Add option to specify filesystem

[oryan_dunn]

I've got a drive that was NTFS format, that I accidentally reformatted as FAT32. I've enabled a deep scan and find files that weren't deleted, but the scan takes an incredibly long time and ends up running out of memory. I was able to get it to find most files, but I had to reformat the drive back to NTFS for it to find my files. It would be nice if you could specify only look for non-deleted files in NTFS format to speed up the scan.

 

I think reformatting my drive to NTFS also wipes out some data as other tools have found files to be recoverable while the drive was formatted FAT32, but Recuva reports those same files as unrecoverable after I format it back to NTFS.

[Augeas]

Open Options/Actions and check Scan for non-deleted files. Uncheck Deep scan.

[oryan_dunn]

Using those options, the scan takes ~1s and only shows the recycle bin folder and the one file on my 250GB FAT filesystem. It shows none of the files on the previous 250GB NTFS partition.

[Augeas]

Maybe the two formats have nullified Recuva's ability to show undeleted files. It looks as if deep scan is your only option, if you can get it to run. Does it get past stage 1? If so you can cancel stage 2 with no ill effect.

[oryan_dunn]

Edit: My original version of this post was not really worded well, but I've kept it if you're interested.

 

 

I've got two identical drives (one was empty and the other contained the NTFS that I formatted to FAT) and mirrored the original and have been working from the copy. This was the original NTFS that was reformatted FAT. Even using the deepscan option, it doesn't find more than those 2 files during stage 1. I'm not sure if it hits stage 2, since it takes so long, I start it and go do something else or let it run overnight. In this case, I get the ran out of memory error. Now, if I reformat (my copied drive) to NTFS, then it finds all kinds of files during stage 1. I'm able to recover most of my files. However, I think reformatting to NFTS overwrites some data, as not all files are recoverable. Other paid tools that have a free trial, I ran before the reformat to NTFS and they showed files were recoverable that Recuva did not after the format to NTFS. It seems that searching for non-deleted files only works to find files of the same filesystem as the drive is currently formatted.

 

 

Here's what I did:

I had a 250GB drive formatted NTFS, that I accidentally ran mkfs.vfat on, which reformatted it to FAT32. I happened to have an empty spare identical 250GB drive and did a dd copy of the drive onto the empty drive. I set the original aside so I'd have it if I messed something up. From there I ran Recuva with only the find non-deleted files, which found only a couple files. Then I ran the trial versions of several of the paid tools that have the option to specify the original file system type, which found everything on the drive (well, there was so much stuff, it certainly looked like everything). I then tried the Recuva with the deepscan option and got the out of memory error.

 

Not wanting to pay if I could get Recuva to get the files back, I decided to do a quick format to NTFS in Windows 7. After doing that, I did a deep scan for non-deleted files. After the scan completed, almost all of the files it found were recoverable, and I was able to get back most of what I needed. Some of the files I knew I needed back were marked as unrecoverable by Recuva, which the free tools seemed to indicate were recoverable (but I couldn't tell since I couldn't actually recover them with those tools). I'm concerned that the original mkfs.vfat didn't really do all that much damage, but the subsequent format to NTFS was overwriting parts of the files I'd like to get back.

 

After the reformat back to NTFS, Recuva seems to be able to get back like 95% or more of my files, which is a really good thing. It's the last few files I'd like to get back, but perhaps even the other tools wouldn't be successful, and I'd be out $$.