Videos vanished off laptop!

tedobrien98

Hi! There was about 2 years of videos on my laptop (taken with a sony handycam) and there a few days ago I went to look at them, and they weren't there. They're not in the recycle bin, and I have tried undelete programmes and stuff but I can't seem to find them. Now what I did find is some .modd files, and the details of those are identical to the other ones, now what I am wondering is, if there is some sort of compressed version of the videos inside in the .modd files. I can't for the life of me think of where they could have gone to. Now I could have been looking for the wrong thing, but I looked for all the common video file types (.AVI, .WMV, .DV etc.) now maybe I was looking for the wrong thing, but I don't think I was. If you know how I could get a video out of the .modd files, or else how to get the original ones back, I would be very greatful, because there was important stuff in them like weddings, christenings etc. But sure if you can't, you can't what harm. But if it's not too much bother could you tell me how. Thanks in advance!

CrinkElite

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fileextensions/f/moddfile.htm

what size are the .modd files? if they are video compressions they should be at least half the size of the originals.


have you tried double clicking them?

tedobrien98

CrinkElite wrote: »

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fileextensions/f/moddfile.htm

what size are the .modd files? if they are video compressions they should be at least half the size of the originals.


have you tried double clicking them?

Ya I tried that, and it went into this windows media centre thing that I'd never seen before in my life. They're not half the size, nor are they anywhere near it. They are all 242 bytes or something tiny like that...

CrinkElite

Files that contain the .modd file extension are created by a variety of different Sony Camcorder video recording devices. The information that is contained within the MODD file includes details about the video clip that the particular MODD file pertains to. These files are commonly referred to as Sony video analysis files.

The MODD file stores information regarding the date and time-lines that pertain to a video recording that was made by the Sony video camera, however, there is no actual video data within the MODD file itself.

The .modd file extension may also be used for Midiprg Musicato Compress files.

quote from http://www.filetypeinfo.com/extension/modd

not what you're looking for methinks.

does anyone else have access to your machine?

Monotype

Try mp4, m2ts and mts as well.

tedobrien98

CrinkElite wrote: »

quote from http://www.filetypeinfo.com/extension/modd

not what you're looking for methinks.

does anyone else have access to your machine?

Well the laptop is actually my Dad's. I was just writing this for him. 3 or 4 people use the laptop regurlarly. I can't see though, how I can't find the videos in all the stuff that was undeleted because it showed everything that was ever deleted off the laptop, and it said then beside each file 'Unrecoverable' 'Poor' or 'Excellent'. Now maybe I was looking for the wrong stuff altogether, but I'm not sure what the file extension on them was. But, it's a mystery to us, how the videos even got deleted in the first place. I suppose there is a chance they are still on the laptop and just that they had been moved but I have scoured everywhere on it.

CrinkElite

Are these large files?

You could try installing the trial version of Space-monger.

http://www.sixty-five.cc/download/

It will map out your HDD and give you a visual representation of all files on you're computer.
Unless they're relatively large files they may be hard to spot.

Also, the .modd files you found may contain information on the location of the video files but I would have assumed they'd be in the same folder.
Can you open them with notepad or is there any indication to their location given when you open them in windows media player?

tedobrien98

I presume the video files were very big. I don't think that it would help though, being able to see everything on the laptop, because we are fairly sure at this stage that they were deleted. So we have tried this programme that a local computer 'technician' installed trying to sort it, and everything that was ever deleted is in this. But of course, the list is endless, so you can search for stuff, and none of the common file extensions work. The only things I got relating to the videos were these .modd files and they are no help at all. Once you click into them, this music thing comes on, and then your in this windows thing (and its not windows media player. It's something I have never seen before on a computer). In the windows thing, theres just alloptions etc. and theres stuff like, 'picture gallery' and 'video gallery' and nothing comes when you click on them. I know I am probably not providing sufficient information, and I'm sorry about that, but I honestly can't provide a better explanation.

5uspect

Media center is part of Windows since Vista and late versions of XP I wouldn't worry about that.

Sometimes with Windows it likes to screw up your profile so it creates a new one.

If you're on XP go to C:\Documents and Settings or C:\Users for Vista/7 and see what accounts are there. Your files could still be in the old account.