Installation and hardware requirements

CnW data recovery software will operate on any modern PC running Windows 2000, Windows XP (home user and professional), Vista or Windows 7. Minimum hardware is as follows. Most machines, including laptops, less than 5 years old will be fully compatible

512MB RAM or better (1GB or more prefered)

Processor 1.5GHz or better (2GHz prefered)

20MB disk space for program installation

Available disk space to match the capacity of the media being restored

Interface to media being restored – typically USB v2.0 Version 1 is extremely slow

USB card reader to read camera memory chips

Interface for media to be recovered

       For hard drives, an external USB case is good

       For laptop drives, a 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor ir required, or a USB case

       CD/DVD, a suitable RW drive, typically USB based.

When using external drives, do ensure there is always good cooling - a drive fan is an easy solution, or a case with a large built in fan.

NEVER LOAD CnW RECOVERY SOFTWARE OR ANY OTHER RECOVERY SOFTWARE ON TO HARD DRIVE THAT HAS FAILED OR BECOME CORRUPTED. IT CAN LEAD TO MAKING A RECOVERY IMPOSSIBLE, OR LOSING MORE DATA THAN NECESSARY. Please read  What to do when media has failed for more details

Vista

With Vista it is necessary to run in Administrator mode (in order to access physical drives). When the program is started, the UAC message box is displayed, and has to be accepted.

How to load the software

To load the software, run the ‘CnWIinstall.msi’ program downloaded from www.cnwrecovery.com. ; Normally the default settings will be fine. The default instalation directory is

c:\Program Files\CnW Recovery\CnW

but this may be changed if required. The important files that are restored are cnw.exe and cnw.hlp.  There is also a subdirectory with sample File Selection files

If a SCSI device is to be used, then a SCSI adapter card has to be installed, and the manufacturers device drivers loaded.  CnW Recovery does not use ASPI, although the program works when ASPI has been installed

How to update CnW Recovery software

The software stored on the web site  (www.cnwrecovery.com/html/downloads.html) is always the current, most upto date version. The demo software, and production software are identical, but are controlled by the registration key. To upgrade the software to the latest version, download from the web, and install as above.

Hardware setup

The hardware setup can be quite varied.  The, most important point to note is that CnW Recovery software works by recovering files to a different drive, rather than trying to restore files to the original drive..  The next section Media detection gives details of each type of media.