Overwritten Files

[Ford]

Hi! First, a million thanks to Recuva! This really did help me recover some of my important files and photos. My old man is so delighted to see his younger years again and our old family pictures that have already been lost when this pc crashed. However, right now my problem is most of the files that I really need was overwritten for the dumbest reason of not following simple instructions of not installing the recovery software on the hard drive that I want to recover from. I really feel bad about it and it was too late (I got too excited) when I realized that I have screwed up. So my question is, Is there any other way that I can undone what I just did or restore those files that got overwritten in the process of installing the recovery software? I hope so. Thanks again!

[Augeas]

Unfortunately you can't undo what has been done, in respect of 'un-overwriting' already deleted data. You could try running a deep scan, which will produce many tens of thousands of deleted files. You might find some of what you are looking for.

 

Don't restrict the scan by selecting pics only, or by specifying a particular file type. Display the lot. Sometimes files (including pics) are under what appears to be random names.

[Alan_B]

I fully agree with the advice you have been given,

and a Deep Scan may work.

 

HOWEVER I suspect your diagnosis is wrong.

 

However, right now my problem is most of the files that I really need was overwritten for the dumbest reason of not following simple instructions of not installing the recovery software on the hard drive that I want to recover from. I really feel bad about it and it was too late (I got too excited) when I realized that I have screwed up.

 

The actual installation of Portable Recuva is less than :-

4 MByte on a 32 bit machine

5 MByte on a 64 bit machine if you refrain from unzipping the 32 bit executable - or 4+5=9 Mbyte if you unzipped the whole package.

 

The absolute worst case, regardless of whether you installed the non-portable version or how you unzipped the portable version,

would be 9 MByte that is over-written and destroyed due to where you installed Recuva.

 

I suspect that you are concerned by a data loss that is much worse than 9 MBytes because your lost pictures etc are present on partition C:\,

and unfortunately SOME of what could have been recovered by Deep Scan before you started this topic has now been over-written by Windows itself as you use this same computer,

and MORE of what could have been recovered by Deep Scan will become destroyed the longer you spend using this computer.

 

For your future benefit please note that

It is always better to use a partition OTHER THAN C:\ for any pictures, documents etc. so that Windows cannot overwrite them within seconds of their being lost.

Between them Windows and your use of an browser is likely to overwrite on C:\ more than 1000 MByte per day,

BUT FORTUNATELY this is mostly overwriting yesterday's Windows temporary files and browser caches and not the lost files you have yet to recover.

 

I would guess that less than 5% of what Deep Scan is able to find will be overwritten today,

but if you think it is worth some money and time and effort you could start a new topic in the get advice on how to clone your partition C:\  to that external drive.

Then you can attach that external drive to the other computer

 

So - If you put off till next week and attempt to deep scan recover,

any further use of the computer during this week will only overwrite a part of what could be found by deep scan today.

 

If you are prepared to spend a little time and money and can use a different computer you could start a new topic in the software forum

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=9

and get advice on removing the drive with lost files and attaching as an external drive to the different computer for safe recovery without further over-writing.

[Augeas]

Yes, using a pc is a killer for recovering files. One of the first things I would do if I lost files would be to clear my browser history. Depending on when it was last done, this could free up several thousands of MFT records to act as a buffer. Overwriting of records in the MFT is the reason why deleted files can't be seen with a normal scan, and if the records freed are prior sequentially to the deleted files then these will soak up some of the pc activity.

 

Although Recuva isn't very large, it will use up 50+ MFT records. Probably this isn't to blame for overwriting the records for the deleted pics, but it doesn't help.

 

So, use your pc as little as possible and run the deep scan.