This partition had some very important mp3 and wavs files on it. I have tried 4 data reciovery prograns, 1 which worked and actually foundn the filenames of the old files, each with their original file sizes, but the program is, they do not play at all. They are corrupt. These files belong to music projects I was working on and will not load due to them being faulty somehow. Here's the orioginal thread ( not long) I posted over on the music boards here to give you guys a look on what ive been doing ( to avoid redundancy)



http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=110228


The last post someone gave me the hope of being able to revive the files, could anyone point me to a program that might be able to help? I can't afford to pay someone thousands of dollars to recover a few files from my hard drive. If thats the case, i'll take the hit.

Well, can't edit posts so heres my post edit..

This partition had some very important mp3 and wavs files on it. I have tried 4 data recovery programs, 1 which worked and actually found the filenames of the old files, each with their original file sizes, but the problem is, they do not play at all. They are corrupt. These files belong to music projects I was working on and will not load due to them being faulty somehow. Here's the original thread ( not long) I posted over on the music boards here to give you guys a look on what ive been doing ( to avoid redundancy)



http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=110228


The last post someone gave me the hope of being able to revive the files, could anyone point me to a program that might be able to help? I can't afford to pay someone thousands of dollars to recover a few files from my hard drive. If thats the case, i'll take the hit.

To other readers: To view the thread linked by the OP, you need to enter the password "lounge" when prompted for the password.

@Sunaj,

More details needed from you about the exact disk layout and about exactly what you have done (how did you delete the partition? exactly what changes have you made since you deleted the partition? etc. etc.) - this is because in your other thread, you mentioned that you have re-formatted & re-installed Windows. I've no idea why you did that, as that won't help to recover data. Provided that the deleted partition has not been changed since you deleted it, and it still shows as unallocated space, then there is still hope. However if you have changed partition sizes, or formatted that deleted partition, then things are more complicated.

There are many possible approaches for your problem. If you accept the risks of DIY recovery attempts then personally, I would make a raw clone of your whole disk, onto another (blank) disk of the same total capacity, so that you have a clone of how the disk is now - in case of any more human error. Then I'd try running Partition Find & Mount, to see if that can find the filesystem which was contained in your now-deleted partition. As I said, other approaches are possible...

P.S. I doubt that professional recovery for this type of problem would cost $thousands.

Well, it all started when My laptop would not boot into windows ( long complicated story) Being I only have one hard drive and my dvd burner is messed up, I had no means to back up any of my data luckily I was able to to boot into safe mode ONE TIME ( Couldnt anymore after that for whatever reason). I quickly purchased a flash drive with the last bit of money I had, and saved my music project files to the drive. BUT I forgot the MY MUSIC FOLDER! ( where relevant mp3s wavs were). I also had to take the hard drive out of my laptop because its GPU failed ( kept getting pixelated screen problems and such) so now i'm using it (Laptop HDD) in conjunction with my desktop.

I tried to reinstall windows ontop of the previous installation but couldn't ( forgot the message it was telling me) So I deleted the partition, formatted, and reinstalled windows. I have downloaded a few files to piece together a shadow of my former windows install ( music programs, etc) but thats it.

Now everytime I try to scan using recovery software I am getting very recent files instead of files I got after the first scans. I actually have recovered all the files I need, the problem is THEY SEEM CORRUPT AS THEY DO NOT PLAY OR OPEN IN ANY OF MY MUSIC APPLICATIONS.

I just replied but my post dissapeared. errrrrhh

Long story short,m laptop had laptop gpu problems, was f*ckin up, couldnt boot into windows, laptop completely failed. Was able to boot into safe mode one time prior, I purchased a flash drive with the last bit of money i had, and saved all project files to it EXCEPT FOR THE MY MUSIC FOLDER where relevant mp3s and .wavs were)

put the hdd inside my desktop machine which didnt have a hdd, tried to install windows over previous install without deleting/formatting partition. had no choice but to format and reinstall. Since then i've tried to rebuild what my windows used to be, redownloaded music specific applications, . i've deleted a few files here n there..but that is it.

Phoenix data recovery was ableto to recover all the files I needed, problem is they are all corrupt, and they wont play or load into my music apps

all other recovery apps i've tried are beginning to find RECENT files, including the phoenix

Since you are a "newbie" here, your "missing" posting appears to have been flagged for moderator approval - e.g. if it included a link or various other risk factors. You just have to wait for that "missing" posting to appear, after that moderator approval.

thanks, i edited the post before yours.. it mirrors what i posted before..

OK, I see the edits to your previous posting. FYI, your "missing" posting will likely appear when the moderators next view & approve the pending queue.

Unfortunately your reply doesn't answer my earlier questions, to the required level of detail for me to assist. I can't see where you have explained your previous disk partition layout; I don't see the proof that this was a GPU problem and not a disk problem; I don't see details of exactly which partition(s) you formatted with this disk in your desktop PC. That's just what is needed for readers to get started on understanding your situation.

Remember - readers here need lots of detail, to properly understand your situation, since you have made many changes already. It would be different if you were writing just after the first problems, and before you made any changes...

Not surprised that some recovery programs are finding only "corrupt" MP3s - that's typical in some situations. Unfortunately I've run out of time to help for a while, perhaps someone else understands your comments so far.

I'm not sure how to explain in further detail, honestly. My technical know how is pretty low

I have a 55 GB HDD that was only partitioned to C:/, hdd was not split, resized in anyway.

The laptop Model I have is notorius for GPU failure/ At least this is what I suspected, but that was a problem in and of itself alongside not being able to boot into windows. Then a few days Later I boot up the laptop and it said ntldr was missing. Before This I was able to log in using safe mode, only one time for whatever reason. I managed to retrieve project files but forgot about the music folder mentioned above.

Why's it typical for programs to find " unreadable" mp3s? is there a way to fix this? The files are just sitting here mimicking their former selves, except well, they're unreadable.

Thanks for the info. In this case, your posting on the other forum is misleading - it's not that you accidently deleted a partition which contained your music files. It now seems that you deliberately re-installed Windows onto the one and only partition which also included your music files, and not a separate partition at all (which was hinted at in the other forum IMHO, by the phases which were used, and that is why I was asking questions to clarify exactly what you meant).

Having only one partition and then formatting & re-installing Windows in that same partition where you also had files which you now want to recover, is a much, much worse situation than suggested by your posting in the other forum.

Someone else will have to explain the typical (limited!) recovery that might be possible, based on your new information, as I'm right out of time. Good luck!

P.S. Stop using that laptop and its disk now, to maximise the (limited) chances of successful recovery of any of the files!

alright.


well in my case, as i've said, I was able to recover the files, but they are unreadable for some reason. I have posted one of those fileso n the other forums if anyone wants to take a look at it. Maybe there's a program that can repair corrupt files?.


the laptop is out of commission. its hdd is in my desktop now, as its the oinly hdd I have, and the only computer in the house I have to use.

More than likely the reason the recovered files are corrupted is because parts of the files have been overwritten, meaning that there is still enough info to structurally find/locate the files, however they have missing data content. if a file is not whole, it will more then likely be corrupt. Some other type of files are not as sensitive to some missing data content, however music and video files are.

I am afraid that there is not much more to do.

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the file appears to be whole, at least as far as the size of the files are concerned.

Unfortunately for you, that reported size for recovered files is not helpful for confirming a correct recovery, if the filesystem has been (partially) overwritten, as in your situation - that's what labtech was also saying.

You need more step-by-step help than I have time to give at the moment. Continuing to use the ex-laptop disk in your desktop system, is a bad plan as I said before. All the time that Windows is running from that ex-laptop disk, you are reducing your chances of successful recovery of any of the original files. As an absolute minimum, buy a new disk for your desktop system, install Windows on that new disk, and do what I said before - stop using the ex-laptop disk until you've got a recovery plan that you're happy with (if you're prepared to take the risks of DIY), or until you get some hands-on help.

P.S. Some of the help on the other forum which you mentioned originally, is wrong for the same reason that I was originally trying to understand e.g. posting #35 from "pauldude" is taking your comment about deleting a partition at face value, and expecting that it was a separate partition which was deleted - but you've now explained in this thread, that this is not what happened.

I wish you good luck.

I agree with the above. I think your only chance for you to recover *some* of your data, as a last resort, is if you attempt a raw recovery. Problem is, since you're after music files (I presume mp3's?), then raw recovery might not be viable option either, because you'd have to listen to each and every one of them to understand which is which (since there will be no structure or file names). You can try it though. I expect most files to be corrupted, but maybe you can save a few.

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