Forcing Recuva to *not* ignore files?

[The1992Phoenix]

Hello,

 

(For the TL;DR version skip to end of post)

 

I have recently installed Windows 8 and during an attempt to activate the system my 'Windows.old' folder was deleted and replaced by a new one - without all the files imported from my old windows inside.

 

Naturally I was distressed by this, as that was basically the entire My Documents folder from XP we are talking about -- everything from school projects to games and music was stored there, and it was simply gone in one go because Win' 8 decided to wipe it out.

 

Now, Recuva initially worked fantastic. Sans a few files in red or yellow (around six out of hundreds of thousands!), they were all recoved. The problem is after recovery took place, however: I had to go into advanced mode to make Recuva also restore folder structures. Otherwise I had to restablish all files manually - an impossible task.

 

TL;DR: Now here is the thing: I recovered on the first attempt successfully, but now that I try to do so again (with folder structures to be restored as well) Recuva is trolling me by ignoring all files. Now I know they are the same files because the total file count remains exactly the same as it was on the first recovery attempt - it only changes to show not deleted files when I tell it to do so.

 

At this point I have tried everything except deep scan, which I am doing now. But I would appreciate if there is a way to force it to not ignore files - specially when those are the files I want to get back.

[Augeas]

Do you have anything in the File/Pathname box?

[The1992Phoenix]

Do you have anything in the File/Pathname box?

Yes. "C:\Windows.old\*" (without quotes in Recuva).

 

It detected and recoved the files lost in that very same folder without problem, previously. But now it ignores those same files.

[Alan_B]

To what drive did you recover on the first attempt ?

Are those recovered files still accessible ?

[Augeas]

Yes. "C:\Windows.old\*" (without quotes in Recuva).

 

It detected and recoved the files lost in that very same folder without problem, previously. But now it ignores those same files.

 

If your present scan results are still there then try clearing the Path/Filename box, and you should see the full search results.. Then you can play with the filters to see what's there.

 

As Recuva will search the entire disk and then apply any filters the search is no less speedy if you search with an empty Path/Filename box. I would do that and then apply the filters afterwards - you don't have to rescan.

[The1992Phoenix]

To what drive did you recover on the first attempt ?

Are those recovered files still accessible ?

 

Drive C, the same one the files were found on.

Apparently not anymore.

If your present scan results are still there then try clearing the Path/Filename box, and you should see the full search results.. Then you can play with the filters to see what's there.

 

As Recuva will search the entire disk and then apply any filters the search is no less speedy if you search with an empty Path/Filename box. I would do that and then apply the filters afterwards - you don't have to rescan.

Did so.

 

I have an user-friendly suggestion to make: Set restore folder structures by default. It is a shame that over 200 Gbs worth of files were practically lost when it could have otherwise been a very successful recovery. The only files that had been damaged were around six old windows files - a shame that the program choose instead to dump all recovered files into a single folder instead.

 

Anyway, thank you for the assistance. Recuva did its job just fine, but had it also recovered file structures then it would have been a perfect save.

 

My regards.

[Augeas]

Drive C, the same one the files were found on.

 

And there's the clue. As Recuva's warning message says, if you restore to the same drive then the chances of recovery are reduced. If you are recovering a large number of files, more so.

 

Actually Recuva only needs to overwrite one file (one record in the MFT), the entry for the folder Windows.old. Once that has gone there's no way of referring all the files it contained back to a folder, so the folder structure can't be recreated. It may still be possible to recover the majority of the files into one folder, but you've done that already.