25 replies to this topic

[ZakAttack]

I need the greatest minds on this one.

On my SD card, I managed to somehow delete all my files. I've used a string of file recovery programs and have yet to find one that successfully recovers at least most of the pictures and videos. Most images are broken as they won't show up on photo viewer, while still maintaining their file size, and some of them are half-broken images. Any ideas what would be the best software to help me with this?

[Detection]

I was watching that security now show on twit.tv and someone emailed the guy saying he successfully managed to recover a formatted sdcard using spinrite

No idea how, I thought it was only a maintenance / repair program but maybe worth a shot


I've always had luck using Easeus Data Recovery Wizard on HDDs, never tried on flash memory though

[ZakAttack]

Detection, on 29 July 2012 - 12:15, said:

I was watching that security now show on twit.tv and someone emailed the guy saying he successfully managed to recover a formatted sdcard using spinrite

No idea how, I thought it was only a maintenance / repair program but maybe worth a shot


I've always had luck using Easeus Data Recovery Wizard on HDDs, never tried on flash memory though

Easus only worked on about 10-15% of the pictures thank you, I will try this other program and give it a shot!

[+articuno1au]

I've used PhotoRec with some success: http://www.cgsecurity.org/

Might be worth a try.

[+Anarkii]

Have you tried a program called Recuva? That works pretty good also.

[ZakAttack]

Anarkii, on 29 July 2012 - 13:29, said:

Have you tried a program called Recuva? That works pretty good also.

articuno1au, on 29 July 2012 - 13:16, said:

I've used PhotoRec with some success: http://www.cgsecurity.org/

Might be worth a try.

Recuva was reasonable - same results as Easus though.

PhotoRec is a bit complicated..trying to figure out how to use it!

So is spinrite - quite complicated.

[Detection]

ZakAttack, on 29 July 2012 - 14:42, said:

Recuva was reasonable - same results as Easus though.

PhotoRec is a bit complicated..trying to figure out how to use it!

So is spinrite - quite complicated.

Spinrite looks confusing but if you initially choose data recovery option number, then on the drives screen hit spacebar on the sdcard, then I forget which key starts it, but it should be written on the screen (enter or esc maybe)

Then it should start its scan and let you know once its done

[helpifIcan]

I guess I'll be the wet blanket, there is a good chance that somthing was written to SD before you realized the files were deleted. If that case that is why some are good and some are broken. I hope you find something to at least get a majority of your files back..

Remember to to do a dual backup from now on to save yourself the grief next time. There are many options to backup to a free cloud storage drive.

[ZakAttack]

helpifIcan, on 29 July 2012 - 16:39, said:

I guess I'll be the wet blanket, there is a good chance that somthing was written to SD before you realized the files were deleted. If that case that is why some are good and some are broken. I hope you find something to at least get a majority of your files back..

Remember to to do a dual backup from now on to save yourself the grief next time. There are many options to backup to a free cloud storage drive.

Of course - backup is the future.

Is there no photo recovery that would work? All the files have the file size but just not the image itself.

[FalsePositive]

Backup is the past, present and the future.

[ZakAttack]

articuno1au, on 29 July 2012 - 13:16, said:

I've used PhotoRec with some success: http://www.cgsecurity.org/

Might be worth a try.

Detection, on 29 July 2012 - 14:52, said:

Spinrite looks confusing but if you initially choose data recovery option number, then on the drives screen hit spacebar on the sdcard, then I forget which key starts it, but it should be written on the screen (enter or esc maybe)

Then it should start its scan and let you know once its done

Spinrite won't work on my USB maybe I'm doing something wrong. I installed it on the USB and booted it but a flashing _ and a black screen was there for 10 minutes and that was it. So I pressed enter and Windows started

Photorec wasn't any help either.

[g0dzilla]

I've used PhotoRec for SD cards, USB sticks and HDD's and it has worked quite well, definitely a lot better than Recuva and Easus for deleted files and even deleted partitions or formats etc.

Not sure why it hasn't worked well for you though, since the SD card isn't damaged (assumption) and only files were deleted...

Maybe it was able to recover most of your files but as you've said, some of the images are broken As helpifIcan mentioned earlier, maybe there were some other operations (write?) performed on the SD card after the deletions that caused files to be overwritten.

[ZakAttack]

g0dzilla, on 01 August 2012 - 13:29, said:

I've used PhotoRec for SD cards, USB sticks and HDD's and it has worked quite well, definitely a lot better than Recuva and Easus for deleted files and even deleted partitions or formats etc.

Not sure why it hasn't worked well for you though, since the SD card isn't damaged (assumption) and only files were deleted...

Maybe it was able to recover most of your files but as you've said, some of the images are broken As helpifIcan mentioned earlier, maybe there were some other operations (write?) performed on the SD card after the deletions that caused files to be overwritten.

What do you mean by operations here exactly? I remember they were cut and pasted onto my Laptop and then they got deleted somehow. I'm trying the latest (beta) version now of PhotoRec and see if that helps. Maybe there's a way of repairing the photos that are found? This will be one of those things that will take weeks to figure out...

[g0dzilla]

I meant write operations to the SD card, but this may not have been the case if you didn't do anything with the SD card after the deletions - I was just quoting what someone else had said as a possibility because it's odd for them to just be deleted like that after a cut and paste job.

I'm sorry, but I don't know of any programs that can repair damaged/broken photo files I wish you the best of luck with the latest version of PhotoRec!

[+articuno1au]

I've got to agree with g0dzilla here.

If PhotoRec can't get the data, it was likely corrupted by something and is irrecoverable.

Sorry we can't be more help :\