I transferred about 100 GB of image and video files to my SSD (target drive). However, after a day, the target SSD could no longer be opened and became undetectable on my PC. I then attempted to recover the data from the source drive, knowing that the files had been deleted during the transfer. Using Recuva with Deep Scan on the source drive (E:\photos and videos) and saving the recovery to drive D:, the process indicated that all files were recovered. Unfortunately, many of the recovered files cannot be opened and show no image.
Ouch, I’ve also had SSDs die suddenly on me like that. (I’ve never been able to get one working again once it’s gone, so never been able to even try and recover from it).
Was the source drive also an SSD, and is it internal or external?
SSD’s work differently to spinning drives, and recovering deleted files from a SSD is usually a thankless task.
It gets technical of course, but because of the SSD TRIM, and garbage collection/wear leveling, it is often impossible to recover deleted files from them.
What size are the files that you recovered, are they the size you would expect for an image file?
If they are 0 Kb then all that you have got is the filenames (from the file table) with no actual data connected to them.
If they are the size you would expect for an image file then it may be the file header that is not quite right, and so most image viewers can’t open them.
However Irfanview can often open ‘slightly damaged’ images that other viewers can’t, if it does then saving the image from Irfanview corrects the problem and then other viewers will be able to open them too.
Best of all Irfanview is Free; https://www.irfanview.com/
Give it a go if your recovered images seem about the right filesize.
(Results can vary, sometimes there is only half of the actual image there, with the rest having been overwritten, I’ve had some like that. Irfanview still opened what it could, part images with the rest of the image just being grey or multicoloured lines).
I don’t know of anything that can open damaged video files, though possible a good video editor might be able to get some sections back, if it can open it in the first place?