Recovery Process

[CheriHVA]

I may have accidentally done a quick format on my 2GB Wd external drive.  All I know is that at 6:30, the only thing that was on my drive since 3:30 was 15 temporary files.

 

I have 3 years of information on that drive.  Thankfully, I backed up six months ago.  But still, I would like to recover what I lost.  I installed Recuva.  It has been running a week, and says it is 13% percent complete and found 175353 files.  It says it has 20 days left to go.  

 

I know I chose a deep scan.  I don't know if things are going along as they should...if in a month I will get all my files back, or if I am waiting in limbo for something that will not work.

 

Also, I don't know what to expect when this scan completes.  What options will come up when the scan is done?

 

Does anyone have any experience that can encourage me one way or the other?  Thanks, Cheri

[Fractalogic]

Wait... what? A 2 GB external drive from Western Digital? How old is that drive? What kind of interface is it using? What kind of computer is it attached to? Are you sure you didn't mean to say a USB drive? Those are external too you know, but then again... I don't think WD makes those.

 

I didn't get that time reference... you lost what and when? You lost 15 temporary files at 3:30? Then what happened at 6:30?

 

It's a good thing that you backed up then. But what you're saying is that you have made changes since your last backup that you would like to recover if possible?

 

Are you kidding? The scan operation has been running for 7 days? That's not normal. Far from it! You would need to be using something like the original PC and a real old disk drive for that to make any sense. But then again, Recuva won't run on anything that old.

 

I would recommend doing a simple scan first, before doing the deep scan. Always! Sometimes, there is no sane reason to do a deep scan for something that a simple scan can pick up much more quickly. If it does not, then you switch to deep scan mode.

 

If you cancel the operation, you will be presented with a list of files that the program has found. Obviously it won't present you the files it could have found had it not been interrupted. It will tell you which files it thinks are healthy, and which ones are not. You can then select which ones you want to recover. It may or may not be able to recover the files you want. You can use the search function to locate the files you want if there are many files to scroll through.

 

I would recommended that you immediately stop saving any new files to the drive. If the scan has been going on for that long I would recommend that you cancel it. See if it found anything useful. If so, recover it to a separate drive, not to the patient drive. If not, then go on and do a simple scan. If it doesn't find anything useful, go ahead and do a deep scan. Let it scan till it finishes. Also note that the computer needs to be running all the time during the operation. You can't put it to sleep and then wake it up the next morning and continue. Even if it works I do not recommend that.

 

If all this fails, give it up and tap yourself on the shoulder for creating a backup before the disaster happened. It would have been much worse had you not created that backup.

[Augeas]

Well, maybe 2TB makes more sense. Also on a formatted drive a normal scan won't show up much at all. As the deep scan has been running a week I should hang on a little longer (although I agree that a week is a very long time). If the scan is halted then I would try a normal scan with Scan for Non-Deleted Files checked.

[CheriHVA]

I'm sorry, let me clarify.  I meant WD Elements 2TB.  And the time frame is this:  I was working all day.  At 6:30 in the evening I came in to open my tax program, and it couldn't find any saved file.  I opened Windows Explorer and clicked on my portable drive.  It was empty.  It showed that at 3:30 that afternoon, 15 temporary files had been written.  That was all that was on the drive.  I know I was working on the drive at 3:00 p.m. so something happened in that three hour window.  

 

I do remember using a thumb drive, and I had formatted it.  All I can think is that I may have formatted the wrong drive letter.  No one can feel worse than me about it.  Thankfully, I remained calm, and didn't let it send me into outer space!  Ha!  I googled and found Recuva, and after reading about its great results, downloaded it and started it.  I am still hoping for the best.

 

I hope I didn't rile Mr. Fractalogic.  I am 60, and I often mix up my own kids names.  Besides that, all my life I mix up GB with TB.  I am from the dinosaur age, and MB and GB are burnt into my brain....You see, I come from the pre-dos world, and I am honestly doing my best to keep up with technology.  Ha! I did mean TB.

 

Thank you Augeas, I will cancel the scan and follow your instructions.  Thanks for the help!

 

Cheri

[CheriHVA]

I stopped the deep scan.  I ran a normal scan and it said it didn't find any files.  I clicked next, and WHOA!  There was all 175,353 files!  I simply checked the top box, which selects all the files and have begun the recovery.  It says it will be three days, but that is okay.  I am very patient.  I know alot of it is my Old Time Radio, and I have every bit of that backed up, but I felt it was safer just to choose it all.

 

Thanks so much for your help!

 

Cheri