Dang it - deleted my pic and vid files in error

vicwatson

And from the recycling bin - don't ask.

I downloaded Recuva and am totally lost now as I "recovered" them but not all files are back.

Ones that are back "picture motion browser - Sony's image package" that i use doesn't show them.

PLEASE HELP !!

When you delete a file in Windows (and empty the recycle bin) the 1s and 0s that made up the file remain on the disk, they are not specifically deleted.

But as far as Windows is concerned, that portion of the disk that those 1s and 0s reside on is now 'empty space' and it will start to fill it up with new files. The minute you turn on your machine it starts writing files to the disk...sytem files, temp files, while you are browsing firefox is writing tonnes of stuff to the disk by default.

So how successful your recovery will be depends on how much you have used the computer since deleting the files, and where the files were (ie were they on the OS partition? )

If you are using the same computer right now to post this thread, then even as you surf you are writing over the files.

If they were on the OS drive/partition then the best thing to do is shut off the computer the minute you realise you deleted something by mistake. Then pull the disk, and use a dock/caddy to attempt recovery from another machine. You should do the slowest/most deep recovery option that Recuva offers.

vicwatson

Thanks for info, it happened yesterday.

I thought I had transferred over the whole file to my external hard drive and when I went to check my ext hard drive it seems as I can't play the video files - they are m2ts or something like that....

Any help with that?

Thanks a lot

They could have become corrupted during the copy process, usually that will be caused by a bad HDD or loose cable etc.

I recommend teracopy for moving important files around because it reads them back after copying to make sure they are intact and readable.

If it was a cut & paste, then its the same as delete. The source file will remain on the HDD but marked as free space and will be gradually overwritten. This is why a 'recovered' file can be corrupt or unplayable.. parts of it just arent there any more.

Video files can tolerate corruption better than most files, depending on the codecs and container. You'll still lose something if data is gone of course, maybe the file will be cut short or have a glitch during playback. It depends just how much data is lost. Try remuxing the file that won't play.

vicwatson

Ok, I'm obviosuly dumb, I figured I could plug in my WD extrernal hard drive, copy the file and then paste it into the external hard drive - NO??

Haven't a clue what "remuxing" is

Appreciate your help

vicwatson

vicwatson wrote: »

Ok, I'm obviosuly dumb, I figured I could plug in my WD extrernal hard drive, copy the file and then paste it into the external hard drive - NO??

Haven't a clue what "remuxing" is

Appreciate your help

Can you go back over your full sequence of events in order because I think we are getting some crossed wires.

vicwatson

Deleted User wrote: »

Can you go back over your full sequence of events in order because I think we are getting some crossed wires.

My hard drive on my laptop was reaching capacity

Went to my "image transfer" folder (which contained my pics and videos) and copied and pasted the folder into my Western Digital external hard drive - it took hours

Checked that they were there on the ext drive and saw all the files there (but not if the videos were working)

Stupidly went and deleted the image transfer folder and then from the recycling bin (I know, I know)

Downloaded recuva after reading a thread on here

It scanned my c drive and I ticked to retrieve everything, chose image transfer as the destination folder but a mish mash of files appeared back into that folder

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'm gonna try connect back up my ext drive and see what I can see

Capt'n Midnight

get Photorec from http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

vicwatson

Thanks but how the heck is that gonna solve my pathetic problem? Step by step