Can you start by retrieving the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo?
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
I'm wondering whether the firmware was originally configured for a sector size of 4KB and has been changed to 512 bytes after the update.
If so, then DMDE should see all your data. It costs US$20. Can you show us DMDE's Partitions window?
WD has a "quick formatter" tool which can change the sector size of your enclosure. I've never used it, so I don't know if that's all it does. I would recover your data before trying it.
https://dmde.com/ will do what you want. It succeeded for me where PhotoRec failed.
The only limitation on the trial version is that it won't recursively recover a directory tree - but with your file sizes, I assume that you'll be able to get to their directory no problem. Good luck!
I think that 99.90% would normally be a good recovery. You would have to be very unlucky if there were bad sectors in the file system metadata.
PhotoRec is a file carver that makes no attempt to recover original file names. It's a tool of last resort.
You could use ddrutility to analyse ddrescue's log. This will identify those files which are affected by bad sectors.
HDDSuperClone is another tool that can clone your drive. It can make use of ddrescue's log so that you don't need to run it from scratch. That said, I doubt that it would do any better than ddrescue at this late stage.
You could examine the clone with DMDE:
DMDE can do this. The free version should be enough.
Launch DMDE, select Physical Disk, check "Show partitions" and then OK.
D-click the desired volume.
At the top of the left pane, click "All Found / Virtual FS".
Select "Pure FS reconstruction", tick the "include deleted" box, and then OK.
Under the $Root you will see folder icons with dots in the centre. These folders contain deleted files or deleted folders.
A deleted file will have a trashcan symbol at the bottom left corner of its icon.
WARNING: Do not install DMDE on the drive that has your deleted data.
It’s not a guarantee that this can be reverted to the way it was before, but if there’s any chance at all, take a screenshot of DMDE’s Partitions window (for that drive) and then make a new post on /r/askadatarecoverypro or /r/datarecovery. Do not put anything onto the drive or create / remove any partitions. Doing so will guarantee that this cannot be undone. If you already did that, you’ll still be able to recover most of your data to another drive, but I imagine the ideal case (which may or may not be possible) is just undoing what has been done so you don’t have to move large amounts of data around
If you only used clean (and not “clean all”) and did not attempt to create new partitioning, it may be possible to undo this. Is it a SSD or HDD? If it’s a HDD, can you post the Partitions window from DMDE?
DMDE runs on a Mac. The free version can recover up to 4000 files, of any size, from any one folder.
If you can find a Windows machine ...
A SMART report won't stress your drive. It just reads one or two sectors from the reserved area on the platters.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? This should only take a few seconds. Don't initiate a full scan.
That's not smart. To do data recovery with proper software formatting is never required. It's why I have grown to dislike Recuva. People use it because it's free and do dumb stuff to work around it's limitations. Even it's core function, file undelete is better handled by other software.
Try DMDE (dmde.com) or R-Studio (r-tt.com) instead.
First recommendation would be to clone the drive. If physically okay, then you could attempt this using proper file recovery software.
Scan with something else than Minitool. For example R-Studio (r-tt.com) or DMDE (dmde.com) could be used to both create a drive image and the scan for lost data.
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>I have found a couple of folders which i recognise as my documents say they contain jpeg but when i try open them it says system files not supported
This is typical for subpar file recovery software: They can locate folders/files, but if they do not correctly solve start of file system / cluster size problem, it's useless.
A RAID 1 is a mirror, in which case the two drives would have been identical. It now appears that you may have had a RAID 0.
The drive that was identified as RAW was probably the first member of a RAID 0.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
The Windows installer typically overwrites the first 3 - 4GB of the drive. The remainder should be untouched.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? Don't do a full scan. This should take less than 1 minute.
I would have thought that Stellar would have found your multimedia files, unless they were in some strange format.
Can you attach your drive to the system you are posting from?
Otherwise you could create a bootable FreeDOS USB drive and use the DOS version of DMDE:
Aren't there multiple copies of the superblock?
I would try DMDE. That would be least expensive option.
Next would be RAISE data recovery:
Other pro tools ...
https://datarecoverydigest.com/datarecoverysoftwarereview/standard-file-recovery-features
It sounds like the problem may be logical rather than physical.
Could we see the Partitions window in DMDE? This should only take 1 minute or less. Avoid a full scan until you have cloned the drive.
Could we see the corruption?
DMDE is an easier tool to use. Depending on the damage, it can repair partition tables and boot sectors.
Can you show us DMDE's Partitions window?
Not having a file extension should not prevent you from recovering a file. As far as the file system is concerned, extensions are irrelevant.
I don't know about your detailed PhotoRec questions, but I do have an idea that may help you.
I recently had to do a recovery against a corrupted micro SD card. Neither Windows nor Linux would mount it; it was basically invisible.
I first tried TestDisk, then PhotoRec - both failed to get anything useful on the drive. After cranking on it for a long time - they found nothing.
Then, without much hope, I decided to try DMDE too:
https://dmde.com/download.html
In a short amount of time - it had found all directories. It was like looking at a file manager. I was able to browse the directory tree and find what I needed.
From what I understand, the main limitation of the free version is that you cannot recursively recover a whole directory tree; you have to recover from each directory individually. Since I just wanted the media folder (DCIM), that was fine. So this should work for your case too.
The extraction of the individual files did take a while - but I was recovering 100MB media files, so yours may go quicker. Incidentally I used it on Mint 18.3, so another overlap with your case.
So - I can't tell you whether to turn PhotoRec off or not, but I would bet that the DMDE method would get you your file quicker, even if you started now...
Why did you start with HXD?
Did you give Parted a chance?
Do you have access to a Linux machine?
I've had great luck lately with DMDE finding partitions -but I'm not sure about your lag problem.
Does the lagging still occur when the drive is unmounted?
Run this:
https://dmde.com/download.html
Scan only took a few minutes on my computer and recovered everything. (testdisk had done a full scan and could not recover).
edit: recover the partition, not just the files. You should be able to see and browse the partition structure before you apply it so you know you've got the right one.
If the drive was seen in both Windows and Mac it must have been formatted exFAT at one time. If it is now APFS it may have been accidentally reformatted.
You can try DMDE (dmde.com) which allows you to save a significant amount of data free.
The both MoBo's run different chipset, so it is unlikely that it will be possible to import RAID configutration. I'd suggest to restore anything possible with special software. Try also DMDE - https://dmde.com/download.html
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
It is unclear whether your Windows update overwrote the data on your target drive or merely created a new partition. Normally your data would be overwritten.
Examine your drive with DMDE disc editor (freeware).
Select your physical disk and drag the vertical scrollbar from LBA 0 all the way to the end of drive. Do you see anything other than an erase pattern?
USB flash drive you mean? Still detected in disk management, right? With correct physical capacity (see: https://www.disktuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/diskmansd.png)?
If correct capacity first create a disk image of the flash drive. Then recover data from the disk image, put the flash drive aside. Both can be done with for example DMDE (dmde.com) or R-Studio (r-tt.com).
I haven't had coffee yet but, you deleted data from d: drive?
Scan d: drive for deleted files then using something like R-Studio (r-tt.com). Simply use the 'show files' option, it should show deleted files too without the need for scanning. DMDE (dmde.com) is another (more inexpensive) option, slightly harder to use. In DMDE the non scan option is called 'open volume'.
I utterly dislike Recuva, and that times 10 is how I feel about RecoverIt, it truly sucks.
Remove the drive from its enclosure, clone it, then run a data recovery tool against the clone.
Try DMDE (US$20) or RAISE (US$25) or R-Linux (free).
https://www.r-studio.com/free-linux-recovery/Download.shtml
UFS Explorer is a more expensive tool which may give better results.
> DMDE licenses expire for both use of the product and updates. You have to buy it again the next year or it simply won't work past the demo feature set.
I think (hope) that it’s just the express version that expires in that way. License validity and support are “unlimited” for Standard and Pro. https://dmde.com/editions.html
That shouldn't be a problem for any recovery program that supports RAID. Here's how you would use DMDE:
https://dmde.com/manual/raids.html
You'll usually want to image the drive first and work off the image
If the only logical damage involves the partition metadata (ie. sectors 0,1,2), then DMDE should be able to restore this information. Can you show me the partitions window in DMDE?
So many things can cause this. But its bad when it does. Usually requires formatting the drive if its not completely dead or you can try and get data off it with an app like this. https://dmde.com/. Good luck.
First check the drive's physical condition with a SMART tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. Look for reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
Other than finding another 4KB-sectored enclosure, you can recover your data with DMDE.
Double-click your exFAT volume in the Partitions window and expand the $Root. If you see your files and folders, you can r-click the $Root and recover the whole tree to another drive. You will need to pay US$20 for the full version. Alternatively, the free version can recover up to 4000 files from any one folder.
Try OSFMount:
https://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html
DMDE might be another option. It sounds like it should be able to recover your folder tree. The free version can recover up to 4000 files from any one folder. Otherwise the full version costs US$20.
Start by retrieving a SMART report with a tool like CrystalDiskInfo.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
Then show us the Partitions window in DMDE.
Something like this:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/DMDE_Elements-8TB_Partitions.jpg
After you have reinstalled your drive in its enclosure, it will now appear as uninitialised. DO NOT allow Windows to initialise it. Instead show us the Partitions window in DMDE.
This should only take a minute or less. If you see your partition, r-click it and expand the $Root. If you see your file/folder tree, go back, r-click the partition and select "Insert the partition (undelete)". Then safely remove the USB drive and reinsert. This forces Windows to reexamine the drive.
Do you have an AMD Ryzen platform? Have you recently replaced the motherboard?
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? That should take less than a minute. No need for a full scan.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? Do not perform a full scan (this can stress your drive).
Can you retrieve a SMART report with CrystalDiskInfo?
Examine the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. This will tell you if there are any known physical issues with the drive.
Can you access your files with DMDE?
In the Partitions window, d-click your desired partition and expand the $Root. Navigate to your desired folder, select your file(s) and recover it/them to another drive.
I've tried using DMDE with no results. If Testdisk is similar, I'll be pretty sad. All I want to do is just browse the files and folders like a regular HDD.
I guess that's not happening. I'll install Testdisk and test soon, thank you.
Looks like DMDE free is limited to just the files in the current directory, and will not get folders and subfolders.
"You are using Free Edition: you may recover files from the current panel only (currently visible files in the opened directory, up to 4000 at a time). Make sure not to mark directories or files in other directories (use context menu, e.g.). Or buy a license and make sure you are using a licensed copy."
I don't think testdisk has such a limitation. Putting aside the fact that it will miss stuff because it's significantly less effective.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? (no need for a full scan)
I suspect that the external enclosure may be configured with a sector size of 4KB, in which case DMDE should make a full recovery.
If you wish to try DIY, start by retrieving a SMART report with a tool such as CrystaldiskInfo or GSmartControl.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? Don't do a full scan.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
Something like this ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/DMDE_Elements-8TB_Partitions.jpg
The free version may be able to recover your data, if the problem is a minor one. Otherwise the basic version costs US$20.
Could we see the drive's SMART report?
I agree. If Windows is prompting to format the drive, rather than initialise it, then it suggests that the partitions are being detected.
I would examine the drive with DMDE. The OP could be lucky and there may be a simple solution. I would examine the SMART report first, though.
If all you did was delete an existing partition, then there may be an easy DIY fix with DMDE.
Can you show us DMDE's Partitions window?
Something like this ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/DMDE_Elements-8TB_Partitions.jpg
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? That should take less than 1 minute. There should be no need for a full scan.
If the Indicators column has an "F", then the $MFT would most probably be intact, in which case a good recovery should be possible.
Please clone your drive and then run DMDE against the clone. SSDs are affected by TRIM, so your data may already be lost.
The free version of DMDE can restore a deleted partition with a few clicks in about 2 minutes, depending on the problem.
Can you show us the Partitions window, on your CLONE, in DMDE?
BTW, the free version of DMDE can also clone your SSD.
It appears that you have basically empty files, ie junk. :-(
Can you show us what your storage medium looks like in DMDE? Just show us the initial Partitions window. No need for a full scan.
I've never analysed Android SD cards, so I was wondering whether encryption was present. This might explain why R-Studio couldn't find any files. The PGM, PPM, PBM and PCX files which you refer to could be bogus raw scan results based on header info, but others would be more qualified to confirm this.
I don't think it would help, but could you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
Pozz, probaj sa DMDE https://dmde.com/
Dosta mocan tool i free je. Odabere se disk/particija pa full scan i dobije se orginal struktura za recovery. Samo u free verziji mislim ne mozes sve odjednom nego klikat folder po folder il tak nes.
DMDE costs US$20. It can often find your files in less than a minute.
D-click your desired partition and select All found / Virtual FS -> Pure FS reconstruction + include deleted. Wait for DMDE to parse the $MFT, and then examine the folder tree.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? That should take less than 1 minute (no need for a full scan).
If you can see your desired partition, d-click it and expand the $Root. Do you see your file/folder tree?
This freeware tool can determine your RAID parameters (but data recovery is not free):
http://www.freeraidrecovery.com/?s=rd
DMDE can also construct a virtual RAID (for free) and recover your data (for US$20).
Alternatively you may be able to use mdadm (freeware) on a Linux platform and mount your RAID.
DMDE should be able to undo the damage with a couple of clicks, assuming that you have only deleted the partition.
Can you show us DMDE's Partitions window?
If you see your missing partition, double-click it and expand the Root. Do you see your file/folder structure?
If the folder structure is still intact, then any data recovery program should be able to find your files with their original file names. The fact that you are using Photorec and Testdisk suggests that you are looking for a free solution. If so, then DMDE's free version can recover up to 4000 files in any one directory. The full version costs US$20.
DMDE should be able to find your desired partition in less than one minute. If you double-click the volume and expand the Root, you should see your file/folder structure.
I saw this thread a little late.
FYI, DMDE can reconstruct and recover data from RAIDs. It costs US$20 for the basic version.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
https://dmde.com/download.html
DMDE costs US$20 for the basic version. However, depending on the fault, the free version may be able to repair the damage.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
If the MFT has been destroyed and a raw recovery is your only option, then PhotoRec is a good freeware option.
If all you did was to delete the partition's entry in the partition table, then DMDE can fix that in a few clicks.
Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?
I use DMDE. It has Linux versions (console and GUI).
https://dmde.com/download.html
You can restore deleted partitions with a few clicks. Finding these partitions usually takes less than a minute (r-click the partition and select Insert the Partition - Undelete).
DMDE is what I use, it has good support for Linux and Windows but it does cost a bit. I think the free edition is limited to listing files as a test so don't have to fork out the $$ if it's not going to work.
The makers of CCleaner have Recuva which I've heard works decently for a free program.
If all you have done is to delete the partition info, then the free version of DMDE should be able to restore the partitions with a few clicks.
Could you show us DMDE's Partitions window?
DMDE is both a disc editor and a data recovery tool. It has a Linux version. It is very powerful and cheap (US$20). The free version has a fully functional disc editor, and is able to recover a limited number of files.
Did anyone by any chance already mention Easeus is garbage?
Seriously, get better software. If you decide to ignore the advice to clone first and can't afford a pro to do it, and you're on a budget then try DMDE. You won't get decent file recovery software cheaper than that.
For file recovery software a hidden folder is just a folder. It will not ignore it because at some point you set that attribute.
Once you've made an image - you might try DMDE as well as testdisk:
The free version lets you recover one directory at a time (which may be enough depending on your directory layout). If it's complex, at least it will let you know whether it's seeing the stuff and you'd benefit from the paid recursive version.
Over at r/datarecovery you would probably get the answer that there is some free raid data recovery software call ReclaiMe at freeraidrecovery.com but the experienced data recovery people think paying for r-studio is a better option, or DMDE is only $20 for a one year licence.
Assuming of course, that the RAID was motherboard RAID, not windows dynamic disks, which seems very likely.
If you can get the system to recognize the disk, DMDE has proven quite useful to me in the past for recovering data from drives with corrupted file allocation tables and deleted partitions. But chances are the only way to get the data off the disk would be to swap the controller, move the platters to another drive, or more likely, send it to a data recovery specialist.
It will depend on the condition of the drive, the tools you have available and your abilities.
If you run into any issues with the imaging process and/or your data is valuable to you, it is best to seek professional data recovery assistance.