Files Showing But Not Opening

Using TestDisk to undelete files
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lillyemma
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Joined: 25 Sep 2016, 17:05

Files Showing But Not Opening

#1 Post by lillyemma »

I used the Testdisk file undelete to recover some of my files and it worked splendidly.

However I'm trying to recover files for my dad and though thousands of files have been undeleted, the images are not showing up. Whenever I try to view them in Windows Viewer, it says the file can't be opened (screenshot attached). Please help! I'd really like to get these files back for my dad.
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cgrenier
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Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#2 Post by cgrenier »

You may have to take ownership of the files to be able to open them.
Otherwise try PhotoRec on the free space of partition.
Good luck

fball
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Joined: 19 Dec 2016, 15:47

Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#3 Post by fball »

I also have this problem. I have pull out the SD card immediately after I wrongly confirmed to delete "Camera" folder under LG G4 with Andorid 6.0. Test Desk / Recuva / R-Studio all can mange get all 8XX files back to my hard disk but I can't open photo and mp4. The computer will display the same message. Any way to overcome it? I try to open property of one photo and under safty tab, I edit the authority of "Everyone" / "My user account" to full control. Am I correct? I am on Windows 10. Thank you for your advice. Anyway I will try photorec but its good if someone know how to recover them by Test Desk as it can keep my files name.

Thank you for your advice.

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cgrenier
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Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#4 Post by cgrenier »

Use PhotoRec to recover your pictures. Recovered files will have the date/time of the original pictures, so it's possible to rename using this information.
See chapter "After using PhotoRec" from https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf

fball
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Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#5 Post by fball »

I do use Photorec to scan and recover whole SD with exFAT. I don't know why. The result is even worst. It can recover other 1XX files but the target 8XX files recovered by testdisk are not included. :cry: Any other suggested try? Is it helpful if I provide a sample file recovered by testdisk? Thank you for your great software and help anyway.

fball
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Joined: 19 Dec 2016, 15:47

Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#6 Post by fball »

cgrenier wrote:Use PhotoRec to recover your pictures. Recovered files will have the date/time of the original pictures, so it's possible to rename using this information.
See chapter "After using PhotoRec" from https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Using Active Disk Editor to open the file recovered by TestDisk/R-Studio under hex format, although the file name and size is like the original video or file. All hex value in the file is "FF". Is it mean that all file are corruptted and recovery is inpossible?

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cgrenier
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Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#7 Post by cgrenier »

The FAT table may be corrupted.
Try PhotoRec on the whole space of the partition.

brainfartman
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Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#8 Post by brainfartman »

I am facing the same issue as this person.

I tried PhotoRec but it does not recover any of the over 1000 photos that were in the deleted folder ("Camera"). It recovers a whole bunch of other stuff since I had backups of other phones on that sim card, but not any of the actual photos that were accidentally deleted.

Returning to TestDisk, it seems to recover all my deleted photos. However, a hex editor shows that the contents of the photos is all 00s. Given that your diagnosis is that the FAT table is corrupted (or overwritten), is there no hope for recovery at this point?

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cgrenier
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Re: Files Showing But Not Opening

#9 Post by cgrenier »

brainfartman, it seems the photos (and not the FAT tables) have been overwritten. In this case, there is no hope of data recovery except via some very specialized data recovery companies that may recover data by extracting the flash memory from sd card and bypassing the flash controller read old sectors (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling )

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