Restoring file structure from damaged disk

[rbdavis]

Hi All 

 

Was wondering if anyone could help me out with a problem I'm having. My 1TB external hard drive has been corrupted (corrupted MFT) and I can't access it. I have attempted to recover it using Recuva with a deep scan and the restore folder structure option ticked and it seems to recover all my files with their correct names. However the file structure is not being recovered or in the few instances where it is..... the files are in the incorrect folder. 

 

I should also mention that the drive has a lot of data, ~700GB, however the deep scan only took 4 hours 30 mins, which seems a little short given some of the lurking I've done round these forums. I should also add, I tried a similar recovery using M3 Data Recovery tool and it took a similar amount of time and returned all the files in their correct folders, however the software only allows 1GB of recovery at a time, which is why I can't use that tool to get my files back. 

 

Is there an advanced option or setting in Recuva that I need to use to fix this, otherwise I am looking at thousands of files which are all over the place and would take a long time to organise. 

 

Appreciate any help or tips in this situation 

[Augeas]

It is not possible to restore the file structure with a deep scan. The deep scan finds files only. The file names are held in the MFT, and the directory info is in the MFT also. In fact directories only exist in the MFT. A deep scan runs a normal scan first (which scans the MFT) so you will see some file with names and directories. Even with a normal scan if the directory entry in the MFT has been deleted and overwritten the directory structure will not be able to be reconstructed, and you will see a ? in the path showing this.