Accidental Format - Photos Corrupt

[ontariotech]

A client of mine accidentally formatted his 500GB Seagate Drive. He claims it was a
"quick format".

Drive in rude health otherwise.

Not surprisingly after a format, GetDataBack can find all the photos but most are corrupt.

Where to from here?

[harddrivespecialist]

Where to from here?

Back to reading or outsource it.

[ontariotech]

Back to reading??

[poehere]

Might need to use Winhex on this one. Raw recovery try it and see what you get on it.

[ontariotech]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Would imaging the drive help and then rescan with GetDataBack?

[ppumkin]

Yea winhex is really good. I had more luck with that than rstudio sometimes.

Otherwise DE from PC3k is what you need or DC from SD...

[Steve]

Otherwise DE from PC3k is what you need or DC from SD...

And just what is it about DE or DC, that makes them any better than
software tools on a perfectly good working drive that was only
accidentally formatted?

[ontariotech]

Ok, I am currently running WinHex - it is finding .jpegs but they are all very "grainy" looking?

[hddguy]

Otherwise DE from PC3k is what you need or DC from SD...

And just what is it about DE or DC, that makes them any better than
software tools on a perfectly good working drive that was only
accidentally formatted?

Because you get what you pay for

[Steve]

Otherwise DE from PC3k is what you need or DC from SD...

And just what is it about DE or DC, that makes them any better than
software tools on a perfectly good working drive that was only
accidentally formatted?

Because you get what you pay for

You don't really expect me to believe that, do you ?

The problem with format (even quick) is that it screws up some of
the MFT. Then if files are larger than a cluster and fragmented, most
raw recoveries have trouble also.
There are other markers that will help discover actual files locations
and sizes. Then there is the problem when the reformat uses
different cluster size than the original, or a different offset to the
first MFT, and recovery tools don't know how to deal with these
new parameters. This is where knowledge of file systems and human
intervention is required. This is also why one should always work
with a duplicate of the problem drive and never work with the
original, even if it is just a format problem.


Sometimes push button tools work great.
Other times, one has to actually know what they are doing.
Even if the problem is just a "quick format"

[ppumkin]

Otherwise DE from PC3k is what you need or DC from SD...

And just what is it about DE or DC, that makes them any better than
software tools on a perfectly good working drive that was only
accidentally formatted?

Because you get what you pay for

You don't really expect me to believe that, do you ?

The problem with format (even quick) is that it screws up some of
the MFT. Then if files are larger than a cluster and fragmented, most
raw recoveries have trouble also.
There are other markers that will help discover actual files locations
and sizes. Then there is the problem when the reformat uses
different cluster size than the original, or a different offset to the
first MFT, and recovery tools don't know how to deal with these
new parameters. This is where knowledge of file systems and human
intervention is required. This is also why one should always work
with a duplicate of the problem drive and never work with the
original, even if it is just a format problem.


Sometimes push button tools work great.
Other times, one has to actually know what they are doing.
Even if the problem is just a "quick format"

You know how to do that.. so do some others... but not the person who started the topic.
Before i start using any software that can potentially waste hours of my time i first try DC/DE- most the time i can extract data with full file/tree structure with hardware control if any errors occur.

Then if i run into problems its time to get "dirty" use winhex and start searching for what I need.
So like I recommend before.. He should try Winhex.

[laptokowiec]

You can use DMDE.

[ontariotech]

Guys - I have run WinHex - it has found photos but they are "grainy".

Where to from here?

(please do not turn this into an acronym competition!...use PKW or use WML I don't know what these stand for)

[ppumkin]

Grainy? can you post one "nuetral" photo? you mean they have lines or blocks that look like digital noise?
are they JPG's?
Try and open them in photoshop and re save it- see if it fixes the problem. You can use acdsee to batch recompress them. It fixes that problem sometimes.

[Steve]

Sometimes push button tools work great.
Other times, one has to actually know what they are doing.
Even if the problem is just a "quick format"

You know how to do that.. so do some others...
but not the person who started the topic.

That was my point. The OP is working on client's data, and has
no clue what he is doing.