Data recovery

[xxsilk109xx]

I have been searching around the forums for an answer to my problem and have read about great data recovery software. Most say I use X for certain situations but dont expand.

Here is my issue: Backed up some data for customer, I was backing up the docs folder and for some reason it only backed up the shortcut for the docs folder and not the docs inside (folder was placed on desktop)

This is vital data for customer and I have already reinstalled windows. I am trying to recovery the contents of this folder and would like to know what software is best for this or what is recommended for this situation.

Is it best to slave the drive to another computer or run the data recovery software from inside windows on the computer I am trying to recover?

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I am currently using Easus and it has found items in the RAW section, It also shows the file structure where it SHOULD Be, but there is nothing there. Is everything that it finds also catagorized in the RAW section?

 

[phaZed]

I have been fairly impressed with R-Studio. I actually settled on using it after a customer brought in a Lacie RAID external enclosure that had failed. R-Studio was able to rebuild the array with both of the drives (virtually, might I add!) and I got the data back. Turns out it works fairly well for general single drive recovery as well

The only drawback that I have with R-Studio is that it doesn't work too well with physically failing drives as it is in run in Windows.. and most failing drives just tie up the SATA bus and the program doesn't respond. At that point I usually just try making an image of the drive with Clonezilla or PartedMagic ISO and then go from there.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I would personally use getdataback. Slave the drive to a spare machine. (If you have a machine for recovery / virus removal etc), I would use that, as if you slave it to your main machine, it can take an inordinate amount of time to run, especially on failing drives.

Then naturally once the data has been located, then save this data to another drive, not the one you are recovering the data off. What I tend to do, is to recover everything, no matter what it is, then search for what I am looking for on the other drive, then copy that data over to the slaved drive. Just in case there is something which you later require. I.e some obscure extn which your client has not told you about.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I am going to download r-studio and give it a try. I will report back with results.

 

[iisjman07]

I know GetDataBack has an option you can select on the main screen that says something like 'Recover data from a disk that has been FDISK'ed or formatted', so maybe it will help. However, I think you'd have better luck with software such as 'Scalpel' or 'PhotoRec', which will scan the drive for files based on their headers.