I tried using free edition and it didn't work, if I go for professional version would you be able to provide support to recover the data? do you have any success rate in the past with Tesla dashcam memory stick?
Sadly recuva can only read drive formats that windows can read. If the free version can't then the pro won't either, the pro version allow making a virtual clone of your drive and that's about it to my knowledge.
The Free version can recover just the same as the paid-for Pro version can.
(Basically you are just paying for 'official' Support by email).
First question - Are you using the 'Wizard' in Recuva, or are you using the Advanced Mode?
The Tesla support documentation states that that USB sticks for use with a Tesla dashcam may be formated as:
<em>"exFAT, MS-DOS FAT (for Mac), ext3, or ext4 (NTFS is currently not supported)."</em>
If it has been formated by the vehicle itself then it should be exFAT.
The USB stick for the dashcam should be a Type-A connection and USB 2.0 compatible.
It should usually be fitted in the USB Type-A port in the glovebox, (not the USB-C ports on the dashboard).
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-F311BBCA-2532-4D04-B88C-DBA784ADEE21.html
Recuva can read exFAT drives (and possibly the MS-DOS FAT (for Mac)), but it cant work with the ext3 or ext4 formats.
Edit- I believe that the dashcam video files themselves are .mp4 format, so nothing special and should be recoverable.
So would you answer some further questions:
If you can plug a stick, that has 'good' dashcam video on it, into a Windows computer then can File Explorer see the dashcam files on it?
What are the filenames like, in particular what is the file extension? (the 3-letters after the 'dot').
What size are they typically?
And then of course-
What has happened to the stick/files (exactly please) that you are now trying to recover files from it?
Are you <em><u>sure</u></em> that dashcam footage for those 3 hours was actually recorded?
If you are sure that it was there then:
Did you delete the files by mistake? If so then have you used that stick again since the delete?
Did the stick 'crash' or just stop working?
Has the stick been reformatted?
Something else?
The more you can tell us about just what has happened then the better idea we will have of how to help - if we can.
Of course you should not be using that stick, using it now could/would overwrite any data that might still be recoverable, you should have put a new one into your dashcam.