File Recovery

cmhbob

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And it's not a little job.

While I was in the hospital a while back, I decided to pull the trigger on reverting my laptop from Vector Linux back to Windows, since I wouldn't be able to use the thing for a while.

The short version is that the local shop didn't know what they were doing, and didn't back up all my files before reinstalling Windows.

I potentially lost everything from the last two years. Photos. Music. WIP files. My discussion with the business owner was not one of my best moments.

I've tried playing with a couple of file recovery packages like EaseUS and Recuva, but the sheer volume is overwhelming. Some files are recovering properly, but others seem corrupt. But are they? I know enough about how computers store data to know that some files can be restored. But honestly, I'm a little paranoid about it.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a file recovery service? The there's nobody local, although I haven't checked the Tulsa area yet.
 

blacbird

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I don't have the tech expertise to help with your problem, but I really do have to clarify:

You sent your computer, with the only copies of a lot of important files, to a computer shop to have the operating system changed? And you had no backup copies anywhere for these files?

caw
 

Cornelius Gault

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Sometimes you have to learn the hard lesson - back up your own files.

I am a tech guy and I still don't back up my files hardly at all.
 

blacbird

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I am a tech guy and I still don't back up my files hardly at all.


Dear God, why? Seriously, I'd like to know. I'm a total paranoid about backing up files, because I soooooo fear the loss of irreplaceable stuff. And it's sooooooooooo damn simple and easy to do.

Why anybody would not back up important files just mystifies me.

caw
 

cmhbob

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Lisa, thanks. Do you have experience with them? Much of the stuff I was finding yesterday was so full of SEO junk as to be useless, or was obviously a contract setup where the file work was being done by a third party.
 

alleycat

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Just a general note.

When someone is having trouble with their files or has lost files (or having problems with their computer in general), it's probably not the best time to beat them up about not backing up their files or telling them what they should have done.

We can all do that with glee later. Hopefully, after they have recovered their files.
 

Alexys

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It's unlikely that you'll get everything back--some parts of some files will have been overwritten, just due to the way hard drives work. What file recovery software does, in a nutshell, is scan each sector of the disc looking for anything that looks like a file (and it can't always detect parts other than the first one for files that span multiple non-sequential sectors). It's like it's got a stack of pages written in some language it doesn't understand and is trying to guess based on some simple patterns which ones contain text and which ones are just gibberish, and sort them into complete stories. Sometimes it's going to guess wrong. And someone has stolen some of the pages to scribble a Windows install on them in this case.

A data recovery place may have better detection algorithms for files and for figuring out which bits go together, so they might recover more than you would on your own, but they can't change the laws of physics and recover what's been overwritten.
 

morriss003

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I've been losing files since I was using a floppy disk on my Franklin (apple 2+ clone).
I try to backup to the cloud now, using Google Drive, Skydrive, and Dropbox. And I would never be without my external drives.
 

Reziac

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According to a friend who does enterprise IT for a living, if you really, REALLY want your data back, in professional data recovery there's a choice of one, and that's Ontrack. They are commensurately expensive.

Current rates, from what I can find, run up to about $1500 per drive, and data recovery is very much a get-what-you-pay-for industry.

The more you mess with it, the less likely there will be anything left to recover. Most definitely do NOT write to the drive; that can overwrite the very info needed to recover the data.

The biggest issue (after what's been overwritten and is simply GONE) when trying to recover data in a situation like this, is the level of file fragmentation. (Contrary to fanboy belief, linux filesystems DO fragment.) As a general rule only the first contiguous cluster is recoverable, and the remainder of a fragmented file will be "lost" -- that is, it'll be in several parts which look like random corrupted data. (Same thing happens with RAID, when it goes bad.)

Someone with experience identifying raw binaries may be able to stitch them back together, but it's a hunt-and-peck process -- first you sort the file headers you can find, then with luck you happen across all the other pieces (some may be absent) in the big conglomeration that the data recovery util gave you, then you arrange 'em in a hex editor until the file sorta behaves as it should, then you edit out all the garbage, which is actually leftovers from data that was previously deleted, and with luck what you've now got is an intact file. Sometimes you find identifiable data but no header, and you have to create a new header for it so programs can identify it. Sometimes two or three or a dozen files will be smucked together, and you have to peel them out of the mess one by one.

No doubt the big data recovery companies have scripts to handle a lot of this, but I've done it by hand, helping a friend recover a photo archive that got eaten by RAID gone wrong. From the data pulled off the drive by the data recovery company, I managed to salvage about 1450 out of some 1500 busted files. But I think peering at raw binaries in a hex editor is normal. (And I am going to hurt the person who thought it was a good idea to embed thumbnails in JPGs.)
 

Deleted member 42

Lisa, thanks. Do you have experience with them? Much of the stuff I was finding yesterday was so full of SEO junk as to be useless, or was obviously a contract setup where the file work was being done by a third party.

I do; we used them for users' drives and servers after the quake. They managed to recover data that was under water (from sprinklers flooding a server closet).

They are pricey. The kind of data recovery you're talking about requires a clean room, and it will cost you hundreds of dollars. They use equipment that can read the ghosts of magnetic trail, sort of a palimpsest.

Any of the competing services will be pricey, so I'd look at the services and reputation.
 
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Reziac

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WhitePawn

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In terms of WIP, DropBox is your friend.

If your computer dies in a fire (with all your little jumpdrives, conveniently stowed in your computer desk), then what?