Recuva indicates the files are there but none will open :(

[ES44AC]

I am trying to use Recuva to find a .jpg fine on my CF card. If I use the "deep scan" it indicates there are at least 200 files there, but after it gives me that pronouncement it doesn't show any previews good or failed.

 

The card was had a main folder on it and 3 sub folders, I'm thinkiing this is what's messing up the recovery?

 

I am trying to scan the main folder so you'd think all the sub folders would go with it.

 

If I just use the simplest method it shows me about 70 files and previews of them too, or most of them. I haven't used the card since I deteted the one file I wanted so nothing has overwritten existing data.

 

I don't get why the program shows me 200+ files but gives me no chance to view ANY of them. I don't mind waiting while it runs and searches, but don't tell me they are there and then not open them!

 

What am I doing wrong? All are .jpgs there are no RAW ones on the card fwiw.

 

Thanks in advance to all who reply,

 

ES44AC

[ripa]

i also try to recover my excell files by recuva . its recovered but when I open it with excel...its can not be read......junk

anyone can helps

[ES44AC]

i also try to recover my excell files by recuva . its recovered but when I open it with excel...its can not be read......junk

anyone can helps

 

Looks like no one is especailly bothered by our troubles..........<Sigh> the replies aren't exactly clogging up the board.

[DennisD]

Hi guys.

 

It isn't that no ones bothered with your problems, a lack of replies means that none of the guys who've been into the forum since you both first posted have a constructive answer for you. That just seems to be the way forums work. You never get a host of replies saying "sorry, can't help" as it's the accepted norm that non helpful replies aren't made.

 

We're all just volunteers (including moderators) who have no affiliation with Piriform, and provide help based only upon our own experience and what we learn from each other.

 

And when it comes to file recovery I'm afraid there just aren't any simple answers to questions like yours. If there were you'd have them by now. Once you've recovered your files, the state they're in is in the hands of the gods.

 

@ES44AC

 

The usual reason why files won't give a preview is because they haven't been recovered intact regardless of what condition the recovery program says they're in. And there isn't anything we could suggest to make a difference with that.

 

The biggest problem in my experience is fragmentation. It's very difficult and sometimes impossible for recovery programs to recover all the separate parts of a fragmented file, and I do know that most people don't start new batches of photographs (for example) by clearing and formatting the card to enable a clean fresh start.

 

The very large High Capacity cards used these days will probably always have some files on them and users don't seem to be aware that more and more file and free space fragmentation is happening all the time on those cards, resulting, in the event of a minor disaster, with fragmented files which are difficult or impossible to recover intact.

 

You will sometimes get a preview, but what you're previewing is the recovered thumbnail. Other parts of the file may be missing.

 

If the card or drive is being scanned and you can recover some files, then your achieving a lot more than some people can with more serious recovery problems, and there isn't anything we can tell you to improve on that except to suggest that the user try different settings within Recuva, such as check all the boxes in "Options\Actions" or at least the last four boxes, and to try a "deep scan" which you say you've already tried.

 

Try everything. Normal scan, deep scan and different settings. Short of that, I would also suggest trying other freeware recovery programs to eliminate the possibility that they will do what Recuva isn't doing although Recuva is probably the best of the freeware programs available.

 

A few freeware alternatives are mentioned at the end of this post ...

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=39946&do=findComment&comment=242629

 

@ ripa

 

Firstly, always start a new topic of your own as your problem isn't the same as the original posters.   And secondly, are Excell files .xml or similar (never used it) as it is apparently possible to repair a corrupt .xml file. See here ...

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=40170&do=findComment&comment=244136

 

We do care guys, otherwise we wouldn't give up our free time, but we just don't always have an answer for failed recovery issues.

 

You could of course purchase Recuva Professional, available here ...

 

http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

 

... which wouldn't give you better recovery functionality, but would give you direct support from the Piriform Development team.

 

Hope that helps.

[ES44AC]

Hi DennisD,

 

Thank you for taking the time to repsond to my/our questions.

 

It just puzzled me that I can see the program finding 200+ files and not showing a preview of any one file. Normal mode shows me 78 or so that can be recovered. odd that those 70+ don't show up as GOOD in the 200 others! If they are able to be recovered using normal mode. logic wouuld dictate those same files would show up in the deep scan. Or at least that's the way it seems to me it 'should' work!

 

I was interested in trying to find only one file and nothing had be added to the CF card to over write that existing data.

 

Not the end of the world it's only one file and I am making do without it.

 

I do appreciate all of the forums and the volunteers that man them, most don't have the time or inclination to do that. Thank you!

 

Regards,

 

ES44AC

[Augeas]

If Recuva shows 70+ files in a normal scan then it will show those in a deep scan, as a deep scan runs a normal scan first. If the deep scan doesn't find them go back and run a normal scan again to check if they're still there. A flash card will run wear levelling and garbage collection in the background as long as there's power available so - depending on the flash controller - you can't guarantee anything.

 

FAT32 - which I guess is the card's file system - chains the file's clusters in the allocation table. Whilst the directory entries for deleted files might still be accessible the cluster chains in the FAT could be in any state.

 

It appears that you have some sort of filter applied in Recuva? I would advise scanning unfiltered, and Advanced mode is in my opinion more manageable. It will make no difference to the scan time as Recuva does a full scan anyway before applying the filters - it has to as there's no way to pick what to scan before scanning. The card is not so large that a full scan will be unwieldy.

 

Previews in Jpeg files are held separately from the full-sized picture. Whilst loss of the preview indicates some data loss in the jpeg it doesn't necessarily mean that the jpeg is lost. Have you actually tried to recover the files? Jpegs are highly compressed and notoriously prone to one-bit-destroys-all corruption.

 

'Good', in Recuva's terms, means that the file is not, at this time, overwritten by another live or deleted file. That's all a bit of software can do, and that comes from interrogating the file tables. A file may be marked as good and contain rubbish, so don't put too much faith in that appellation. Recuva will blindly recover what's in the designated clusters, good, bad or indifferent. Clusters are just strings of bits, neither Recuva nor the card knows if they are valid files.

 

I would run a deep scan unfiltered and then recover the lot to a new folder on the HD. Then you can see what you have, and have not.