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Questions tagged [data-recovery]

This tag is for questions about techniques for recovering lost data — e.g., from deleted files and/or damaged or corrupted digital media. Please review the tag wiki before posting a question. Do not explicitly ask for tools or other products; such questions are off-topic on Super User.

Data Recovery is the process in which data lost, deleted, or corrupted can be recovered.

There are a few general techniques and popular tools for data recovery.  Before asking a question, please review the frequently asked questions on the topic:

or check for other FAQs.  Here are some other questions that may be useful:

See also this link for other frequently referenced questions.

See also

Other potentially related tags include , , , , , , , , , , , , and (and, rarely, , , and ).

2272 questions
5
votes
2 answers

Recover txt files based on known strings

I have lost a number of txt files, which contain important personal information. I accidentally deleted them from the hard disk. I am not sure which folder they were in. I am not sure what filenames they had (at least not all of them), but I know…
Mads Skjern
  • 1,479
5
votes
1 answer

Recovering Data from eMMC Chip

Some months ago, my sweetie's phone died -- an HTC One M7 -- and a well-rated local phone tech was unable to resurrect it. She dearly wanted to get as much data back out of the phone as possible, but as it wasn't switching on, much less enumerating…
ewhac
  • 519
3
votes
3 answers

I accidentally wrote to /dev/sda1, then I did it to /dev/sdb1

My knowledge of Unix systems is patchy at best and when it came down to copying things to a drive I attempted the commands cp ./files.files /dev/sda1. At the time I was copying a tar ball that was in an ext4 partition to a NTFS partition. It wasn't…
Wholemeal
3
votes
1 answer

Hard drive corrupted. I have an old clone, how do I restore the partition tables?

I cloned this drive about 6 months ago using dd. Today the partition tables got corrupted. What can I do to restore them using the old drive? I'm currently scanning for lost partitions using testdisk to see if it can fix it without bringing out the…
Jimmy Ruska
  • 133
3
votes
3 answers

Recovering files using Recuva

I'm currently using Recuva to recover some files from an external NTFS disk. It finds the files I'm interested in during it's analysis phase (when tools like test-disk fail to find them at all) and reports them as "Not-deleted" and a big green…
Nev Meek
  • 31
3
votes
0 answers

Attempted recovery of data - .swf files

I have an external hard drive which is no longer being picked up/read by Windows (although it appears in Device Manager). It contains mostly media files (.jpg, .mov, .mp4). I downloaded a trial version of some EaseUS recovery software which ran a…
Tim West
  • 31
2
votes
2 answers

Restore data on unallocated space

I'm trying to recover a deleted partition. The partition can't be restored from the partition table. I've tried EaseUS Data Recovery, which finds files but crashes halfway through. I've also tried Find and Mount which doesn't seem to find anything,…
user141542
2
votes
1 answer

How do I make my computer recognize my old hard drive

Ok so.... I had to wipe my computer clean of everything because of bad malware that completely locked me out of safe mode and my computer itself. So I wiped my MAIN hard drive clean, and I can see my other internal hard drive that contains my…
Jared
  • 21
2
votes
2 answers

DriveImage XML - Recover XML Index File?

I'm paying a bit of an idiot tax here, and could use some help. Had windows machine that was virus-laden, so prior to wiping & reinstalling XP, I used Ultimate Boot CD for Windows to get in, and DriveImage XML to create an image on an external USB…
Matthew
  • 81
2
votes
1 answer

Recovering Shared Files

I was sent a folder through Dropbox that is supposed to contain several deleted files. My job is to restore them. The person who sent them to me can click the trashcan icon and retrieve these files. However, when I go to do so, it continues to say…
Zach
  • 21
2
votes
2 answers

Does "scan" by data recovery software modify the partition it scans?

I am new to data recovery software. Many have a scan step, like Recuva. I wonder if scanning a partition by data recovery software will modify the partition? I learned that never modify data on a partition if planning to recover its previous data.…
Tim
  • 17,287
2
votes
0 answers

Recovery of accidentally repartitioned HDD

I have a USB HDD that had been repartitioned (two times), but no data was written to it and only quick format was used to initialize the file system (from Windows 7). It's a LACIE 500GB,with SAMSUNG HM500JI in it. Assumed partition type was HSF+ (it…
Unreason
  • 473
2
votes
2 answers

Can I run 2 data recovery softwares simultaneously?

Does running two different hard drive recovery softwares (Recuva, TestDisk etc) hamper any chances of data recovery. Its probably not as I don't think they'd be doing any writing at all. But just to be sure, does it reduce my chances of recovery at…
Nemo
  • 1,166
2
votes
1 answer

Data recovery after failed partition resize/move

I was doing a partition resize, assuming (yes..) that power loss was not a possibility. Unfortunately someone turned off the PC during the resize operation. As a result, many of the files are now corrupted. Originally the drive was: 50 GB | 882…
Graphain
  • 176
2
votes
1 answer

Scratched DVD keeps freezin when copying files, even with programs

I have a dvd with some family photos that is scratched, the problem is that when i try to copy stuff it reaches certain points and freezes, i'm assuming its the scratches / corrupt data. I've been trying several programs that are supposed to copy…
Mankind1023
  • 829
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