Data Recovery for 5 TB video files

Kisianik

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Jan 24, 2013
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HI
Just got freaky accident - lost all my backup video files, total about 5.5 TB.
Nothing is corrupted, was moving files from 8TB HDD to 10TB HDD and forgot to initialize 10TB HDD, somehow files were transferred. Then I deleted files from 8TB and started write test on 8TB. In a few minutes I wanted to open 10TB HDD and it was not listed. I stopped write test on 8TB.

First question. Which HDD is easier to recover. 8Tb deleted files and started write test (fill with zeros) for about 1-2 minutes or 10TB which accepted transfer, but mysteriously was not initialized.

I checked recommended Recuva, but it shows only 1,900 files for recovery, I am sure I got much more than that, and it will take 14 hours to do the job (for 8TB drive), trying now anyway.

Does anyone had experience with anything faster and better. Commercial/paid programs are OK, as long as they will do the job and can, at least, scan HDD really fast for lost files, so I can at least see the number and compare different programs.

Appreciate in advance any experienced help.

Update. I just bite a bullet and got MiniTool Power Data recovery personal edition and started scanning 10TB "lost partition", which had exact number of files as 8TB, but Minitool shows slmost 22,500 files, which is closer to the reality.

So right now I am running Recuva for 8TB and MiniTool for 10TB. Recuva stated 14 hours for 1,900 files and MiniTool 26 hours for 22,500 files.

But more suggestions are appreciated.
 
Solution
Another tool to try would be TestDisk.

As said, you will need another drive to potentially recover to, and....the more you mess with this, the less likely there is of any 'recovery'.
The goal is to recover the files.

Although "faster and better" is desirable that is the least of your worries.

Just focus on finding and retrieving the files by any available means.

The overall rule is to not write to or otherwise make changes on the original storage drive.

Not sure, full disclosure, about what may have actually managed to get transferred to the "not-initialized" 10TB drive.

And start looking for any earlier backups. See what you can find and recover there.


 

Kisianik

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Check my first post, just updated it.
 

Kisianik

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I hope any MODs will jump in and advice, because I think I remember number of files around 30,000 something or so.
Also, I don't have enough space on my other HDDs in the system to recover 5.5 TB of data, so I would have to probably overwrite 80TB for which Recuva shows only 1,900 files, or maybe, I will recover 1,900 files first to somewhere, and then recover 10TB files to 8TB HDD.
 

Kisianik

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So far MiniTool file counter continue to increase and already passed 29,380 files, which is getting closer to the actual number, and it is only 23% complete.
I hope there would not be duplicates, as I recall last time I used data recovery about 10 years ago using EasyUS, that was a nightmare, also EasyUS did not recover file names, all files were numbered....
 
Try doing the "recoveries" in groups.

Is there a search or wild card function that will look for filenames that start with, for example, the letters "a" to "e".

Just recover a modest sized block of files if possible. Then go on to the next block being "f" to "j" perhaps.

And so on.

 

Kisianik

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Jan 24, 2013
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Tried recover even single file from all scanned files - no go. Hell with it.

Finished RECUVA recovery of brand new WD 8TB hard drive (this drive was brand new and completely blank prior to those files, big help).

First facts.
Files lost were simply deleted from hard drive, but I started overwriting this hard drive with zeros in RANDOM pattern as part of HDSentinel WRITE test. This process continued for about 2 minutes or less, till I realized that second hard drive, where I was copying those files, lost those files as well due to my mistake (was tired). I think, if I did not start WRITE test, recovery percentage could be better.

Total data lost - 3.38TB or 2775 files
Data recovered - 3.15TB or 2749 files
Data lost forever - 232.61GB or 26 files

Folder structure was also recovered and so far seems to be correct.
I played about 20 files, they are working, just in the beginning of the file, I can hear short "click". I guess I have to live with that reminder of the recovery process.

Most likely I can get those files later back from the original sources, but it will take enormous time, but in those circumstances it is considered acceptable loss.

Now bad part.
Recuva doesn't have function to save results of the scan, so if you have to turn PC off or just close Recuva for what ever reasons - all results are lost. I had to do rescan, because I did not have required amount of space available and had to transferred files around from my external Hellium WD My Book 8TB drive. And in the process of doing so, I reactivated some nasty RANSOMWARE, so I had to do Malwarebytes removal in the Safe Mode (if you have some nasties, always remove them with malwarebytes in the Safe Mode, works 100%).

Another bad, very bad part of Recovering Folder Structure Recuva option - by DEFAULT Recuva overwrites recovered original files with zeroes (you can choose different methods), and there is no way to disable it.
So, if you could not recover some files, or recovered files are not readable, you can not get another tool to get those files, because they are overwritten with zeroes. I checked Recuva forums, many people requeste "Secure Overwrite" function disabled, but Recuva does't care.

When I realized what will happen, I got my old portable 500GB Seagate external empty (simply deleted all files there) hard drive and placed some videos there. Then deleted those videos and run Recuva on it to see what it can do in controlled environment. I was able to recover those project files and they were working. Then I rescan with Recuva again to see what happened to those files. Those files were GONE from hard drive, but, big BUT, those files were saved on that hard drive somehow under different earlier date and in strange places (I know for sure that I did not place those files there before).
So, I guess, Recuva doesn't completely destroying recovered files, so if you lost small number of files and know their exact names, you can still repeat that process with another tool, it will take just much more time to recover them.
Considering me dealing with almost 20,000 files, that would be a major headache looking for those files.

So, taking into the consideration that I have another copy of all those files on the other 10TB hard drive with lost partition, I am planning to format 8TB drive for the recovery attempt (I need blank drive to recover 10TB drive) of my other lost duplicate files. Maybe, I will be able to get those lost 26 files from the other hard drive.

This is my plan for the next few days. Forget to mention. Recuva takes almost 15 hours to scan 8TB very fast hard drive on SATA III connection, your scanning speed results may vary. And I have overclocked 4790K Gaming PC, so plenty of power for scanning.

Until next update.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
This pains me to read.
This is specifically what the word "backup" means.

Any recovery must be done to a different drive. If you do not have one, buy one.

Video files in particular are hard to recover. Any of the tools may recover the file table and file names. Success, right? No. That has little to do with recovering the actual content in toto, in a playable video form.

Writing zeros on this drive? Even less chance of ever getting anything back in full format.

Oh you also triggered the lingering ransomware? :pfff: Why was that still extant?

The more you mess with this conglomeration, the less likely you are to actually get anything back apart from the filenames.


Question....what are these video files? If they are NOT personal videos that you took and there is no possibility of another copy existing....screw it. Obtain them again, from wherever you got them in the first place.
If they ARE personal videos, that you took with your own camera....you may have to look at this as a life lesson.
Backup, backup, backup



This could have been 100% prevented with a single $200 drive, and an actual backup routine.
 

Kisianik

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My short story. I got 2 WD Gold HDDs for backups (I know that it is overpriced overkill, but I got 10TB with WD coupon for less than 8TB, somewhere alike $100 USD less than sticker price, wow) one after another.
I decided to go Gold after WD Black, I had previously, crapped out suddenly after just 3 years. I have also RED drives (I don't have RAID, JBOD only) as storage, but REDs are slow for my purpose. I use REDs for Active storage (I use WD Greens and Blues for Cold storage, copy data and remove from PC), but for huge video files REDs are too slow.
My video files comes from streaming legal video sites. So, from 26 lost files 24 were movies and 2 were Acronis backups.
So far, I choose randomly to replay some recovered files and they are working 100%, just added short "click" in the beginning of the file. No personal files lost after Recovery, but I did not check them all yet, maybe some would not work, who knows.

Now, I am planning to see if I can use Recuva on my other drive with lost partition. If I am lucky, I will get those 26 files (I care most about Acronis backups).
I have crappy DSL Internet, so getting back those files will take very, very long time, hence I store videos first to watch later smoothly.

And lastly
This could have been 100% prevented with a single $200 drive, and an actual backup routine.

I got those drives from WD directly. First I got WD Gold 2TB to substitute crapped out 1TB Black, WD gave me a 20% discount coupon for the next purchase, so I got next 8TB Gold with this discount for about $275 or so, got another 20% discount, which I lost, so I talked with WD Support and they gave me 25% discount instead of 20%, I did not complained and got 10TB Gold for the price less than 8TB sticker price or around only $300 or so. Now I got 20% discount again for my future purchases directly from WD, not bad I would say, at least for pricing.

Thais is about it.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
OK...color me confused....

If these were "backup" drives and copies...they should still exist on the primary?
A backup is a second, or third, or fourth, copy.

A misclick resulting in deletion or overwriting with zeros should not impact the original files.
 

Kisianik

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Jan 24, 2013
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WD Gold are new line, previously it was WD RE line - top of the line HDDs for heavy duty servers.

I was in process of creating backups.
Chronological steps.
I gathered all files on 8TB HDD and was prepare 10TB for the final storage. Prepare new HDD means - I scanned and stress tested new HDD with HDSentinel including write test, it passed with flying colors, so to speak. Next, it was late night and I was tired, I forgot to create a partition on 10TB drive, I think, but somehow, not sure how, I was able to open this 10TB (mystery for me) and copied all those files from 8TB, went to bed, in the morning I checked if the files were copied, and yes, they were, so I deleted 8TB drive files and started WRITE test (I did not do this test when I purchased 8TB initially.
Next I realized that there is no partition on 10TB and I lost all those files. So, I stopped WRITE test of 8TB drive (it lasted only 1-2 minutes, but it was random test) and run Recuva on that 8TB.

Now I am thinking how to run Recuva on the drive without partition.
If I create partition, would I able to use Recuva or not, because, I think I would also have to format 10TB in order for this drive to be seen by Recuva.
This is now a big question.

Do you know if there any other free tools to scan and recover 3TB data on lost partitions?

Thanks for the participation and any future help

 

Kisianik

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Jan 24, 2013
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I reviewed TestDisk before, it seems complicated, oh well, many of my posts here goes unanswered since I am asking complicated questions. Simple ones I can fix myself.
I am using external WD My Book 8TB for recovery, so no worries here.

I will try TestDisk, I guess. Will post here any findings.

Lets see.....
 

Kisianik

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Running now. It is DOS looks like applet, it is a headache for sure. I wish there was windows similar program. I don't mind complexity, but it will take very long time just to learn that thing.

All I need is to get those 26 files (will check if I can get 24 files from the net, if yes, screw those backups, if not, will think) missing from Recuva recover of smaller, 8TB HDD.
 

Kisianik

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Now when I have cleaned 8TB drive for TestDisk recovery of 10TB, nothing happenes.

I went through all TestDisk prompts and selected to copy files and where to copy - nothing is going, at least visually.

Does it mean TestDisk can not do anything in my case?

Please advise and correct me if necessary.

Edit.

CkOk1z7.jpg


I just have blinking cursor.

Pressing C doesn't do anything.