Hi all,

I have tried recuva so far. It does get a lot of files back. The problem is I saved all photos but one folder before re-installing Windows.
I know the folder name, so it would be great if you could tell me a software which can look for particular folder names.
Problem is that if I let Recuva run through it, it finds hundreds and hundreds of photos which all are indexed from 1-111111...
Yes I could spend hours and hours finding the missing photos, but I'm just wondering if there isn't a better software out there if I know the folder's name?

Thank you

***EDIT***

I'm willed to spend money for the software, as I'm sure it won't be the last time it comes in handy

I would try some more software, but it's likely the file names and folder structure will be gone forever.

But, with images, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. I recommend sorting by file size after recovering all the files. The largest ones will likely be ones taken from a digital camera (if that's what you are looking for).

There are also some data recovery software programs which will search for photos "taken from a digital camera," which can make finding "photos" easier. Not sure which ones do that off hand, maybe File Scavenger?

Also note: if you are still using the computer with the deleted data on it, you are reducing your chances for success, as you are constantly overwriting your deleted data when the computer is in use. You should be hooking up the drive with deleted data to another computer and scanning it from there.

Good luck!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

Use DMDE (scan NTFS)

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data recovery Poland

Some Win7 format processes can extend $MFT making it larger and can then damage hundreds of previous records. The install would cause damage to any data occupying the sectors allocated for the installation. Continuing to use the machine and installation of software to it simply adds to the complications.

As long as the media is physically healthy and it is fitted as a secondary HDD to another system it will be relatively safe to try several commercial software titles until you get the desired result.

The signature recovery for Digital Camera JPEG files is actually a good suggestion if this is the only data you need...

You could use the "Find" function in Windows.

Look for files named "*.jpg" containing text "kodak" or "canon", etc.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

wow ,
Windows Search To Recover Data .

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Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

Yes, it really is that simple. Sometimes you just need a little understanding and a knowledge of first principles.

When I started out in third party maintenance many years ago, there were no tools to do my thinking for me. I had to work with what was available, or make my own tools, both hardware and software.

My first data recovery was on a proprietary, undocumented file system, running on a Data General Nova clone. My data recovery software consisted of a 30-word machine language routine which I had written myself and which I fingered into memory via 16 toggle switches. With it I was able to reconstruct the root directory of a file system that had been accidentally initialised.

I also wrote a 30-word machine language routine to perform head alignments, and similar routines for servo testing, buffer RAM testing, etc.

So, yes, it is possible to do a great deal with very little, if you have the insight and knowhow. I have no doubt that some of the older (pre-PC3K) DR pros have similar experiences.

Btw, I Used To Think Your Word Case Was Trend-setting, But Now It's Just Annoying.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Well,
left the title casing for you ,we all are still interested to see how you recover files with windows search .come on man buck up just tell us .Sometimes when you comment i feel you go off the board .Might be i could create another thread named " Learn how to recover files by windows search : Author : Fzabkar "

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Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

I think the poster meant to filter the recovered files and only keep the big ones. Search tools can filter by metadata sometimes. But yeah, it's kind of hard to recover files that have no file records in the existing file system (the whole point of formatting is to replace those records!).

OP did a format and windows reinstall and is looking for pictures that existed previously. Obviously "find" is not going to find anything that does not currently exist in the filesystem.

To OP, you're likely not going to get any better results than you are getting with Recuva. You could try R-Studio and GetDataBack (I believe these both have free trials) just to double-check.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Amarbir, clearly you have a comprehension problem.

The OP has already Recuva'd his/her photos. Unfortunately the original filenames and folder structures appear to be lost forever, so the problem is now to identify and collate the files.

bcometa has suggested that the results be sorted according to size, or that certain software be used to examine the file contents for information that would identify whether the file was produced by a camera.

My suggestion was that Windows already had a "find" feature that could do what the OP requires.

Here is an example:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/temp/pix_find.jpg

Unfortunately I am not in the habit of setting the date and time on my camera, but if the OP had done so, then there would be additional search criteria.

In fact one could use a word processor or a simple DOS text editor to examine the files for suitable search strings:

edit /r /64 filename.jpg

Here are several likely candidates:

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK DX4530 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA
2003:01:01 12:03:21 2003:01:01 12:03:21
KDK0002IDX4530

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Problem is this. You already installed windows ?? on this computer. Was it XP. Vista, or Windows 7???

How did you install it? Did you make a new install and a new format? What OS did you have on your system before you reinstalled it and what OS did you use to reinstall this one with? You are not giving all the details on this one sorry. There is a lot of information that is not actually here. But all in all you installed the OS again on your computer. OK if you did this one then only way to find your old files is RAW recovery. Yes in RAW recovery you are seeing sector name on this one. That is why they call it RAW recovery or search for deleted files or in your case an OS over write. RAW recovery is only finding the information that has not been over written by the new OS install that you did. When you install a new OS this creates everything new. So your old stuff is gone and now you have a new install on your system and can start over fresh. You will need to search through all this stuff in order to find the photos you want. Good luck on this one. There is RAW recovery here so you have to get what you have that has not been over written by the new OS install for you.

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Iorana Haraharaini