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CodingJeffRoblox edited this page Sep 23, 2026 · 1 revision

FAQ

Does ByteRescue guarantee it can recover my files?

No. ByteRescue is intentionally conservative about recovery claims — it does not guarantee recovery of every file type, filesystem, or deleted file. Signature and text-pattern carving are best-effort methods; a match is not a guarantee of a complete, undamaged file. See Recovery Signatures for what each format's "verified" vs. "unverified" actually means.

Does it support NTFS or exFAT?

Not yet for filesystem-aware recovery ("Recover by File System" mode) — only FAT12/16/32 is implemented. Selecting that mode against an NTFS/exFAT volume reports a clear error instead of silently finding nothing. The other three recovery modes (signature, text, deep/raw scan) work on raw bytes regardless of filesystem, since they never read a filesystem's own metadata. See Supported File Systems.

Can ByteRescue recover data from an SSD after it's been TRIM'd?

No — and nothing else can either, once the underlying flash has actually been erased by TRIM. This is a hardware/firmware-level limitation, not something any recovery software can work around.

Does ByteRescue write anything to the drive I'm recovering from?

No. It's a read-oriented tool. Analysis and the Hex Viewer are strictly read-only, and recovered files are always written to a separate destination you choose — never back to the source. The Recovery Center warns you if your chosen destination is on the same physical drive as the source.

Is ByteRescue a forensic tool I can use for legal evidence?

Not as-is. ByteRescue does read-only analysis but does not currently implement forensic-grade acquisition (hashed imaging, chain-of-custody tracking, write-blocking enforcement). For legal cases, consult a digital forensics professional.

Can it recover files from a RAID array?

No — there's no RAID metadata parsing or member reconstruction. Complex RAID configurations need specialized tools.

Why does "Recover by File System" mark some results as lower confidence?

FAT deletes a file's cluster chain from the FAT table, not just its directory entry, so a deleted file's later clusters are often already gone even when its name/size/start-cluster survive. ByteRescue assumes contiguous allocation for multi-cluster deleted files (the same approach classic FAT-undelete tools use) and labels every such result as an assumption with lower confidence. Single-cluster files need no such assumption and are marked High confidence. See Supported File Systems.

What does "verified" vs. "unverified" mean for a recovered file?

Verified means the recovered item's end offset was proven from the format's own structure (an exact length field, a checksummed footer, or a fully walked container/section table). Unverified means no reliable end marker exists for that format, so a size cap was used instead — treat it as a guess. See the full breakdown in Recovery Signatures.

Does a successful "signature match" mean the file is intact?

No. Every recovered item also gets a separate structural validation pass (Passed / Partial / Failed / Unknown) using a real parser for its format (Pillow, zipfile, sqlite3, wave, gzip decompression). A signature match alone is never reported as a successful recovery.

What platforms does ByteRescue support?

Windows only, currently. Linux and macOS support is listed as a future consideration in Contributing.

Where do I report a bug or ask for a feature?

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