Hello all, I will try to keep this as brief as possible and I seriously appreciate any response.

I have a 3TB hard disk with GPT and EXT4 file system. I accidentally "shift+del" a directory which contained the only copy of some video files from a project that cost close to a grand. I'm not exactly a n00b to systems administration, data recovery or even forensics (forensics techniques that is, not actually dealing with evidence/law). I know about mounting as read only an/or using write blockers, creating images, working with images, etc. the whole lot. I am very familiar. The issue here the disk is just about full and it's backup is also equally full minus this one brand new directory that I freaking deleted (on accident, needless to say!!) so this isn't even really an option. This happend hours ago and thus far I haven't tried anything. I am afraid to make a move and while I could drop $150 on a new 3TB and do it the way I know by imaging the disk, bit by bit and working with copies of said image, etc.. I'd rather not go that route. I have many tools available to me such as extundeleted, etc. I'm just afraid to try anything, it's like I'm frozen in shock and despair. Someone with experience in a similar circumstance please chime in with some comforting advice. What tools do you all suggest I try? I'm obviously afraid of altering the data since I only have ONE freaking copy to work with - the live copy on the disk itself! I'm ripping my hair out here. Again, I could drop the money for an additional disk to work with, etc it'd be worth it, but for one the nearest place to purchase such an item is hours of driving and ordering one online takes too much time. I need a quick fix and I'm to scared to move. Help me, won't you?

Make a clone of a drive (mount original as read only while cloning)
Run extundelete on the clone. It would interesting to know who well that program works. From the description of the program I can tell it will not be very successful but it worth a try.
Per my knowledge R-Studio will have 0 success on recovering deleted files on Ext4.

There are several data recovery companies who developed their own utilities to target specifically deleted files on Ext4. If extundelete won't help you, I suggest to think about an option to send this drive for a professional recovery. I know that Seagate Recovery Services has such utility, I also know that there are other companies (a few) on the market with similar technology but I just don't remember their names.

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.