"Access denied" bug - probably found the reason, would appreciate input from team :)

[dfy]

Hi guys,

 

I hit the "access denied" error that many people have been mentioning when trying to recover some of my files. Happens on XP and Vista, both with Admin accounts.

 

Here's the catch: I can recover the files that still have a filename in the list view in recuva.

I can preview all of them (jpg), even the ones that have empty filenames in the list. But I can't recover those, I get an 'access denied' error.

 

Here's what I think is happening: Recuva tries to create the file with its original name, which in this case is empty! But Windows won't let Recuva create a file with an empty name/no name.

 

Any workaround/fixes for this?

 

Thanks!

[TheWebAtom]

Windows supports files without file names, so it's unlikely that's the issue. You could try saving the file to removable media (such as a USB drive) that is formatted with FAT (or vFAT, if available), since they tend to handle odd filenames/extensions better than NTFS.

[dfy]

Windows supports files without file names, so it's unlikely that's the issue. You could try saving the file to removable media (such as a USB drive) that is formatted with FAT (or vFAT, if available), since they tend to handle odd filenames/extensions better than NTFS.

 

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately, this is not the issue. Even when trying to recover to a FAT partition, I can only recover those files that have filenames in recuva's list view.

Any ideas on how to get the other files? They're definitely there and absolutely okay - recuva shows full previews of the images!

(I've tried other recovery programs, but none will work. Recuva finds my files immediately, all I have to enable is 'show securely erased files', I don't even need the deep scan.)

[Alan_B]

I was not aware that I could create a file without a name.

How do you delete a file if it has no name ?

[dfy]

I was not aware that I could create a file without a name.

How do you delete a file if it has no name ?

 

That's what I was thinking. I.e. NTFS/FAT support empty file names, but they do not support creating or deleting files with empty names (How could they - their path is indistinguishable from that of the containing directory.), so the only way to get an empty filename is renaming an existing file.

 

Has anyone ever successfully recovered files that had no file name in the list view? If recuva had an option to give new names manually to those files that are about to be recovered, I think that should solve the problem. As it is, I'm stuck with files that I know are there and okay, but I just can't get them

[dfy]

Anyone got any ideas? Would really appreciate any help. Otherwise I'll try to create a test case and file a proper bug report.

[TheWebAtom]

Wait; what are we defining as "without a name" here?

 

According to the Windows filesystem API's;

FileName: Everything that appears before the period.

FileExtension: Everything that appears after the period.

FileNameWithExtension: A normal file; such as example.doc

FullPath: The entire path; excluding the ending backslash (C:\Windows)

 

Are these 'files without names' missing the FileName, or the full FileNameWithExtension?

[dfy]

How would I find out? Those are deleted files on a partition for which Recuva doesn't show filenames (it does show F:\?\ as path though) in the list of files to recover, so I would guess that FileNameWithExtension is empty.

The files are okay (image preview works), but trying to get Recuva to write those files to another partition gives 'Access denied'. Since files that still have names in that list can be recovered, I'm thinking that those empty filenames are to blame.

[Alan_B]

How would I find out? Those are deleted files on a partition for which Recuva doesn't show filenames (it does show F:\?\ as path though) in the list of files to recover, so I would guess that FileNameWithExtension is empty.

The files are okay (image preview works), but trying to get Recuva to write those files to another partition gives 'Access denied'. Since files that still have names in that list can be recovered, I'm thinking that those empty filenames are to blame.

You are describing with mere words what I, and possibly no one else, have ever seen.

 

I suggest you supply a screen shot which shows what Recuva presents as files without names.

If you can include ( preferably in the same screen shot ) a file with a name,

it might allow experts (not I) to determine if Recuva is able to correctly display "typical" deleted files that do have names,

or if instead Recuva is malfunctioning on your specific system.

 

You say you have this problem with both Vista and XP.

You are doubly unlucky if you have TWO systems which each have deleted files that have no names.

 

You say that you see the path F:\?\

Did you forget to tell us something extremely relevant - that you have these "special" files on an external drive ?

[dfy]

You're right of course, my description was probably not very accurate and lacking detail, my apologies. I'll try to describe it more sensibly and I have attached screenshots.

 

My setup:

-USB Hard Drive with NTFS partition called 'Data', drive symbol F:. I'm trying to recover files that have been deleted on this partition.

-Windows Vista, running Recuva as Administrator

 

Screenshots:

-rec-options.jpg: Recovery options which I am using.

-rec-searchres.jpg: Result window after the scan on F: has been run. Note the preview window clearly showing the entire image, and the 'filename' column being completely empty.

-rec-accessdenied.jpg: This is what I get when trying to recover the image you can see in the other screenshot. "Zugriff verweigert" is German for "Access denied". Note that this happens no matter which drive/memory stick/whatever I am trying to save the file to.

-rec-expected.jpg: This is what I think should happen - this example is a memory card with deleted images. It also seems to be lacking filenames, but recuva just provides numbers as filenames. These files can be recovered without problems.

 

I hope this illustrates my problem more accurately.

 

Thanks for all your comments so far, I would greatly appreciate any further ideas.

[Super Fast]

Wait; what are we defining as "without a name" here?

 

According to the Windows filesystem API's;

FileName: Everything that appears before the period.

FileExtension: Everything that appears after the period.

FileNameWithExtension: A normal file; such as example.doc

FullPath: The entire path; excluding the ending backslash (C:\Windows)

 

Are these 'files without names' missing the FileName, or the full FileNameWithExtension?

 

It IS possible to have files with no name. For I have done so. I believe one way was using Winrar, but there are other ways as well.

[Nergal]

Moved to Recuva Bugs Forum

 

Please note I feel that we are getting away from replying to the Original poster, Maybe they could add some info to bring us back around to the issue

[dfy]

Update for everyone who might run into the same bug:

 

Use the linux tool "ntfsundelete". It is not for inexperienced users as it is command line only, but it's very flexible and recovered all my files after a bit of fiddling.

At first I ran into the same problem as with recuva, simply trying to undelete all files gave errors when trying to save the recovered files (as they have no file names. I'm convinced this is the reason, since:) but when I wrote a bash script that gave every recovered file a unique name (ntfsundelete allows specifying filename) everything worked like a charm.

[Nergal]

awesome dfy glad you were able to recover your files

[rec012]

Hellow Newbie!

I have 100% the same problem as your: file names without name and extension and the same error. And other porgrames did not help me.

Please! help: How did you solve this problem?

Where can i get the linux tool "ntfsundelete" and what a bash script did you use?????