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Recover directory structure on second attempt?


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I jumped right in on using recuva to recover my files. It found everything I lost immediately, so I went ahead with the recovery process. Here is the problem: I jumped in so quick that I started the recovery process without first finding and turning on the "restore directory structure" option. After the initial recovery, it appears I have all my lost files, but now all the files I am trying to recover show a path of "F:\Recycle Bin\[chinese characters?]" on a second scan with recuva, so the original directory structure appears to have been destroyed. Did Recuva overwrite the original directory structure in the recovery process, or is it still possible to recover the original pathnames for all the files so I can restore the directory structure even though I accidentally did not do so the first time?

 

It would be a giant pain (read: nigh impossible) to restore the original directory structure by hand. Any suggetsions for this problem? Will a deep scan recover the original pathnames?

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What drive letters were you trying to Recuva from and where were you saving what was recovered ?

 

What was the total size you wished to recover?

 

What was the total size of the partition that lost the data?

 

How did the data get lost in the first place ?

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You can run as many recoveries, in as many formats, as many times as you wish. Recuva will not change anything on the source disk.

 

Of course if you recover back to the same disk you're recovering from, then you're overwriting what you're recovering, which is not a good thing.

 

A deep scan will not recover the path names.

 

Plus what Alan said.

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What drive letters were you trying to Recuva from and where were you saving what was recovered ?

It was F:\. It's an external hard drive, and I was recovering to a different external.

 

What was the total size you wished to recover?

62 gigs in 12,000 files.

 

What was the total size of the partition that lost the data?

465 gigs

 

How did the data get lost in the first place ?

Simple (accidental) delete operation. It's not a damaged disk or anything, just a huge folder that should not have been deleted.

 

See, the first time I ran the scan, Recuva showed the full, original pathnames for all the files it discovered. I should have selected, "restore directory structure," but I didn't. Now, every time I re-scan, all the path names are as I said above. If Recuva doesn't actually change the disk from which it is recovering data, then is the pathname issue I'm seeing purely cosmetic? If I go back and attempt another recovery--and this time select "restore directory structure"--will Recuva still be able to restore the original directory structure?

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Did you delete the folder (and contents) to the recycler, and then empty that, or what?

 

No, Recuva will not restore any folder structure different from what the scan says.

 

What O/S are you using? Do you know whether the F drive (holding the lost folder) is NTFS or FAT?

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Did you delete the folder (and contents) to the recycler, and then empty that, or what?

I did a delete/empty recycle bin, yes, but I haven't altered the drive I'm recovering from in any way since the delete.

 

I believe the drive is FAT formatted. I'm using Windows 7.

 

If Recuva doesn't alter the disk where it is trying to recover data, then why is it that the initial scan showed the original pathnames, but now (after doing a full recovery without restoring directory structure) they're gone?

 

I'm starting to think that whatever happened, the directory structure is permanently lost. At least I still have all the files, even if I'm going to have to sort them into some kind of structure by hand now.

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If Recuva doesn't alter the disk where it is trying to recover data, then why is it that the initial scan showed the original pathnames, but now they're gone?

The loss of original pathnames suggests that something has written to drive F:\.

This could be due to :-

A mistake when you quickly clicked that set the destinations as F:\;

A mistake in the external connections / hardware such that the data intended for your destination drive ?:\ happened to also hit F:\;

Automatic operation of backup / archiving software that was independent of your actions and happened to use F:\ as its destination;

 

 

What version of Recuva ?

(specific number please - "latest" is a variable I do not trust)

 

How were your external drives connected ?

(eSATA, USB2, USB3, etc.)

 

What was the drive letter that you intended as the destination ?

 

What was the format of both the source and destination drives ?

( Using Windows Explorer select a drive and right click and choose properties and it will show you )

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