[NTLUG:Discuss] NTLUG:Discuss] Data recovery - SOLVED

[Leroy Tennison]

On 01/26/2011 11:40 AM, Fred wrote:
> For those who followed my Help thread, here is the result:
>
> disktest/photorec
>
> I used disktest/photorec to recover a damaged 320GB drive
> and put the results on a 1TB drive. The results were not exactly
> what I had expected, although if I had understood what I was reading
> I wouldn't have been surprised. Seems like photorec is a truly
> forensic recovery program, in that it ignores any volume table of
> contents and pulls contiguous data off the damaged drive and puts
> that data onto the destination. I had movie files 8GB long with
> pieces of 2 or 3 or more movies... as long as the file was determined
> to be the same type (mpg or whatever) and was contiguous, it got
> stored into the destination file. Fragmented files were saved as separate
> files if they weren't like the above. Once a directory had 500 entries, a
> new one was created. Etc. So, it recovered the data but left me with
> a 2 year project of pasting the shredded output back together.
>
> Recover Data for Linux
>
> Ok, so after seeing that I had the equivalent to a paper shredder that
> needed to be pasted together, I said something that rhymed with truck it
> and popped the $45 for Recover Data. It went through and read the VTOC
> (or whatever Linux/EXT3 uses) and then slicker'n snot proceeded to recover
> all the files and directories over to a directory tree on the spare drive. I
> started it before bedtime and it was done when I checked it this morning.
> All I had to do was change the file permissions. Everything seems to
> be as it is supposed to be. No video dropouts, the user backups are there,
> etc.
>
> Summary
>
> I am batting .333 on buying software, since this is the first of 3 that has
> actually been worth a damn. I recommend it. I suppose that if the drive
> had been any more damaged than it was, the second stage recovery effort
> from Recover Data would have given about the same results as photorec,
> but it wasn't so I got great results. As for the 320GB drive... if I were a true
> engineer, I would reformat it and check it for bad sectors and try to determine
> exactly what happened. Fortunately for me, I am not, so since it is about
> the right size to test my .308's grouping at 500 yds, that is what I will do.
>
> I might even post the results of that as a jpg.
>
> Thanks again to all who helped.
>
> Fred
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
If I remember correctly I tried Recover Data for Linux as well.  
Something to consider is trying the free download before you buy.  It 
doesn't recover data but shows what can be recovered (if I have my 
product correct).  In my case the damage was too great and the product 
didn't find much of anything I was after.  The free download spared me 
the expense.