Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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chriscaldwell
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Jun 2020, 10:02

Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#1 Post by chriscaldwell »

Hello,
Brand new to this forum, and found this after a Google search for a solution.

I’m trying to help my friend who is a tax preparer and he ran into a problem with losing some client data files.

He has an iMac computer running Catalina. However, the tax software is from a company called Drake and it is Windows only software.

So for the past few years, he’s been running Parallels software on his Mac with bootcamp, which enables him to run Windows programs. He’s running Windows 10.

Recently, he had some issues with Windows 10, and had to reinstall it. Then he had to reinstall the Drake software.

For some reason the data files with all client info cannot be found. The client data files are separate from the application file, so we are not sure what happened. But assume since he had to reinstall windows 10 on his Mac (with Parallels) that they got deleted somehow

However, since we did not completely wipe clean the hard drive, but only reinstalled Windows 10 and the Drake software, my feeling is that they must be on his computer but are no longer visible.

Would you software help us find this data files?

Thank you for any suggestions.

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cgrenier
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Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#2 Post by cgrenier »

I don't know how the data is stored or what file format is used by drake...
Try to get more info from Drake support.

chriscaldwell
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Jun 2020, 10:02

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#3 Post by chriscaldwell »

We were so excited to see a response on your forum! Thank you so much for acknowledging us.

according to drake: Location of Data Files. Where are my client files located in the file structure of Drake? Client files are stored in the DT folder inside the main Drake Software folder.

Thank you. Also, again, does you software allow data to be recovered on Bootcamp? It's text data, names, addresses, phone numbers, some numbers. I will attempt again to get the extension used by Drake, but they are not available at this hour. But will get this info for you. Thanks.

chriscaldwell
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Jun 2020, 10:02

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#4 Post by chriscaldwell »

Hello, I was able to speak with Drake today about the file structure and extension!

The file structure is a file folder named DT. Inside that folder are other folders named 0 through 9.
The file extension for the data is either .dI9 or .DP9 or .DC9, or .DS9, or .DF9.

I hope that helps! Thank you.
Chris

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#5 Post by recuperation »

There is not just one software product. There are two, Testdisk and Photorec. Testdisk does not care specifically about individual files like the ones written by your Drake software.

Photorec is a tool for the SHTF scenario which might apply in your case. It assumes destruction of metadata like file name and position on the harddisk. For searching it does not matter how file are labeled. It searches by fingerprints to determine files. File extensions are required afterwards to label a found file based on its fingerprint.

What you or Drake really needs to deliver are unique fingerprints of the files involved in combination with the desired file extension. File extension and folder structure is not sufficient.

See chapiter 11 and especially 12.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf

chriscaldwell
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Jun 2020, 10:02

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#6 Post by chriscaldwell »

Thanks. I am not sure what any of that means. cgrenier asked "I don't know how the data is stored or what file format is used by drake...get more info from drake" So I obtained that info. But not sure what to do next Time is of the essence. Thank you.

Can you simply let me know if any of the software offered will work for my purposes? It sounds like you are saying Photorec works for this?

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#7 Post by recuperation »

chriscaldwell wrote: 29 Jun 2020, 20:14 Thanks. I am not sure what any of that means. cgrenier asked "I don't know how the data is stored or what file format is used by drake...get more info from drake" So I obtained that info. But not sure what to do next Time is of the essence. Thank you.
You will either need to get a file format specification for each file extension you mentioned or at least fingerprint data for each file extension from drake.
Can you simply let me know if any of the software offered will work for my purposes? It sounds like you are saying Photorec works for this?
No. There is no simple answer like "will work". Photorec can find those files provided that the fingerprints are integrated and the files were not fragmented.

chriscaldwell
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Jun 2020, 10:02

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#8 Post by chriscaldwell »

Thanks. I'd say it looks like we are out of luck since I've asked three people here if they know what a file "fingerprint" is. And we also have no idea what a "file format specification" is either. My friend said he's decided he is just going to throw away this computer and close his business for now. It's just too complicated and will take months to re-enter the lost data. He had heard that there was software that could uncover files that were accidentally deleted. But now I understand that you must know fingerprints and file format specs in order to do this. Sorry to have taken anyone's time!

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#9 Post by recuperation »

You might explain your problem to Drake and refer them to the Testdisk manual. They should understand what information you need.
If they refuse and you do not understand what is written in Chapter 12 of the documentation where the subject "signature" (=fingerprint) is explained you could hire a computer specialist to try find the fingerprint.

If you have a bunch of drake files left over you could compare those with the same extension with a hex editor in order to find a common factor at the beginning of a file. That common byte sequence will be the fingerprint.
That does not require having a specialized degree.

You could as well try to make a bunch of Drake files available to Christophe Grenier, maybe he would extract the signatures like he did in the forum article "Custom Signature for .pln files".

Otherwise you could hire a professional data recovery company.

chriscaldwell
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Jun 2020, 10:02

Re: Bootcamp data recovery help needed. Thank you.

#10 Post by chriscaldwell »

Thank you!

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