NTFS gurus how to restore main folder instead separate files

[RPT]

Hello NTFS gurus
Is there any chances after accidental deletion instantly to restore just deleted folder name, including sub folders and files?
When in subfolders there is total several thousands of files, restoring main folder name only is an inspiring target.
But is it possible by NTFS file system?

Folder located in root directory deleted accidentally using Windows 7 File Explorer.

[northwind]

Absolutely.
Scan the drive with R-Studio.

[lifeguarddubai]

Agreed with Northwind,
scan with Rstudio if folder is deleted only it will come with structure, if folder was deleted & overwrite with new data then you might get structure but data inside might be corrupted RAW Recovery might be the only option ....

[RPT]

Thanks.
Is there any freeware utilities capable to recover amateur's PC folder?

All I have checked so far offer recovering and copying files without onsite renaming and restoring folder name.

[Kum Ruzvelt]

You can try Recuva. It is free.

[fzabkar]

AIUI, the OP does not need data recovery software. Instead the OP wants an undo program which restores the patient's file system to its previous state.

[RPT]

I used Recuva for the task.
Previous Recuva experiences were a disaster recovery and I didn't notice there is folder restore options.

Despite the fact that there was now intentional writes to the separate disk, some folder's content was overwritten by Recycle Bin.
I'm not sure if I personally deleted something or not. My guess is that I didn't look at this drive and didn't delete anything.

May it be a Recuva bug or is this a NTFS feature, that Recycle bin can overwrite deleted files?

[rogfanther]

Neither bug nor feature. If the folder you deleted was not in the recycle bin, files created/changed/moved later could occupy the clusters of the files that once resided in the deleted folder.

When deleting some file to the recycle bin, some new files are created in it.

As a rule of thumb, any operation to a filesystem could reuse sectors/clusters that once pertained to other ( now deleted ) files

[abolibibelot]

Also, if you did delete that folder using the recycle bin, there's a limit to how much data can be stored in it (I don't remember how much it is by default, and it can probably be adjusted somewhere in the registry) ; once that limit is reached, the older files (the ones put into the recycle bin at the earliest time) get deleted for good. They're not overwritten right away, though (except possibly on a SSD with Trim enabled), but as has been said above, any new operation on the filesystem (even operations not directly triggered by the user), including the ongoing deletion of that very same folder, can overwrite clusters now marked as free.

But it should be said that what Recuva says about a file's state is not perfectly reliable : sometimes a file is still complete but appears as overwritten by XXX, sometimes a file appears as complete but has in fact been overwritten and is severely damaged.

Now the only thing you can do is test those several thousands of files...
I wonder if there are tools which can automatically check files of different types for validity / consistency – like : open all JPG files for instance and report the ones that have no valid header, then assess the level of readability. All data recovery softwares I tried are happy to “recover” thousands of files which turn out to be garbage.