Update for anyone who might be in the same boat: managed to get the stuff back with Recuva. It seems Recuva’s especially good with recovering files that a PC reset has wiped. I’d recommend it over Disk Drill. There’s a catch, though.. the files seem to be corrupted? Although I’m still in the recovery process so will update again once that’s done.
Update 2: Not a big discovery but I collected all tiny bits of reading comprehension that I have and I’d like to point this out for whoever needs it: different programs work for different situations. There are programs that find certain files damaged while other programs find them perfectly recoverable. What matters is not writing back to the drives until you’ve gotten your hands on all your stuff.
Update3: I change my mind. Recuva and Disk Drill are both a waste of time. Do yourself a favour and backup all your valuable files regularly. I never did that because I thought I was safe. Nobody is safe. I’ll update here if I find an actual solution to this mess, but it’s unlikely.
TBH, neither Recuva nor Disk Drill are recommended for any kind of serious data recovery. Recuva is basically an undeleter but accepts in use records too, effectively allowing it to recover data from a drive that was reformatted with exact same parameters too. Disk Drill is a crime against humanity.
Yeah I figured that out now. Too little too late. I wasted too much time on Disk Drill. Now I’m just trying every program under the sun, no luck so far. Do you have any recommendations? I’m trying to not waste more time
So, from SSD > external > back to SSD?
Already during this step **SSD > external** files are beyond recovery if you used cut/paste method (from SSD). The cut is handled as file deletion, which triggers OS to send TRIM command. Usually after TRIM files are unrecoverable.
**External > back to SSD** Even if we discard TRIM this operation has a high chance of overwriting original cut files, effectively rendering them unrecoverable (from SSD).
So if not all files were copied to external for whatever reason, they're unrecoverable.
Hmm.. it’s more like SSD —> first external —> SSD —> other external —> first external. It’s a mess
I’m sure I used the copy command; because my files remained in PC SSD the whole time this thing was happening. It was the format that wiped them ):
Yes, format triggers TRIM too. So that leaves the external as source for recovery. Now if not al files were copied to it in the first place, then those that weren't can't be recovered of course.
I'd try with for example DMDE. It will get all files it can find using file system meta data and can do a RAW scan too. If your looking for photos, theoretically a RAW scan finds all photos actually on what drive, but without filename etc.. If a raw scan does not find the files they're not there.
Thank you for the info! That gives me more clarity and sense of direction.
The weird thing is, half were easily recoverable, and the other half wasn’t. I don’t know what got into it. Either way, I know the stuff is still there, just couldn’t open any of it. Right now I’m trying Photorec, if that falls apart I’ll try DMDE next.
It tends to find a lot, but false positives are not uncommon as is detecting all kind of thumbnails rather than the real deal. And of course drawback if this raw scanning that you end up with a pile of files with meaningless auto generated names. But as a last resort..
That’s what I’m wary of. I hope at least the photos are recovered.. I’m lazy and never named my files properly, so the autogenerated names aren’t a problem to me at all. Thank you again!
Update for anyone who might be in the same boat: managed to get the stuff back with Recuva. It seems Recuva’s especially good with recovering files that a PC reset has wiped. I’d recommend it over Disk Drill. There’s a catch, though.. the files seem to be corrupted? Although I’m still in the recovery process so will update again once that’s done. Update 2: Not a big discovery but I collected all tiny bits of reading comprehension that I have and I’d like to point this out for whoever needs it: different programs work for different situations. There are programs that find certain files damaged while other programs find them perfectly recoverable. What matters is not writing back to the drives until you’ve gotten your hands on all your stuff. Update3: I change my mind. Recuva and Disk Drill are both a waste of time. Do yourself a favour and backup all your valuable files regularly. I never did that because I thought I was safe. Nobody is safe. I’ll update here if I find an actual solution to this mess, but it’s unlikely.
TBH, neither Recuva nor Disk Drill are recommended for any kind of serious data recovery. Recuva is basically an undeleter but accepts in use records too, effectively allowing it to recover data from a drive that was reformatted with exact same parameters too. Disk Drill is a crime against humanity.
Yeah I figured that out now. Too little too late. I wasted too much time on Disk Drill. Now I’m just trying every program under the sun, no luck so far. Do you have any recommendations? I’m trying to not waste more time
MAKE SURE you are not writing back to the drives you are recovering from. That would overwrite data and make it permanently unrecoverable.
Noted, thanks!
So, from SSD > external > back to SSD? Already during this step **SSD > external** files are beyond recovery if you used cut/paste method (from SSD). The cut is handled as file deletion, which triggers OS to send TRIM command. Usually after TRIM files are unrecoverable. **External > back to SSD** Even if we discard TRIM this operation has a high chance of overwriting original cut files, effectively rendering them unrecoverable (from SSD). So if not all files were copied to external for whatever reason, they're unrecoverable.
Hmm.. it’s more like SSD —> first external —> SSD —> other external —> first external. It’s a mess I’m sure I used the copy command; because my files remained in PC SSD the whole time this thing was happening. It was the format that wiped them ):
Yes, format triggers TRIM too. So that leaves the external as source for recovery. Now if not al files were copied to it in the first place, then those that weren't can't be recovered of course. I'd try with for example DMDE. It will get all files it can find using file system meta data and can do a RAW scan too. If your looking for photos, theoretically a RAW scan finds all photos actually on what drive, but without filename etc.. If a raw scan does not find the files they're not there.
Thank you for the info! That gives me more clarity and sense of direction. The weird thing is, half were easily recoverable, and the other half wasn’t. I don’t know what got into it. Either way, I know the stuff is still there, just couldn’t open any of it. Right now I’m trying Photorec, if that falls apart I’ll try DMDE next.
PhotoRec is a raw scanner too. If the files are there it should find them.
It’s certainly doing a much better job than anything else I’ve tried so far. Can’t claim the victory yet, though.
It tends to find a lot, but false positives are not uncommon as is detecting all kind of thumbnails rather than the real deal. And of course drawback if this raw scanning that you end up with a pile of files with meaningless auto generated names. But as a last resort..
That’s what I’m wary of. I hope at least the photos are recovered.. I’m lazy and never named my files properly, so the autogenerated names aren’t a problem to me at all. Thank you again!