Recuva cannot find recently deleted files?

Recuva
1

I just uninstalled Pinnacle Studio 9 from my computer, but I forgot to copy my customized Hollywood FX filters before doing so. I went into the directory where all the filters were stored to try to salvage what I could

E:\Program Files\Hollywood FX for studio\5.5\

All the preset filters were gone, but that was to be expected. However, a few of my customized filters were also missing from the "Effects" subdirectory. So I immediately ran Recuva and searched for the "Effects" subdirectory, and nothing was found. That didn't make sense because Recuva was showing hundreds of deleted files under various other subdirectories, but nothing for "Effects" whatsoever.

So I did some testing by copying a large file (approximately 2 MB) into the "Effects" subdirectory. So now I had

E:\Program Files\Hollywood FX for studio\5.5\Effects\aim.exe

I then fully rebooted my computer, just to ensure that file was properly accounted within the file system. Then I deleted the new instance of "aim.exe" (bypassing the Recycle Bin). I figured this would, at minimum, force Recuva to recognize the existence of the "Effects" subdirectory with the newly deleted file. I then promptly launched Recuva on the E: drive, and nowhere could I find the "Effects" subdirectory. I even sorted by file name, and "aim.exe" was nonexistent.

So I did some further testing by copying a few more instances of "aim.exe" into other subdirectories. This resulted in

E:\Program Files\Hollywood FX for studio\aim.exe

E:\Program Files\Hollywood FX for studio\5.5\Objects\aim.exe
E:\Program Files\Hollywood FX for studio\5.5\aim.exe
As before, I rebooted my computer, then deleted all three instances of "aim.exe". Still, Recuva could find none of the files I'd just deleted. How is that possible? It's almost as if the Hollywood FX directory is in some type of alternate file system from the rest of the E: drive?
2

as in my first post a couple of days ago, i have the same problem, recuva finds data back to 2009 on my formatted drive, but just around 2% of the data going back less then one year.. strange thing that is..haven't get any reply on it though..and still haven't figure out how that works..

3

Before there was Windows there was Microsoft DOS which had a "Free Space Chain" (F.S.C.)

The F.S.C. started with a list of all sector clusters from the fast end to the slow end of the disk.

As a file was written it would be allocated the first entry of the F.S.C.

As a file was deleted its sector cluster was would be appended the the end of the F.S.C.,

and would NOT be reused for new files until all the preceding entries of the F.S.C. had been used up.

Those were the good old days when you had plenty of time to recognize loss and could UN-delete.

Windows has a preference for re-using sectors nearest the fast end of the disk regardless of how recently they were deleted.

Windows and Internet browsers of all sorts are busy writing and deleting every second of the day.

It is dangerous to hold your photos, archives, and other precious files on partition C:\,

and also dangerous on any partition with browser caches or relocated Windows things such as %TEMP% and Pagefile.sys

4

not sure about the topic opener, in my case it was a disk used alone for backup, without any traffic on it whatsoever, after format it was scanned immediately with recuva..still :D

sorry for thread hijacking.. but it seems the same topic after all :)

5

not sure about the topic opener, in my case it was a disk used alone for backup, without any traffic on it whatsoever, after format it was scanned immediately with recuva..still :D

sorry for thread hijacking.. but it seems the same topic after all :)

If you want advice to your specific problem then you need your own topic.

You both have data loss, but the reasons and any possible solutions are drastically different.

6

@ deprite . . .

I "bumped" your original topic dated Feb 17 2014 by posting in it.

Here: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=40468

That doesn't mean there is a solution available, seeing that it has already been viewed 109 times.

The members and moderators here are volunteers, they might not know how to fix it either.

I don't, but maybe the bump will get it some renewed attention.

I'm sure you know, but don't use the disk until somebody gets back to you and you have exhausted all your recovery avenues.

Post back how it goes if you can.