DriveLook is free forensic data recovery software for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. DriveLook is able to scan a local drive, remote drive or drive image for any set of words you choose and display the results, along with their surrounding text. In an article about the program titled “Forensic Data Recovery Softare”, tech blog gHacks says:
The forensic software will scan a selected hard drive, partition, logical drives, network drives or images and index all words that meet specific criteria. The user can select the minimum and maximum word length and chars during setup. There is also the possibility to specify words that should be included in the scan.
DriveLook is a little different than other data recovery programs because it doesn’t scan for full files and folders. Instead it looks for words that you specify and then shows you the raw data that it finds.
How to scan for words with Drive Look
The Drive Look interface is pretty bare-bones, so here is a quick rundown on using the program:
Set up the search
Start up the program and use the first screen to set up your search criteria. There is a set of checkboxes for setting constraints such as requiring a word to contain at least one consonant and/or vowel, and excluding words that contain a certain number of repeating characters. Right underneath these constraints is the text box in which you enter the words you wish to search for — put one word on each line.
Select search volume
Hit the “Next” button and you will be asked to tell Drive Look where to search. You can choose one of your local drives, or select a remove drive or drive image file.
Do the search
Hit the “Next” button again, and Drive Look will start scanning the selected storage volume for the words you have specified. The search time will vary depending on the size of the drive being searched.
