Data Recovery Problems

Otherwise PhotoRec

Brilliant - PC world wanted £80 to restore some photo's for me & have just done it for nowt!!!

PC Inspector should run on Windows 7

http://www.photo-freeware.net/pc-inspector-smart-recovery.php

More options here

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-data-recovery-file-undelete-utility.htm#Minitool

Apologies, this is a bit long but may help some people and the 'clincher' near the end will make you smile

Weird thing happened yesterday, simple file management on Windows 7, 64 bit, using Windows Explorer,
and decent USB Mouse.
Copying 3 files from a folder on a USB Flash drive to a sub-folder of a different folder, but on the same drive.
The folder and the sub-folder both had the same name, but were obviously in different locations.
No problem, went fine, so now to delete the folder with 3 files,
highlight it then use keyboard to delete..... Gone
But.. the sub-folder with the same name and my 6 files also disappeared.
No problem? Look in the Recycle bin and restore... Empty, no files!

Time to try out some of the utils being recommended, lol

So these were the lost files, hoping to recover:
2 x .exe files, 2 x HTML files, 4 x .txt files, 1 x .rtf file



The First one i tried was that as used by the OP, 'MagiCute', which is Chinese origin and will scan and preview recovered files but needs to be registered for full recovery.
Sure enough, 5min scan it did find them all, plus others.
All had odd names but the preview confirmed they were the missing 9 files.


So to try the free options...

I had big hopes for Piriform's 'Recuva' but all it got back was the .rtf file and all the GIFs and PNGs associated with the html files.
(that was on deep scan for 'Other', 'Show All Files' )


'Restoration' found loads of junk but none of the files i was looking for..


'PC File Inspector' File Recovery Seemed to get all the images associated with the html files, but not so good for the other types of files.


Then i tried 'PhotoRec'
Thanks to 'TakeThis' for recommending it.
There is a pure Dos version & a Windows version, i decided to try the Windows version first.
Even though it runs in Windows, it opens up a command window, (small black screen) which may have deterred some people.
Also setting the recovery folder can be 'fun'
But a 5 min scan and 'bingo' all the needed files and a few others are there in that recovery folder.
They all have odd names but open up and run ok, just need to be re-named back to originals.

Great! but wait a minute, those odd filenames look familiar, now where did i see those?

Of course! they're the same as in the first prog i ran, and not just similar, but identical!!!
One recovery filename having the same name could be coincidental,
but dozens, all the same?? with names like f3579850.html
The scan time for both is also 'identical', around 5 mins.

So perhaps the best solution is to download and install the demo version of 'MagiCute' which has a nice, easy to use GUI, and if it finds the files use 'Photorec' to recover them

Some 'non-Tekkies' may have problems running 'PhotoRec' and if anyone thinks it useful, i could add a very simple '101 guide'..