Recuva doesn't recover anything on iPod Nano 5th Generation

Recuva
1

It appears that once or twice a year, my iPod will fail to transfer files to the PC successfully, followed by Recuva failing miserably. See the link below for more info

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=27178

Here's what happened this time. Copying a about a dozen short video clips from the nano to the PC (Windows 7x64, updated to current) using TeraCopy. After one file finishes, the USB device disconnected noise starts, immediately followed by the error sound. On screen, Teracopy reports the source device no longer exists.

Upon reconnecting the iPod, the video folder is empty. I launch Recuva, update to the latest version 1.41.537, and tell it to search

<iPod drive>\DCIM\000APPLE

folder for all files. It very quickly finds quite a few MP4 and IMG_xxx.DAT files. I sort by State, and the files I want appear to have an excellent recovery chance. Dates and sizes seem reasonable as well.

So, I select the files and attempt to recover them. Same thing happens as in the linked previous report: The "Recovering files" dialog appears. Current progress: 0%, 0 files recovered. No movement for over an hour, despite hovering in the 80-95% CPU usage range the whole time. Not one byte is recovered. Recuva doesn't respond to cancellation - I had to use PowerShell to kill the process.

The initial problem was reported in March 2010. Nineteen months ago.

I reported my problem in April 2011. Six months ago. At the time, the "Offical Piriform Bug Fixer" said

we are hoping to get a fix for this in the next release
smile.gif

How about the next, next release? Any chance of recovering the files on an iPod Nano? Anything I can do to assist in debugging the problem?

2

Teracopy just about copied one file from the iPod and then they lost the plot.

You failed to state what happened next but the standard Teracopy procedure is to read back the copy and compute/compare checksums.

I guess that procedure was not completed due to iPod failure.

iPod does not play nicely with Teracopy.

iPod does not play nicely with Recuva.

iPod is overdue for a return to supplier on the grounds of unfit for purpose,

though there is a possibility you have a computer fault with your USB system.

3

Teracopy just about copied one file from the iPod and then they lost the plot.

You failed to state what happened next but the standard Teracopy procedure is to read back the copy and compute/compare checksums.

I guess that procedure was not completed due to iPod failure.

iPod does not play nicely with Teracopy.

iPod does not play nicely with Recuva.

iPod is overdue for a return to supplier on the grounds of unfit for purpose,

though there is a possibility you have a computer fault with your USB system.

The iPod and the computer work together nearly flawlessly - have been transferring data to and from it nearly daily for two years. The USB system is fine - it has had no troubles whatsoever while permanently connected to an external 2TB drive and another 300GB external drive. Teracopy has been used extensively on both thie iPod and the PC in general as well.

Note that it was a copy operation, not a move, so the data was not being deleted from the iPod as part of that process. The issue to me is that Recuva, nineteen months after the issue was known, and six months after something was "hopefully in the next release", has not changed its behavior one iota. It reports that it finds files, then infinitely hangs while using huge CPU resources.

Either the program behavior, or the claim of working on iPods, needs to be modified. I'm more than willing to become a paying customer if/when Recuva or any other program proves itself worth paying for. I appreciate that Recuva, unlike many others, doesn't ask for $40-$50 to let you find out whether or not it will work, and hope that it is indeed the recovery program which earns me as a customer, but for now, it's not proven itself worth more than the free download.