Data recovery after accidental cloning

[wealth14]

I have tried various software to recover data from my usb drive which was accidentally cloned. It is 1TB drive. Please tell me which software would do the job faster. I read a thread mentioning about R-studio and file scavenger.
I also checked the data recovery service which costs me at least $250.00. That would leave me no choice, but a good software to rescue the data. I want to try the first R-studio, but I did not see how I can try it first before buying it. Your help and suggestion are greatly appreciated.

[Vulcan]

I have tried various software to recover data from my usb drive which was accidentally cloned.

What exactly do you mean by "accidentally cloned"? Please explain in detail, including what software was used, the reasons why anything was being done at all (was there some problem you were trying to fix?), what other disks were involved in the "cloning" etc. etc.

[labtech]

To add, your USB flash drive is 1TB? Have not heard of one yet.

1GB maybe?

[guru]

Where did he say flash ???

[Vulcan]

@wealth14:

Also, to resolve the ambiguity of calling it a "USB drive", what is the make & model of this device which you are asking about?

I had interpreted your description as being a USB-attached hard disk (since you said it was 1TB), but that isn't the only interpretation, as you see above.

In short, as I said before: lots more detail needed from you!

[wealth14]

It is WD Passport 1TB. I have used various software: Magic Cute Data recovery, Recuva, Remo Recova, Savemyfiles, EASEUS, Wondershare Data Recovery, Launch Data recovery, and Stellar Phoenix Windows Recovery.

The mistake I made was I thought when I cloned the drive it would not overwrite the data in it. That caused the problem to begin with. What I want to do is to recover the data in that drive before I did the cloning. Do you think I have a chance to recover the data? If so, what software you suggest? BTW, the data recovery service is out of the question because the data is not worth hundreds of dollars.

Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks for your time and suggestions if you have any.

[wealth14]

@wealth14:

Also, to resolve the ambiguity of calling it a "USB drive", what is the make & model of this device which you are asking about?

I had interpreted your description as being a USB-attached hard disk (since you said it was 1TB), but that isn't the only interpretation, as you see above.

In short, as I said before: lots more detail needed from you!

In case my reply did not show up. Here the description about the USB drive, it is WD Passport 1TB. Please read my reply in another post about what software I used in the attempt to recover the data.

[drc]

What exactly do you mean by "accidentally cloned"? Please explain in detail, including what software was used, the reasons why anything was being done at all (was there some problem you were trying to fix?), what other disks were involved in the "cloning" etc. etc.

[wealth14]

What exactly do you mean by "accidentally cloned"? Please explain in detail, including what software was used, the reasons why anything was being done at all (was there some problem you were trying to fix?), what other disks were involved in the "cloning" etc. etc.

I used software called Reflect By Macrium. The problem was I should have mirrored the data in my laptop, instead of cloning it to the USB WD Passport 1TB. That is all the disks involved in this process.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[drc]

So, to be clear, you cloned disk A onto disk B, and are now trying to recover the contents of disk B that existed before you cloned disk A onto it?

What sizes are the two disks?

[Vulcan]

@wealth14:

I can see that you're trying to describe what you did, although there are some points where you haven't given enough detail for me to be sure that I've understood completely.

You said:

The mistake I made was I thought when I cloned the drive it would not overwrite the data in it.

That's correct, but I don't think you actually meant what you wrote (and the last word "it" is ambiguous, which I think is important in your story).

If you clone disk A to somewhere else (e.g. disk B), then this does not overwrite the data on disk A. But of course, it does write to disk B. Depending on the software used and options chosen within that software, then the clone of disk A, written to disk B, could:

1) be contained within a file in a filesystem on disk B; or
2) overwrite disk B from the start of that disk, thereby overwriting any filesystem or other data on disk B (depending on the amount of data being written).

(other options may also be possible, but those two are common possibilities).

The problem was I should have mirrored the data in my laptop, instead of cloning it to the USB WD Passport 1TB.

So I think you're saying that option (2) above applies, and that you cloned disk A (from your laptop?) onto disk B (that external WD 1TB disk?) accidently, and that there was data on that WD 1TB disk which you didn't want to lose. Is that approximately correct?

In short: Any data actually overwritten on the WD 1TB disk has gone, with zero chance of recovery. Any data which has not been overwritten may need a "raw recovery" to attempt recovery, and success will often depend on the amount of fragmentation of the files i.e. success is not guaranteed.

Other software could be tried (e.g. R-Studio, GetDataBack etc.), but let's ask some more questions:

- How big is the drive in your laptop?
- Did the "clone" process finish?

@drc:

I see you replied with a short version of the above, while I was typing that. Interesting that we both chose to use disk A & disk B terminology lol! Anyway, I'll leave you to it, to avoid any further duplicaton of effort.

[wealth14]

So, to be clear, you cloned disk A onto disk B, and are now trying to recover the contents of disk B that existed before you cloned disk A onto it?

What sizes are the two disks?

You got my point. Disk A is 500GB and disk B is 1 TB.

[wealth14]

@wealth14:

I can see that you're trying to describe what you did, although there are some points where you haven't given enough detail for me to be sure that I've understood completely.

You said:

The mistake I made was I thought when I cloned the drive it would not overwrite the data in it.

That's correct, but I don't think you actually meant what you wrote (and the last word "it" is ambiguous, which I think is important in your story).

If you clone disk A to somewhere else (e.g. disk B), then this does not overwrite the data on disk A. But of course, it does write to disk B. Depending on the software used and options chosen within that software, then the clone of disk A, written to disk B, could:

1) be contained within a file in a filesystem on disk B; or
2) overwrite disk B from the start of that disk, thereby overwriting any filesystem or other data on disk B (depending on the amount of data being written).

(other options may also be possible, but those two are common possibilities).

The problem was I should have mirrored the data in my laptop, instead of cloning it to the USB WD Passport 1TB.

So I think you're saying that option (2) above applies, and that you cloned disk A (from your laptop?) onto disk B (that external WD 1TB disk?) accidently, and that there was data on that WD 1TB disk which you didn't want to lose. Is that approximately correct?

In short: Any data actually overwritten on the WD 1TB disk has gone, with zero chance of recovery. Any data which has not been overwritten may need a "raw recovery" to attempt recovery, and success will often depend on the amount of fragmentation of the files i.e. success is not guaranteed.

Other software could be tried (e.g. R-Studio, GetDataBack etc.), but let's ask some more questions:

- How big is the drive in your laptop?
- Did the "clone" process finish?

@drc:

I see you replied with a short version of the above, while I was typing that. Interesting that we both chose to use disk A & disk B terminology lol! Anyway, I'll leave you to it, to avoid any further duplicaton of effort.

What you mentioned above is correct.
The drive in the laptop is 500GB
The clone process finished. That is the part I felt I should have canceled it.

[networks]

The space on the 1TB drive (B) that was over written by the data from the 500GB (A) is not recoverable as that space is now in use by the new data from drive (A). I have found recuva to be the better program it will parse the MFT and show you which files you are after on Drive (B) and if the space they did occupy has been overwritten. I have dealt with many cases similar to yours. If any files still exist that the space they did occupy has not been overwritten then you should be able to get them back. one other point Data Recovery is not "fast" it takes time sometimes lots of it and its not a simple press the red button and all the files are back sometimes it takes a "lot" of work to get the data off the drive.

[labtech]

To add, your USB flash drive is 1TB? Have not heard of one yet.

1GB maybe?

Yup, misread that. My fault.

[wealth14]

The space on the 1TB drive (B) that was over written by the data from the 500GB (A) is not recoverable as that space is now in use by the new data from drive (A). I have found recuva to be the better program it will parse the MFT and show you which files you are after on Drive (B) and if the space they did occupy has been overwritten. I have dealt with many cases similar to yours. If any files still exist that the space they did occupy has not been overwritten then you should be able to get them back. one other point Data Recovery is not "fast" it takes time sometimes lots of it and its not a simple press the red button and all the files are back sometimes it takes a "lot" of work to get the data off the drive.

Thanks for sharing information about the Recuva and Data Recovery process time. Have a great New Year!

[videoclips]

Cloned files? Have a try with a duplicate file cleaner, it may help you, if you just want to clean duplicated files.

[Vulcan]

Cloned files? Have a try with a duplicate file cleaner, it may help you, if you just want to clean duplicated files.

You have misunderstood. The OP's problem involved disk cloning. Using a "duplicate file cleaner" is not needed / helpful when discussing disk cloning, especially when the objective is data recovery.

[Gizmoho]

Hi.
I am using a ORICO product, ORICO 6629US3-C. This is a dual bay SATA hard disk dock.

Bay 1 is marked as Source.
Bay 2 is marked as Target.

My grandson accidentally pressed the cloning button and now my Target HDD (a WD 1TB which originally have TV Series video) now have the same videos as my Source HDD (a Seagate ITB containing movies).

Had contacted Orico but they are as useless as most Technical Support saying their product has no recovery function. And they can not help me.

I am hoping that I can recover all the TV series from the WD 1TB.

Is there a solution?

[HaQue]

If it is fully cloned, meaning not stopped during the process, then I am afraid you now have a backup of your Seagate

If you did stop it some time in, then depending on how important the data is, either create an image and work on that to avoid killing any more chances from the patient.. or simply run Data Recovery software such as R-Studio or GetDataBack on it, and save anything to a different drive. Most commonly you would put the patient in a a PC on a SATA port to do the recovery, or it would be acceptable to un Data Recovery from the current setup more than likely. I would take away any other disks for the time being to avoid any other mistakes.. this is common to happen because it is easy to second guess and do something wrong when you are already stressed.