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Lost images

Posted: 07 Nov 2016, 22:22
by onesickpuppy
Hi, I'm new here and found this site due to trying to find a way to "recover" an extensive amount of image files due to a mistake. Let me explain:

I'm a professional motorsports photographer...so I have a lot of photo files. I had a 4 bay NAS setup as JBOD. Something went wrong with the power
unit on it, so I bought a new Buffalo NAS. As I was unpacking and attaching the drive rails...I was reading the "picture" instructions. It stated that
the box was by default set to JBOD....YAY!!!! one less setting to do......In my original box each drive was labeled by year...2014, 2013 etc.
I place the drives into the new case...plugged in the power cord. Based on the instructions, I pushed the power switch...and as the instructions showed
the drive lights flickered for a few moments.....Interestingly enough, it then showed to press another button just under the power button...and that
the lights would flicker again.....hmmmm....ok...I did......after about 5 minutes I got a bad gut feeling....YEP....it formatted all the drives...... :o
I called Buffalo and they stated that by pushing that button, I started to set up for RAID ARRAY....I challenged them WHY??? Nothing states that on
the diagram...nothing states or warns of re formatting drives will happen.....to shorten story...they didn't even apologize !!!

So now, my NTFS formatted drives have been re formatted to linux format, and when I place them into a drive reader...you can see the previous drive
letter assigned...but nothing else....no files and since I'm on Windows 10...no files or even format view.

CAN TestDisk recover my files???? and if so...how do I go about it now that they have been reformatted ???

Thanks to anyone that can help me recover over 70000 images......

Re: Lost images

Posted: 08 Nov 2016, 07:37
by cgrenier
Try PhotoRec on the first disk. Does it recover your pictures, only small pictures, only jpg thumbnails ?

Re: Lost images

Posted: 08 Nov 2016, 08:10
by onesickpuppy
I haven't tried anything yet....due to not wanting to make bad....worse.

My question was laid out in such to give as much info...so that maybe someone with same experience
could answer me first that I have a chance...or not.

I know that Buffalo had recommended me to a company...but they are very expensive...