are shown in yellow. The middle pane shows volumes that were discovered by Disk Commander while scanning your disk. (If you elected not to perform a disk scan on the Lost Volume Scan screen then this area will not be shown.) Some of the volumes in this area may overlap your regular volumes; these may be remnants of volumes created and then deleted at some point in the past. You may also see volumes that seem to be identical to existing volumes, but there is a slight difference: these volumes are shown because they can be mounted using an alternate boot sector. If the regular boot sector for a volume has been corrupted you can use this backup version of the partition to repair or salvage data in the original. The bottom pane provides a summary of all the displayed volumes. It first lists the regular volumes, followed by lost volumes. Clicking an entry in the top or middle pane will automatically select the corresponding entry in the bottom pane, and vice versa. You can select a volume and press the Details button to obtain additional information about the volume youve selected.

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Regular volumes indicated by the partition table.

Lost volumes discovered while scanning the disk.

Details of regular and lost volumes.

Figure 8-6

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8.6 Operations on Individual Partitions

There are three operations you can perform on individual partitions: Salvage files Create a partition entry Remove a partition entry The Salvage Files option allows you to view the files located on volume and copy them to a safe location. This option does not make any changes to your disk, so you can use it safely without worrying about causing further damage to your system. This operation can be performed on either a regular volume or a lost volume. It is recommended that you use this option to ensure your data is safe before attempting to repair your disk using another option. The Create Entry option is available only for lost volumes. This option adds the selected volume to your partition table, so the next time you boot, it will be accessible using a drive letter. In order to use this option there cannot be any existing volumes that occupy the same region of the disk. Warning: Be extremely careful that you know what you are doing before removing a partition in order to replace it with another. It is highly recommended that you create a back up of your partition table (see Partition Table Backup) and a regular backup of your entire system before performing this operation. The Remove Entry option removes a partition from your partition table. This option is extremely dangerous, and can cause you to lose data and prevent your system from booting. You should only remove a partition table entry if you are certain the partition does not contain useful data, and in order to replace it with a different partition that does. Warning: Be extremely careful you know what you are doing before removing a partition in order to replace it with another. It is highly recommended you create a back up of your partition table (see Partition Table Backup) and a regular backup of your entire system before performing this operation.

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8.7 Operations on Entire Disk

There are two operations you can perform that affect your entire disk: Rewrite MBR Restore Backup The Rewrite MBR option rewrites the code in your Master Boot Record. This code is responsible for detecting which partition is the active partition, reading the boot sector for that partition and transferring control to operating system installed on it. If your system is able to boot even part way it is probably not necessary to rewrite the MBR. You will need to rewrite the MBR if it has been damaged by a virus or through inappropriate use of the FDISK program. Warning: Rewriting the MBR may cause boot managers that allow booting multiple operating systems to stop working. Be careful to use this option only if necessary. The Restore Backup option restores your partition table using the back up made with the Partition Table Backup screen. This option replaces all partition table entries and boot sectors for all volumes with those saved during the back up. Warning: Do not use this option if you have used another program (such as Partition Magic) to modify your partition table since the last back up. Doing so could damage and/or make all of your partitions inaccessible.

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8.8 Salvaging Files

Use the Salvage Files option to scan a partition for files that reside on it, and to copy those files to a safe location (see Figure 8-7). Disk Commander allows you to scan for either regular files (including files that have been damaged or rendered inaccessible by disk corruption), or for files that have been accidentally deleted. After you select the type of files you wish Disk Commander to look for it may take several minutes to scan the volume.

Figure 8-7

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8.9 Salvaged Files

Once Disk Commander has finished scanning your volume for files it presents an Explorer-like view of the files and directories it has found. In order to copy one or more files off of the corrupt volume: Click on a file or directory icon. Press the (De)Select button to mark the file/directory. A black check mark on a file or directory icon indicates that it is marked to be salvaged. A gray check mark on a directory icon indicates that some of the files it contains are marked to be salvaged. Mark all files and directories you wish to salvage. You can unmark a marked file/directory by pressing the (De)Select button again. Type the path of a directory on an intact volume to which you wish to copy the marked files/directories, or use the Browse button to select one. If you wish for Disk Commander to preserve the directory structure of the files being copied, then ensure that Preserve Paths is checked. Otherwise no directories will be created when the files are copied. Press Next to begin copying files. Once you have copied files off the volume you can exit Disk Commander, or return to this screen to copy additional files.

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8.10 Notes
Salvaging a file may fail because the file is corrupt, or because the destination is not accessible (marked read-only, etc.). After copying files and returning to this screen your selections are not automatically cleared. Select the root folder and pre (De)Select twice to clear all of you selections. Use the Search button to search for files or directories by name. Disk Commander will search for any file or directory whose name contains the text you enter. The use of wild cards in your search is not supported by Disk Commander. If a file is deleted it will be marked with a red X. If a file or directory is found but it cannot be determined which directory it belongs to (possibly because the parent directory is destroyed) then it is placed in a directory labeled <orphan> and marked with X. It is possible for there to be multiple orphan directories, each corresponding to a different directory that no longer exists.

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Technical Support
If you encounter a problem with Disk Commander wish to receive technical support, please e-mail us at:

[email protected]
You can also view our Frequently Asked Questions and download free updates from our web site at:

http://www.winternals.com
For urgent matters, please call the following number and request Technical Support:

512-330-9861
Please have the following information available: The version of Disk Commander you are running Operating system on which you are running Disk Commander. The actions that lead to the problem. Your Disk Commander license number

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