FILE RECOVERY - HELP!!

Hi. I've lost all my videos from a round-the-world trip - nightmare! Any advice on recovery much appreciated.
I was using my girlfriends 80gb classic ipod as a disc drive to save .mov files from my digital camera. We had a little windows notebook and I was dragging files over to the ipod, not via itunes but just opening it as a disc drive. I accidentally deleted all the music when dragging files over on a linux computer at a hostel.
Now we're home, my gf synced her ipod with i-tunes on our macbook pro - her music is now back on there but, when looking from the mac, it seems all the .mov files are gone. I've tried to connect via the pc but get an error message saying i need to format the disc, I don't want to do that in case it wipes the disc.
Is there anything I can do to recover the .mov files? I have both computers I was using and this is probably no longer than a week ago..
any advice gratefully received, cheers tom

Probably not. There is a small chance you can with some professional data recovery software, but even the chances are still slim.
Google for "iPod data recovery" for a few different possibilities.
B-rock

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Please Help!! Acrobat Autosave File Recovery

I have a project that I am working on in Acrobat and have the Autosave function set to 5 min. I don't know what happened, but Acrobat just blinked and went away. I have tried everything that I can find in the help file and on the web, but I cannot seem to access, find or restore anything from the"Autosave" files. the help file says to simply open acrobat or the file and select which file to go back to...I never get this option and have no idea where to find it.
If I don't recover this data I will have lost 12 hours of work....I would rather not have to stay up all night to make up for the time.
I am very new to Acrobat and this is probably a simple thing...but what am I missing???
thank you in advance for your help.

Any chance you have a backup from Dropbox or local backup software? If so, you could retrieve a version before the crash.
Is the file .ai or .pdf? Have you tried opening in Acrobat? If .ai, I would try duplicating file and changing extension to .pdf and see if Acrobat opens it.
Just a few thoughts. Maybe someone has a better idea.

Data recovery - HELP!

Hi there
I have done the stupidest thing EVER! I back up my entire MacBook on an external hard drive - so far, so sensible. Only I've updated what I've backed up by replacing folders with newer versions and I've only just realised. I've lost four years' worth of digital photos and I'm praying there's some way of recovering them. Please help me! I'll name my future children after you and put you in my will!
Here's what I've done in full:
- I upload all my photos to iPhoto, edit them and then save them into a folder within a folder on my desktop
- I started getting very low on operating memory so I got an external hard drive with a fire wire and began backing everything up. I took all my photos in the Photos folder off my desktop altogether and trashed them, so I had more operating memory.
- I did this in May/June
- I also had photos from 2004/2005/2006 on there which were from before I had a Mac and uploaded to iPhoto
- I've since overwritten this folder with a new (thus virtually empty with only a few recent photos) version and I think I've done it twice since I originally backed everything up, but I've only just realised I've been overwriting everything.
- I've looked in that iPhoto library in Pictures that I have and I can recover some photos, but there appears to be a lot missing and because I'm a keen photographer who is anal about editing and organising (the irony!) my photos, they're all mixed up - which is why I had them in separate folders in the first place
Is there ANYTHING I can do?
Can they be recovered from the hard drive itself?
Is there software that can be downloaded free or paid for to do this?
I've googled it a bit and it looks like there's stuff you can download for a PC. I have access to a PC, so I can have a go on that if that's what it takes.
If they can't be salvaged from the hard drive, will I perhaps be able to find them in a secret place on my MacBook from the time I trashed the original folders a couple of months ago? 'Secret place' is about as technical as I get!
I can't get an appointment at the Genius Bar for a while. Any help on this would be much appreciated. I know I'm an idiot - but I was half way to being a non-idiot by backing up in the first place...so small victories...!
Thanks,
Rachael

Basics of File Recovery
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
Since it sounds like you overwrote files and folders then the data that were overwritten are gone for good and can not be recovered.
In the future you should make multiple backups including an archival backup on DVD media that can be stored away safely. It's good that you have some backups, but your backup plan is obviously inadequate.

Can I use gpt to recreate/unerase a partition table? (Rebuild the GPT/GUID partition table?) I don't want to do FILE recovery.

(Yes, I've googled a bunch and read threads like this one already.)
Can I use gpt or some other app to recreate/unerase a partition table? That is, how can I rebuild a disk's GPT/GUID partition table?) I don't want to do FILE recovery.
What happened: Instead of erasing a single partition off a disk with many partitions, the entire partition table was erased (using Disk Utility, w/o deleting the underlying files). Somehow the "Erasing a disk deletes all data on all its partitions." warning message was missed.
I have a copy of the output of df, with the number of blocks in each partition, from just prior to the erasure, so I should be able to recreate the GPT/GUID partition table. Editing the GPT with a hex editor is not feasible. Simply recreating the partitions with Disk Utility will overwrite the key filesystem tables on each partition, and I don't want to do that, plus Disk Utility doesn't allow me to specify exact partition sizes anyway.
Surely there's an app for rebuilding the partition table (other than emacs' hexl-mode!) for recreating/unerasing a partition table when the partition sizes and orders are known? I've looked at the advertising for a bunch of recovery software and none of them clearly indicate that they will do what I want.
I guess I can try using gpt on a copy of the reformatted drive I've made with dd, and see what happens. But perhaps someone knows of a tool that should do what I need, or knows if gpt is that tool or not.
There are answers and tools that will do FILE recovery - search for files and recover the ones that aren't fragmented or deleted. As far as I can find, they just look for files on the disk, and don't pay much, if any attention to the filesystem info or directory heirarchy, which in this case is valuable. Of course I could send it in to DriveSavers, or the like. But none of that seems necessary, and the scavenging file recovery apps won't do the job well,
E.g. some are mentioned here:
I don't want to do FILE recovery.
Thanks for any help.
The links in this post are to pages describing the underlined term, e.g. the man pages for df and gpt.
dd output includes:
Filesystem
512-blocks
Used Available Capacity Mounted on

Aperture has the ability to work with files in their existing location. They are called "referenced masters." When you import images, you should select the "In their current location" in the "Store Files:" drop down box. Have a read of the documentation for full specifics. Unsure how you can resolve your duplication; might be some work but next time have a read of the manual first
Information for versions is stored in the Aperture database (library file). The masters can be inside the library file itself, or they can be somewhere else.

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recovery Help

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad.
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Update...
I found a website that offers the following:
http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then goes to a blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.

File recovery after system recovery?

One of our students has a laptop that has had a system recovery performed on it by someone else by holding the zero key while pressing the power button. I'm trying to see if any file recovery is possible using standard forensic tools or suites. I haven't been able to find out exactly how the system recovery process works so I don't know what I have to work with. Does anyone know how the original partition is cleaned up before copying the files from the hidden backups?
Thanks in advance for any help or information you can offer.
Bill
[email protected]

Same thing happened to me except that they were audio MP3 files. Where did all those WAV files go?

File Recovery Question

Hi there, before I ask my question, let me explain my situation:
I lost all of my data off my hard drive partition, and used the program "Stellar Phoenix Macintosh 4.0". It is a recovery program that allowed me to view and retrieve my lost files from my deleted partition.
It managed to recover EVERY file in its original file structure.
Now, when I try to view pictures, play songs, or do ANYTHING with these files, they don't work, however the FILE SIZE makes sense: Pictures are 1mb-5mb. Songs are 2mb-15mb, etc.
For example: I get this error when trying to view jpgs:
The file filename.jpg could not be opened.
It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize.
I changed the permissions on the file so everyone can "read & write" but that still didn't help. I tried copying the files to another drive, but still no luck.
If someone could help me either with making the files readable, or a different setting on the recovery program, that would be great.
Is it possible that the files were viewed in 10.6.2 and I recovered them in 10.6.0?
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

30 day trial, no money spent.
So why would anyone buy this Keith, if they could get full use out of it for up to 30 days, when just 30 hours would probably do ? Excuse the rhetorical question.
What is noticeable about the various file recovery programs is they let you sample them but mostly require payment if you want to seriously use them.
It is remarkable in the software universe of freeware, and OpenSource ware, that software recovery are the exception and give no free lunches, or at least none that I know.
*I suspect you will have to pay for this app to facilitate your file recovery*.
I'm not sure which one, but there is one that lets you restore one file, just to prove itself, but to get the rest you have to buy the software. Can't remember which one that is but see if you can find it, at least to prove something is recoverable before you fork out the money.
On the matter of creating a backup image using Disk Utility, did you do it according to these procedures?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553
Still, if it has no mountable file system, I doubt if it can be created after the fact.
Sorry to be unable to throw some sunshine on your problems, but gee you are gonna have a great backup strategy in place after this. ...a little ray there.
P.S. You need to contact the providers of these software to clarify things - your expectations, payment, whatever.
Message was edited by: roam

What's a good file recovery program for a MacBook Pro running IS 10.7.5?

Hey gang - I ordered a miniStack 4TB external hard drive from OWC a few months ago during a long overseas trip. I finally unwrapped it and started dumping data to the drive from the 1TB drives (also from OWC) I used via my MacBook Pro. I connected the 4TB to the laptop with FW800.
I came back from the gym (gone about two hours) and saw a "the drive wasn't disconnected properly..." window. There was a clicking noise coming from the drive, which means mechanical failure.
I went into Disk Utility and the drive is there but it's grayed out. I changed cables to USB 3.0. Unplugged the drive. Shut down the laptop. Then went through the start up and nadda.
So before I run off a disk repair place in town and spend $1000, what's a good hard drive recovery program to use to pull the data? I only dumped 1.5TBs until the 4TB and have other drives to dump that data too if I need to.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Bill.

General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service, such as Data Recovery by DriveSavers, which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

Re Mackeeper Smart Uninstaller have done Files recovery how do I get it all back as before?

Question. I know this might sound really dumb but I installed MacKeeper thinking it was an Apple product. I used Smart Uninstaller to removed what I thought was a list of unnecessary stuff from my laptop. When I realised it wasn't unecessary I ran the Files Recovery. It took 24 hours in total and now there is an enormous list of items to be restored. I want to just put it all back, is that possible? I am confused - do I need to buy an external drive to do this? PLEASE HELP. Thanks B

Read this user tip for info.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3039

HP preloaded software error 1311 for Adobe XI application library or file for Help missing

Operating system HP2011s/x, Pavilion P7-1026b, PC Desk/ Windows 7 w/64 bits w/PC bundle. Preloaded Adobe XI software from HP not working properly the pop-up errors are as follows:
(1) Error 1311 (2) verify operation failure (3) a required application library or file for Help is missing. Please, need help in correcting. Thanks.

Please download and install the free Abode Reader XI from Adode's website by clicking on this "Adobe Reader XI (11.0.03) Download" link. This will provide you with a slightly newer version than what was previously install on your computer.
Additionally, it is in your best interest to create your personal set of HP Recovery Discs before a major disaster occurs with your computer. Please see "Creating Recovery Discs or Saving a Recovery Image to a USB Flash Drive (Windows 7)" for instructions on create either Recovery Discs or USB Recovery media, if given the option.
Please send KUDOS
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
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Windows 7 Offline Files Recovery

Thanks for all your help!
Facts: Domain Network, Server 2012, Folder Redirection Enabled (Docs Only), Shadow Copy Enabled, Windows 7 Clients
I have a domain user who was not syncronizing with the server through Folder Redirection. We deployed a GPO to disable Offline files and sure enough, she reported that her files went missing. We looked at the Shadow copies only to find that the folders are
in fact empty.
Attempts: Shadow Copy, HBCD (to access the CSC folder offline, turned up empty)
Are there any tools or techniques that I am missing here to recover her files? Remember this is Windows 7.
All your help is much appreciated.

Hello all,
Just thought I should come back and share my findings.
FolderRedirection can be a useful tool, but can be a pain if used or removed improperly. I found that permissions can play a role in Syncing documents, if permissions are modified for whatever reason in the server, it will not always sync properly and the
user will mostly not notice. This will cause your system to hold "temp" files on your pc.
I had success with Recuva for file recovery but mostly the classic HBCD, this allowed me to browse the contents of CSC without hassles, and move to the local drive. The particular machine in question did not turn out successful, but these methods worked
for the remaining.
Thanks to all for your help.

Deleted File Recovery software?

Is there deleted file recovery software which is cheap or has a limited demo or something?
I accidentally deleted some files, but they're not worth hundreds of dollars to me. I'd just like to get them back if I could.
I downloaded some software which says it can find them, but I have to pay -- so, how do I know it will actually work after I pay?
I'd like to get some samples, like, have it just retrieve ten files or something, just to prove it works!
Mac OS X (10.3.8)

Hi John,
As Kurt suggests, Data Rescue is a commercial product that you will have to purchase to retrieve your files if you choose but it at least allows you to test the demo first to see if it can scan and find your files and to test to see if it will retrieve one file of 500k in size.
Dr. Smoke, of the X-Lab, has an excellent FAQ explaining data recovery that can be found here.
One major point, if you're not aware, is that you should not use the affected drive until you recover the files as the more you use the computer the more chance that the files will be overwritten and unretrievable.
hope that helps some,
littleshoulders [:-)

File Recovery? :( Emergency

Hi,
I m a student, I have a problem about the file recovery.
I would like to repair my homework (adobe illustrator files and Photoshop), the error message is 'Acrobat PDF file format is ahving diffculties. The file is damaged and could not be repaired.'
Please help
Thank you very much

Shun -
Fortunately I haven't had to do this before, I just happened across the Adobe article after reading your post.
I understand what you're saying, it appears the article assumes you can actually open the document to copy it, that doesn't do you much good if it is so badly damaged that it won't open.
Did you try duplicating the file from the Finder and then attempt to open it or give the duplicate a .pdf extension and try to open it (I think they mentioned you lose your layers if you go the pdf route but I guess anything would be better than nothing).
Sorry, I know that's not much help.
Patrick

MSI G41TM-E43 version 1.0 BIOS Recovery help

My PC keeps going into BIOS recovery mode and won't do anything else. It wants to grab the BIOS file off a USB drive, so I tried to download the BIOS file from MSI, put it on the drive, and then rebooted. The PC finds the drive, but keeps saying it can't find the file. I'm not entirely sure I have the right file, because the picture of the motherboard on the MSI web site doesn't match my motherboard, and the manual shows a different layout as well, presumably for version 2.
I need to know which BIOS file to download and what to name it. I have tried leaving the name alone, and I have also tried naming it AMIBIOS.ROM and AMIBOOT.ROM, which was suggested by some sites.
Can anyone help me find the correct file or help me reset the BIOS somehow? It may be that the motherboard is just broken, but I would like to be sure.
Thanks,
Matt

Thanks for responding! It didn't occur to me to try that because all the trouble started when I removed the IDE DVD-ROM drive and installed a SATA DVD drive instead, so I figured it was related to something I had done. I'll try a new battery and see if it helps.
Thanks!

File Recovery Software

A software bug has apparently erased one of my email folders. I don't use Apple Mail.
Can anyone recommend a good, reliable file recovery program that might be successful in recovering the previous file?
I'm avoiding that partition in hopes of preventing any overwriting of the deleted data.
Thanks.

a brody wrote:
If the mail was stored on the server, ask the internet provider for their tape backup. Any messages you didn't open between the time it arrived and was taped will be safe.
If the mail was stored on the server, but was checked before it was taped, the internet provider might be able to do a data recovery on their own machine to see if they can find a trace of it.
If it was stored locally, you need to know the local file name of where it was stored, and recover it to the location that it stored it.
Definitely stored locally. I've become very security conscious, and avoid almost everything cloud related. This year, plan on doing taxes and next years records on an OS many have never seen, and not connected to the internet. So, it's been a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong time since anything identity related has been stolen from me.
This isn't the first time I'm used recovery software, but the first time on a Mac. First experience doing it was on an Atari 800.
What e-mail program did you use? These programs can recover such files, if not too much else has been written to the hard disk since the file was lost:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689
Leaving the machine on lessens the chances it can be recovered locally.
I use Thunderbird, but I seriously consider switching if I could find an equivalent program. That has been a fruitless search.
The attempts at recovery using TB quite possibly overwrote the needed file at the outset. It all depends on how the filesystem selects the vacant sectors to write changes to.
Have you used any of the programs listed in the article?
I've opted to not try to recover the data, and have installed a back up from Time Machine. But, because I was troubleshooting issues copying massive amounts of data between hard drives, I'd turned off Time Machine, so the back up is missing some emails for all accounts. But, I have the accounts set to leave messages on the server, so just have to learn how to get those messages. I'd forgotten I'd done that, so hopefully there will be a way to just get the ones that are missing.

FILE RECOVERY - HELP!!

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