Can You Just Recover ONLY
        the files in the 'My Documents' folder? (That's really all I need)
                OR . . .
Can you pull my "e-Mail" files first and do the rest later?

Our Answer:

A meaningful answer to your simple question about targeting or selecting specific data for recovery is not such a simple reply! Because of the way disk drives are designed -- to optimize performance by minimizing mechanical action -- different portions of each of your data files will be "written" on several of the platter surfaces. Also, repeated editing, deleting, adding new files over time, etc., causes segments of your data files to become scattered as they are recorded to many physical locations on the platters.

If recovery is feasible, an ensuing step of recovery is a lengthy, partially automated extraction process. When the extraction process is completed, the recovery engineer must then manipulate this raw data to reconstruct the file system. This step still requires no knowledge whatsoever of your data content, but rather it requires an intimate understanding about how hard drives store information for the benefit of your computer system. Therefore, retrieved data often becomes available according to how the drive recorded it and not according to how you have it organized in your desktop system.

Normally it is far more efficient for you to perform filtering for specific data since you are much more familiar with your own files than we are. In any case it can normally only be done after the recovery process has completed, and by then your data is ready for delivery.