Page 1 of 1

Photorec Stops or Freezes

Posted: 13 Sep 2016, 20:25
by bulko
Hi Everybody, I am missing thousands of jpg files from an external HD. Probably a gig or two. All the missing files are from one folder and I think I accidentally deleted them, as all other folders seem to be okay. The ext HD is not part of the system so system restore wont work. My OS is Windows 7 64 bit but I downloaded the regular Windows 32 version of testdisk after reading the instructions. I ran photorec unallocated and when it was done it only showed a few recovered files. I am now trying to run "whole partition". It quickly (@10 mins) recovers 1254 files (I am searching jpgs only), then freezes. Estimated time to completion keeps growing and growing (300 hours?) but nothing else is moving. I see a stop button but I am unable to move the cursor or stop or quit (Q) the program. I have to end program. I tried again today and it did the very same thing, even stopping around the same number of files. I looked through the files it recovered and none seem to be from the folder where the files recently went missing. These seem to be older files from other folders on the same ext drive. I assume if the program was finished it would say so? This seems to just freeze. Thanks for all your help and please advise me in simple terms as I am not very tech savvy. Thanks again!

Re: Photorec Stops or Freezes

Posted: 14 Sep 2016, 06:46
by cgrenier
Have you try TestDisk, Advanced, Undelete ? You may see your lost files this way.

If you choose [Whole] instead of [Free], PhotoRec will recover both deleted or non deleted files.

Using PhotoRec on the free/unallocated space should have worked unless
- the deleted files have in fact been moved in the Recycle Bin
- or new files have been written on the filesystem after the files have been deleted
- or you told photorec to store the recovered files on the filesystem after the files have been deleted

Stop should be highlighted by default, pressing Enter should be enough.

PhotoRec 7.1-WIP is faster than previous version.

Re: Photorec Stops or Freezes

Posted: 16 Sep 2016, 19:15
by bulko
cgrenier wrote:Have you try TestDisk, Advanced, Undelete ? You may see your lost files this way.
Thanks for your help. I just tried testdisk>advanced>undelete and it only shows 2 files. Thousands are missing.
cgrenier wrote: If you choose [Whole] instead of [Free], PhotoRec will recover both deleted or non deleted files.
PhotoRec (Free) only finds 3 files. (Whole) freezes and stops working per my original post.
cgrenier wrote: Using PhotoRec on the free/unallocated space should have worked unless
- the deleted files have in fact been moved in the Recycle Bin
- or new files have been written on the filesystem after the files have been deleted
- or you told photorec to store the recovered files on the filesystem after the files have been deleted
-the external drive was not set up to send deleted files to the computer's recycle bin.
-i have been careful not to put any new files in that folder but i may have copied/pasted only a few files into other folders on that drive.
-the recovered files are set to a separate drive.
cgrenier wrote: Stop should be highlighted by default, pressing Enter should be enough.
the only time it doesn't work is when PhotoRec (Whole) freezes on me.
cgrenier wrote: PhotoRec 7.1-WIP is faster than previous version.
If you have any other suggestions I really appreciate it. I am missing thousands of files. Thanks for your help!