Questions about restoring files and folders

[WiseFailure]

Ive just got a few small problems i need a little help with.

 

Heres a link to my first thread, just to see what kind of situation im in.

 

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,115253.0.html

 

 

Here is my current problem..

 

"When i restore my files(mostly pictures) will duplicates of the files that are being restored conflict, and prompt me to choose which one to keep and delete? Or will they just add all the files to where i tell them to go? Is it safe to choose the option "Restore folder Construction" if i am restoring the files to the SAME harddrive where some of the folders that i had deleted used to be, and in some cases Still are? What i want to do is create a NEW folder to restore Everything to. Then go Through that folder and choose what i want and dont want. Do i have that option if i choose "Restore folder construction"? Im thinking that, that term means to make it look the same as before it was deleted, No matter where you put it, right? ..."

 

Please help as soon as possible!!!

 

Thank you~.

[DennisD]

Hi WiseFailure, and welcome to the forum.

 

When i restore my files(mostly pictures) will duplicates of the files that are being restored conflict, and prompt me to choose which one to keep and delete? Or will they just add all the files to where i tell them to go

 

You must not restore the recovered files to the same drive as they will likely overwrite the files you are trying to recover, so the "conflict" situation won't arise. Restore to any other drive, either a partition on the same drive, an external hard drive, a USB flash (thumb) drive, or even a camera card if you have nothing else.

 

Once you press the "Recover" button you will get the dialogue box asking where you want to restore to.

 

Is it safe to choose the option "Restore folder Construction" if i am restoring the files to the SAME harddrive where some of the folders that i had deleted used to be, and in some cases Still are?

 

"Restore Folder Structure" doesn't mean that the files are to be recovered to the same folders they were deleted from, it means they will be restored to folders of the same name in another location, ie. Deleted from C:\My Documents\My Pictures, will be recovered to E:\My Documents\My Pictures.

 

Recuva will restore with the same folder structure.

 

Then go Through that folder and choose what i want and dont want. Do i have that option if i choose "Restore folder construction"? Im thinking that, that term means to make it look the same as before it was deleted, No matter where you put it, right? ..."

 

Right. As explained above.

 

Hope that helps, and good luck.

[WiseFailure]

Hi WiseFailure, and welcome to the forum.

 

 

 

You must not restore the recovered files to the same drive as they will likely overwrite the files you are trying to recover, so the "conflict" situation won't arise. Restore to any other drive, either a partition on the same drive, an external hard drive, a USB flash (thumb) drive, or even a camera card if you have nothing else.

 

Once you press the "Recover" button you will get the dialogue box asking where you want to restore to.

 

 

 

"Restore Folder Structure" doesn't mean that the files are to be recovered to the same folders they were deleted from, it means they will be restored to folders of the same name in another location, ie. Deleted from C:\My Documents\My Pictures, will be recovered to E:\My Documents\My Pictures.

 

Recuva will restore with the same folder structure.

 

 

 

Right. As explained above.

 

Hope that helps, and good luck.

 

 

Thanks alot. I have another question too.

 

Can i run recuva on the linux operating system Unbuntu?

[kroozer]

Can i run recuva on the linux operating system Unbuntu?

System Requirements

[WiseFailure]

Alright im running Recuva now. I took teyh chance of restoring my files to the SAME drive that they were deleted/disapeared from, but i put them in a separate folder like i said. The harddrive itself is in perfect condition. The deletion of the files was my fault, so i dont think it was corrupted or anything. Plus the files sayd they were in "excellent" condition. Was this a stupid risk? What will happens when the "reduced chance of a successful" actually means that my recovery was a failure? What will happen the the files? will the get scattered?

 

Please reply as soon as possible!!! Thanks

[WiseFailure]

Alright im running Recuva now. I took teyh chance of restoring my files to the SAME drive that they were deleted/disapeared from, but i put them in a separate folder like i said. The harddrive itself is in perfect condition. The deletion of the files was my fault, so i dont think it was corrupted or anything. Plus the files sayd they were in "excellent" condition. Was this a stupid risk? What will happens when the "reduced chance of a successful" actually means that my recovery was a failure? What will happen the the files? will the get scattered?

 

Please reply as soon as possible!!! Thanks

 

Alright, there were quite a bit of files that were unable to be recovered, but thats fine. It didnt do a perfect job at reconstructing the folders. This is also fine. Overall it was a success.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Time to sort through it all ...

[DennisD]

I wouldn't say recovering to the same drive was a stupid risk, but you were risking overwriting some before they were recovered.

 

If they were something like irreplaceable family snaps, then you probably realise yourself as to whether the risk was getting into the realms of stupid. It really isn't worth the risk unless you can afford to lose them permanently.

 

As it turns out, I'm pleased you're satisfied with what you recovered.

 

One final point comes to mind. Get into the habit of "backing up". Saves a lot of headaches.

 

Have a look at "Karens Replicator" as a good example of a data backup program. (Freeware)

 

And check out "Macrium Reflect" as a good freeware "Disk Image Backup" application.

 

Something to think about.

[WiseFailure]

BIG PROBLEM

 

I used the option to restore the folders, as i mentioned before. But.. i seem to be missing a subfolder. I deleted the entire contents of the Whole folder All at once. Where did this folder go? Even if the folder was overwritten, wouldnt it still appear as a folder with its original name, even if the files it contained were unable to be recovered? Please help. I want this folder to reappear so i can make it disappear permanently. I say "reappear" because the Very First folder that caused this whole situation was simply "hidden" despite me telling it to Not be hidden. The folder showed up fine on my Unbuntu OS, but not my Windows7. But this particular folder that has been recovered, that contains a subfolder that i deleted along with the entire contents of the folder, is missing. Gone!

 

Question. Do folders and files that have NOT been deleted, but have been transferred to another hard drive, show up on the Recuva file restore tree?

 

Please help as soon as possible. Thanks.

[Augeas]

Do you mean an empty subfolder? It appears that Recuva does not list empty folders in its tree view, and presumably doesn't include them when it restores the folder structure. Either this is a Recuva decision or something to do with the way NTFS holds its empty folder information.

 

I have no idea what 'I want this folder to reappear so i can make it disappear permanently' means, unless you want to recover a folder and then delete it again, which makes no sense.

 

I'm not too sure about your question, either. Whether you copy files and folders to another entity has no relevance to what Recuva sees. Recuva will show non-deleted files and tree structures if the correct option is chosen, but you can't restore non-deleted files. I have a feeling though that this is not what you're asking.

[WiseFailure]

Do you mean an empty subfolder? It appears that Recuva does not list empty folders in its tree view, and presumably doesn't include them when it restores the folder structure. Either this is a Recuva decision or something to do with the way NTFS holds its empty folder information.

 

I have no idea what 'I want this folder to reappear so i can make it disappear permanently' means, unless you want to recover a folder and then delete it again, which makes no sense.

 

I'm not too sure about your question, either. Whether you copy files and folders to another entity has no relevance to what Recuva sees. Recuva will show non-deleted files and tree structures if the correct option is chosen, but you can't restore non-deleted files. I have a feeling though that this is not what you're asking.

 

I hate to disagree with a moderator, but i Did actually "restore" non-deleted files. At least, thats what the results of my restore showed.

 

What i am saying is, The subfolder that is missing, was FULL, and it was deleted along with the folder it was being contained in. But that subfolder did not appear on the list of folders/files to be restored. There is no trace that i can see, of the files or the folder.

 

This particular folder, is a folder that i did intend to delete, and the fact that i cant find it makes me nervous, because i want it to be erased. If only files that have been deleted can be restored, why isnt this folder showing up so that i can restore it? Because i Did in fact delete it.

[WiseFailure]

Lets just pretend that what im doing makes sense. The issue here is, Recuvas purpose is to recover files and folders that have been deleted. I deleted a (sub)folder but its not showing up in a way that i can view it and restore it. How? Why?

 

Id really like to get to the bottom of this, with your help.

[Alan_B]

but i put them in a separate folder like i said.

 

In my view putting them in a separate folder was a total waste of time.

 

Let me explain with numbers.

 

If you have lost 1 GB of Files and you have 2 GB of free space,

then 50% of that free space are what you lost and will be destroyed if over-written.

The O.S. writes files into sectors that are what it considers to be free space,

and the sectors it selects are not affected by the destination folder which will contain the new file,

hence your creation of a dedicated folder had no effect on the outcome.

 

If the first file you recover is 1 MB it has a 50% chance of destroying something not yet recovered,

and a 0.05% chance it will be destroying itself.

Perhaps 50% of the files might be recovered at best.

 

Unfortunately reality often bites harder than average statistics.

Cluster bombs and hand grenades fragment to increase the extent of inflicted damage.

If the deleted files and the free space are severely fragmented then it only needs a single portion to be destroyed for recovery to be a failure.

 

You can recover to the same physical HDD if it has alternative Partitions.

 

Alan

[Augeas]

I hate to disagree with a moderator, but i Did actually "restore" non-deleted files.

You are quite correct, that was my brain fading a little more. You can't securely overwrite non-deleted files (which we're not discussing anyway) but you can recover them to a different location, which I have done many times with system files such as $MFT.

 

Right, so there is a folder containing files which was deleted and Recuva can't find either the files or the folder?

 

All this is intuitive, as I don't know how Recuva works any more than the next person. Furthermore I have not looked at the folder structures in the MFT in great detail. But we know that there is an record in the MFT for every file and folder. When a file or folder is deleted then that record is flagged as deleted, and can be reused by any other file or folder allocation. So it is possible that the record for this particular folder has been reused. In this case Recuva won't be able to see it as the contents have been overwritten.

 

It is quite likely that many, or perhaps all, of the files in that folder still have their MFT records complete. Inside those records is a reference to the folder that 'owns' them. However this folder record has been reused, so these files are orphans. If you look at Recuva's output in tree view there may be many files under the root, with a structure of C:\?\. I believe, and I may well be wrong, that these are the orphan files.

 

So it may well be that your missing folder has gone forever, and there's no need to worry about it.

 

Although Recuva's purpose is to recover files and folders that have been deleted, it can only identify and recover what is on the disk at the moment it is run.

[WiseFailure]

Alright, I figured that's what happened. Thanks again for the guidance!