Recuva found all my files, but " the system cannot find the file specified".

[Lexx1]

Hello everyone! I really need your help! I tried to recover files from my external 2 tb drive that I accidentally unplugged from my computer while the computer was scanning it. Recuva found every file that was missing. Those files also had the green dot next to them, showing they should be easily restored. The thing is, when I press restore, it restores files for 15 minutes, but only a portion of my files. The rest of files that weren't able to be retrieved, are then listed with " the system cannot find the file specified." next to each file. I'm so close to retrieving my data. Please tell me what I need to do to fix this error and get my files back. Thank you so much in advance!

[Alan_B]

Are you recovering the files to a totally different Hard Disc Drive ?

 

If not and you restore to the same drive you Recuva from,

then each file that is attempted is likely to overwrite two other files that had a green dot,

and they will be lost forever.

 

Is there any particular type of file, e.g. file extension, that you especially wish to retrieve ?

 

There are others here that can give you much more help than I, but I think they would need answers to the above.

[DennisD]

Just to add to Alan's important points regarding recovering files, it might be worth having a look at that drive with partition recovery software.

 

You haven't deleted the files or formatted the drive, so your files should still be there.

 

Have a look at the drive in "Disk management", or a free Partition Recovery application ...

 

MiniTools Partition Recovery 5.0: (Free)

 

It may be possible to "undelete" or "restore" that partition. I'm assuming it's a single partitioned drive.

 

Worth a try.

[Lexx1]

Hello, I am trying to restore my external drive's contents to my c drive. I haven't formatted the drive or deleted any files. In Management, I can see my external drive and the same disk space that it had before the problem started. Has anyone else had the " the system cannot find the file specified" issue? How did they fix this issue?

[Alan_B]

I can see my external drive and the same disk space that it had before the problem started.

Please explain, does that mean the Used and Free space numbers have not changed ?

 

Perhaps your files have become "hidden" or otherwise not accessible in a mode that is too extreme for "unhiding" a file with Windows Explorer.

(Access Control Lists are not always your friend.)

 

It is possible that along with those files that are now hidden, you also had deleted earlier versions and backups of the same,

and perhaps what you recovered to C:\ were these previously deleted versions and backups, and not the current / latest versions you cannot see.

 

Perhaps a screenshot of Disc Management would help,

and details of your operating system.

 

Could encryption or Bitlocker technology be a complication ?

 

Why was the computer scanning the drive when you unplugged it ?

Was it the normal Windows thing of looking at all the hardware upon start-up or the subsequent detection of new hardware being plugged in ?

or was some application making use of the drive ?

[Lexx1]

The used and free numbers have not changed since before this problem started. I have never deleted anything on this 2tb external drive. This drive is also ntfs and I am running Windows XP on my computer. Whenever you plug a USB into your computer, the computer scans it. While my computer was scanning my external drive I accidentally pulled the USB cord from the computer and then received a corrupted error. Like I said before, Recuva found every single file that was missing. The problem is, it only restored a portion of my data instead of restoring all the files that it found. Also like I said before, I get the error, " THE SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILES SPECIFIED". Thank you for your reply. How can I get back all the files that Recuva found the first time. Because now when I try to run Recuva on my external drive, I get the same error message that says, " THE SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILES SPECIFIED". What do I do?

[Alan_B]

I have never deleted anything on this 2tb external drive.

I was not accusing you of deleting anything, but suggesting that deleted files existed when I said

"It is possible that along with those files that are now hidden, you also had deleted earlier versions and backups of the same"

 

I was referring to the existance of files which had been deleted by the system,

and this includes not only anything you could have selected for deletion,

but ALSO previous versions which were replaced via an update,

or partial versions during creation, such as Office Word Documents which may create temporary backup files whilst you are creating or revising them.

And who knows what temporary (and subsequently deleted) files your browser might be placing on the drive should it be downloading to that drive.

 

Can you please tell us the :-

Total size and quantity of lost files you could not recover ;

Total size and quantity of lost files you could recover ;

Total size and quantity of files that were never lost

Used Space and Free Space numbers when you right click on the drive and select properties.

 

All the information we have thus far indicates a problem which could have many causes.

 

There are many methods of overcoming many different problems,

but for your specific problem most methods will be a waste of time and effort,

and some methods may cause the situation to be worse.

 

Perhaps when Windows detected new hardware it might have temporarily claimed ownership whilst scanning,

and perhaps when you unplugged that ownership was not relinquished but the owner identity got confused,

and now you and your computer can no display what you no longer own.

 

Is a Linux computer available to you or a friend ?

That might be able to disregard any ownership issues and see and copy NTFS files.

[Augeas]

There's some further background on the state of the disk at http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,130104.0.html

 

Are you trying to recover the directory structure? If so you could try unchecking that and see if you can recover a few of the 'not found' files. The error message indicates that there is an error in the path to the file, so recovering without the path might help.

 

It would help if you gave the Recuva options you are using. Normal or Deep scan? Restore folder structure? Scan for non-deleted files?

[Lexx1]

Alan, I had around 300gb of data used on my 2tb drive. I lost around 150gb of data. Out of the 150gb of data that I lost, I was able to recover maybe 20gb of that data. I don't have or know anyone who has a Linux computer. Augeas, that link that you suggested is a thread that I started at computerhope. As you can see, my name Lexx, is there. I also posted here because this is the website for Recuva. I did try to recover the directory structure, and it did copy all the folders with maybe 2-3 files in each folder. I checked deep scan,restore folder structure and scan for non-deleted files. I also tried to scan with options checked and unchecked, but I still get the same error message. Thank you both for your replies.

[Alan_B]

Trying to get some numbers here.

 

2 TB = 2048 GB

300 GB USED space leaves 1748 GB FREE space (less sundry overheads and the difference between advertised and effective size of HDD)

 

If you start with 300 GB of DATA = 300 GB of USED Space, with APPROXIMATELY 1750 GB of Free Space

and then you lose 150 GB of data and retain 150 GB

Free Space must have increased by 150 GB to approximately 1900 GB of FREE space,

and only then will the lost data be totally lost to Windows and now incorporated within FREE space and available for RECUVA to restore to another drive.

 

In post #6 you said

"The used and free numbers have not changed"

If you are really certain that you started with about 1750 GB FREE space, and its present value is almost the same,

then those files are still available somewhere, but are not the normal candidates for Recuva.

Could they be in the Recycle Bin or in System Volume Information.

Perhaps they are hidden by Access Control Lists.

 

I am afraid I cannot help any further,

but I felt it appropriate to warn that when Windows goes wrong the files that go missing may need tools other than RECUVA.

 

An alternative to Linux Operating System is Macrium Reflect Partition Image backup software

I use the professional version which includes extra benefits above the free version.

I think however the Free version will do the following :-

1) make an intelligent compressed backup file of the 2 TB Partition of the external drive,

(tell it to put the backup file on a different drive. If Windows has super hidden your "missing" data then Macrium will find all 300 GB and the backup file will be about 200 GB)

2) Mount the backup file as a virtual partition, checking a box in the bottom left corner to "Enable access to restricted folders".

and then you can copy all of the original 300 GB of data even if Windows is hiding it from you.

 

N.B. I have chosen not to brutalize my new Windows 7 on an SSD by modifying Access Control Lists,

and as a result Windows does not allow me to see what is inside System Volume Infomation,

but when I mount an image backup file I can dig deep and copy any file from any part of that virtual partition,

anywhere including the contents of System Volume Information.

This might be worth pursuing, but only if you are sure that Free Space was really not changed by the disaster.

 

Incidentally, Some methods or recovering partitions / folders / files may have these outcomes :-

1) Success ;

2) Failure , but no harm done and good for something else

3) Failure and further damage that prevents the next method from working.

 

If you have Failure with Further Damage,

then you will be able to undo the damage if you have already made the Macrium Backup file.

 

I will now depart and observe.

I have only a little experience of Recuva and others will be better able to advice on its use.

 

Alan

[Alan_B]

I am sorry I responded last night.

Having had a good sleep my focus is now not on whether approximately 1750 GB of Free space has changed by 150 GB,

but on whether 300 GB of USED space has changed by 150 GB.

 

Assuming that USED space did not significantly fall, then missing files were not deleted and returned to FREE space,

but are somewhere "in limbo".

 

The only difference between what I say now and last night is that we should not consider whether FREE space has changed by 10%,

but whether USED space has changed by 50%.

 

SUPPLEMENTARY

As noted last night,

Windows Explorer may show me that I have a folder named "System Volume Information"

but it will not let me see inside - it could be totally empty or it could hold many GB.

 

The Freeware TREESIZE v 2.7 however shows me that "System Volume Information" holds 3.5 MB in 5 files,

and details the name and size of each file.

It also allows me to right click any file and inspect the properties,

e.g.

Syscache.hve

size 3.25 MB (3,407,872 bytes)

created 10 ‎March ‎2012, ‏‎09:24:01

Modified 26 ‎April ‎2012, ‏‎23:34:58

It will even allow me to copy the file so I can paste to another drive,

but when I paste then Windows tells me I need permission from Administrators to do this.

 

My point is that with full safety and no need for any special permission you can easily see if you have 150 GB of files which Windows Explorer is hiding from you

You can get TreesizeFree from

http://www.jam-softw...reenshots.shtml

 

Unfortunately getting permission is in the realm of "Geek Tricks" which can easily go wrong.

 

My original reason for my first post was to warn against a possible "beginner mistake" that fortunately you were not making.

and to request more specific information on the problem so the experts could advise.

When you then said that the space was the same after you lost the files I immediately saw Access Control List aggravation,

and I am sorry that this technical aspect then sucked me in.

 

If I do the wrong "Geek Trick" thing and destroy Windows I simply plug in my Boot Recovery CD and 6 or 7 minutes later my system is back as it was.

I think you have no such safety net so I prefer to leave it for Dennis and Augeas to first advise you on safe utilities that do no damage.

 

Recuva is safe, in that you may keep on trying with it and so long as you do not restore to the same drive no damage is done.

I did not think that Recuva could restore files that Windows conceals,

but I do not know the capabilities of "Scan for non-deleted files" which Augeas has referred to.

 

Both moderators may advise of other more specialized tools if you tell them what sort of music files / family photos / etc are of value

 

I have not used MiniTools Partition Recovery 5.0: (Free),

but I did have perfect success with an earlier more general purpose Partition Manager from the same people some years go,

and I am sure this is even better.

 

I wish you good luck

 

Alan

Edited April 27, 2012 by Alan_B

[Augeas]

Alan, have you accounted for disk manufacturers sizing their disks in base 10, and Windows using base 2? So a 2 tb disk holds 2,000,000,000,000 bytes, which Windows says is a smidge over 1862 gb. (I'm just being a pain, really.)

 

Lexx, have you tried to recover an individual 'not found' file, without restore folder structure?

[Alan_B]

Alan, have you accounted for disk manufacturers sizing their disks in base 10, and Windows using base 2? So a 2 tb disk holds 2,000,000,000,000 bytes, which Windows says is a smidge over 1862 gb. (I'm just being a pain, really.)

You got me there.

I could have done better and been more accurate, and perhaps used MiB and GiB.

I decided I had worn to geek hat too long - But the Geek in me is not dead yet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

[Guilherm]

If anyone is having problems with this now, I found out that it is because the destination folder for the recovered files the partition. Just change the destination folder to another partition other than