FAQ:


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How do I modify the INI file to add more 
file types?
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The easy way is to drop a KNOWN GOOD file 
onto the UNCHK program. UNCHK will 
automatically add an entry for that file 
type to the INI file. From then on, UNCHK 
will know how to recover files of that 
type (assuming the file type you dropped 
uses headers that are 3 bytes or longer!).

To manually edit the UNCHK.INI file, 
look in the same place as the UNCHK.EXE 
program file.

To add a file type to the INI file, you 
have to have a good example of the file 
type. Then open that file in Notepad (or 
whatever text or binary viewing program 
you have). Copy the first two characters 
and paste them into the appropriate spot 
in the INI file. For example, for a PDF 
file, you'd end up adding this to your 
INI file:

PDF=%P

Of course, you can add more characters 
if you're *sure* they will be in all 
files of that type:

PDF=%PDF

A slight complication arises because 
several file types share the same header! 
For example, Most Microsoft Office 
documents (doc, xls, ppt) share the same 
"ΠΟ" header. So you might end up doing 
this:

DOC=ΠΟ
XLS=ΠΟ
PPT=ΠΟ

What would happen here is if UNCHK detects 
a file with a ΠΟ header, it will generate 
three separate files. One with each 
extension. Obviously, only one of them can 
be correct! You'd just have to try opening 
them to see which one was real. Sorry 
there is no easier answer.

Same thing is true for programs. Exe 
(programs), scr (screensaver), dll, and ocx 
files (don't ask) all have an "MZ" header. 
So there's no way to tell them apart 
either. 

Of course, since UNCHK already looks for ΠΟ 
headers and names the files with a DOC 
extension, you could look for XLS or PPT 
files by simply renaming any found DOC files 
with an XLS or PPT extension and see if they 
open then. Easier than modifying the INI 
file in my opinion.


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Why can't I recover my file?
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1 - Your file may not be there. Maybe it 
was wiped out or key pieces of it were 
wiped out. 

2 - If your file is fragmented, UNCHK will 
only recover the first fragment. This is 
why you want to defragment your hard drive 
regularly! After you get the first 
fragment, you have to MANUALLY assemble 
pieces at random and check to see if you 
improved things. Then you have to hope 
you have a way to see incremental 
improvements. Even then, your task is one 
whose complexity is expressed with 
factorials. Two fragments (out of a 
hundred possible) might take an hour to 
sort through. Three fragments would take 
four days. Four fragments out of a 
hundred might take over a year. You see 
how fast this gets out of hand. If you're 
determined to try to reassemble fragmented 
files, here's how I do it. Use the COPY 
command with the /B
(binary) option to concatenate files:

copy /b file0099.jpg + file0001.chk test.jpg

The above would take the partially recovered 
file0099.jpg file and add the contents of 
file0001.chk to it, storing the result in 
test.jpg. You'd then have to try opening the 
test.jpg file to see if that helped. For a 
JPG or GIF picture, this usually means you 
can see more of the picture (assuming, of 
course, you use a viewer that will tolerate 
broken pictures). If it does help, then you 
keep the result and start copying other CHK 
files onto it's end to see if you can make 
your good part bigger. But MOST files won't 
open at all unless they are complete. For 
example, the slightest error in a Word 
document generates an error. In that case, 
you're down to trying to open all the CHK 
files in Notepad and looking at them, 
hoping you can see clues as to where they 
belong. Or you're down to random assembly.



3 - Just because UNCHK says it found a Word 
document doesn't mean it really is a Word 
document! UNCHK can be faked out by random 
data that just happens to be in the right 
(or wrong) place. The odds are around one 
in 65,536 if you use two bytes as a header 
identifier, but that assumes random data 
-- and nothing is truly random.

4 - Like I said in the first section: Maybe 
you detected the wrong file type. Maybe you 
are trying to recover a Word document, but 
it's actually an Excel file. UNCHK can't 
tell the difference. You can try forever 
and never get it to open in Word.

5 - Maybe your office file (Word, Excel, 
etc.) was recovered complete by UNCHK but 
is corrupted. In this case, I really con't 
help you. All I can suggest is to try 
the tools you can find at 
http://ref.officerecovery.com/?705549



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It says I am missing MSVBVM50!
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This is an installation issue! You need 
to download this file from Microsoft:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/MSVBVM50.EXE
Save it to a temporary spot and run it. 
It will install the Visual Basic 5 
run-time files you need. After you've 
finished the installation, you can delete 
the file you downloaded from Microsoft.


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http://www.ericphelps.com
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