File Recovery

[Dryfter]

Long story short. I managed to delete a folder FULL of information I need (about 130gigs worth). I thought I had it backed up, but when I went and looked for the most recent backup, it wasn't there. So, I'm probably down 20 gigs of data if I can't recover the folder.

So far, I've been using PhotoRec, which seems to recover the files, but not the file names or folders they were in. I'm trying something in TestDisk right now that I'm hoping will give me a, more or less, direct copy of what is still stored on the hard drive.

Any recommendations? Free would be awesome, but I'm willing to pay if it's easy enough to use. I've also tried GDDrescue, but that didn't seem to pull the folder up. That has me scared.

 

[Nothinman]

What filesystem you were using would be good to know. And make sure that you've unmounted that filesystem and aren't doing any writing to it currently.

 

[Dryfter]

EXT4.

I found a few files using TestDisk, but they were all corrupted beyond repair, or the folders were empty. All done writing and unmounted after I realized what had happened. Which I think was to late.

 

[ViviTheMage]

EXT4.

I found a few files using TestDisk, but they were all corrupted beyond repair, or the folders were empty. All done writing and unmounted after I realized what had happened. Which I think was to late.

How much did you write to it? If it was a few GB, you are probably screwed...you'll want to try software like :

Easy Recovery Pro, GetDataBack, File Recovery Pro, Recov Pro, undelete, undisker

Good luck

 

[Dryfter]

I didn't think it was a few gigs, but I'll give those a try.

 

[lxskllr]

I didn't think it was a few gigs, but I'll give those a try.

Photorec worked for me, but my problem was I didn't have room to store the recovered files. The size of the recovery was inexplicably huge compared to the data I was extracting. I'm gonna try tackling it later. When I partitioned my drive, I left the damaged area alone. Right now I think the data's gone forever, but it'll be an interesting exercise to see what I can do with forensic tools.