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Good morning
I found this forum regarding Photorec and signed up to ask about the risk of data loss.
I am very inexperienced in computer science, I immediately apologize if I ask trivial questions.
I have an external hard drive, always kept very well in its padded case.
It always worked fine until yesterday when it started making a strange noise, like ticking.
In the device manager I see the driver and I have the possibility to safely remove the hard disk from the PC options. But I don't see it in my computer.
Searching the internet I found Photorec, and it looks like a great program.
However I think I have made more mistakes ...
I selected the "unknown disk" option as it was the only one available, believing I was selecting the external hard drive.
Once I recovered many files, however, I realized that Photorec was finding files from the main hard disk of my PC (Windows C : ).
At least I imagined this because I was seeing a lot of temporary images of internet searches, and I don't think it can be stored on the external hard drive ...
So I stopped the operation and deleted the folders created by Photorec.
The problem is that I had created a folder Photorec on the desktop of the pc.

Now I have the doubt that I have deleted the files inside my pc!
It's possible?
Should I have recovered the data in another drive and NOT on my pc?
Did Photorec duplicate the data or extract it?
It was over 30%, I hope I haven't deleted my files.
Sorry for the stupid question and my English.
I hope I haven't done any damage.
After rebooting, I first noticed that the Windows recycle bin sound was muted. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I write it anyway in case it will be useful to those who have more experience than me.
Thank you!

MiLord wrote: 22 Jul 2021, 16:35 Good morning
I found this forum regarding Photorec and signed up to ask about the risk of data loss.
I am very inexperienced in computer science, I immediately apologize if I ask trivial questions.
I have an external hard drive, always kept very well in its padded case.
It always worked fine until yesterday when it started making a strange noise, like ticking.

This sounds like you are experiencing a technical problem with your harddrive.
I suggest paying a profesional recovery service.
But a klicking noise can be caused by a broken power supply.
If it's the drive itself duplicating the drive as described in the manual is the way to go to get the data before the drive breaks down completely.
But based on your description below I would rather recommend you finding someone else.

In the device manager I see the driver and I have the possibility to safely remove the hard disk from the PC options. But I don't see it in my computer.
Searching the internet I found Photorec, and it looks like a great program.
However I think I have made more mistakes ...
I selected the "unknown disk" option as it was the only one available, believing I was selecting the external hard drive.
Once I recovered many files, however, I realized that Photorec was finding files from the main hard disk of my PC (Windows C : ).
At least I imagined this because I was seeing a lot of temporary images of internet searches, and I don't think it can be stored on the external hard drive ...

You have to select source and target.

So I stopped the operation and deleted the folders created by Photorec.
The problem is that I had created a folder Photorec on the desktop of the pc.

Now I have the doubt that I have deleted the files inside my pc!
It's possible?

That could happen if you write on your source drive.

Should I have recovered the data in another drive and NOT on my pc?

Yes, on another free drive with sufficient space. "on my PC" is not a sufficient description to describe the write location. There are only drives either inside or outside of the computer where you are running Photorec.

Did Photorec duplicate the data or extract it?

What is the difference, please? There is always a source and a target. If you select the target to be the source drive you will most likely overwrite stuff and fail.

First of all thanks for the answers and for your patience, as I said I am not an expert...

I connected the external hard drive and then i opened the folder and clicked on "qphotorec_win".
I only see two options:

1) Disk\\.\PhysicaDrive0 - 1000 GiB / 931 GiB (RO) -ST1000DM003-1ER162,S/N:Z4Y4LMVM
2) add raw disk image I selected the first option, thinking it was the external hard drive, and then I selected D (Whole Disk)
I have created a folder on the desktop as a destination. After that I started the program and in the destination folder that I had created on the desktop I found many files

But they didn't look like those of the external hard disk, but those of my internal hard disk because I noticed many images of temporary searches on the internet that I would hardly have copied to an external hard disk.

So I stopped the program and deleted the folder I had created on the desktop.

I was wondering if this way I could do damage ...

I would not like to have deleted the files I have on my computer that I did not intend to recover as they are visible.
It seems to me that there is everything but checking them is difficult because there are so many and I don't know which files have been found. I would like, if possible, to have a confirmation.
In case it has done any damage, I ask if I can correct the errors with a Windows system restore
Thank you!

22.7.2021 22:31 recuperation: repaired broken quote

recuperation wrote: 22 Jul 2021, 17:42

MiLord wrote: 22 Jul 2021, 16:35
Now I have the doubt that I have deleted the files inside my pc!
It's possible?

That could happen if you write on your source drive.

Should I have recovered the data in another drive and NOT on my pc?

Yes, on another free drive with sufficient space. "on my PC" is not a sufficient description to describe the write location. There are only drives either inside or outside of the computer where you are running Photorec.

Did Photorec duplicate the data or extract it?

What is the difference, please? There is always a source and a target. If you select the target to be the source drive you will most likely overwrite stuff and fail.

As an inexperienced person, I thought that if Photorec copies files to the destination folder, deleting the folder will only delete one copy. But the files remain on the pc.
On the other hand, if Photorec moves the files to the destination folder, if I delete the folder, I physically delete the files ...

My fear is that Photorec has also found system files and not only photos or videos, so deleting the destination folder may have created problems for the operating system

I'm probably doing something wrong.

If QPhotorec does not show you the external drive even with it being connected and powered up, you should consult a professional service.

Thanks, I'll do it for sure!
But do you think I deleted something from my pc since I deleted the destination folder that I had created and in which Photorec had saved many files?
This is now my most important question.
The files Photorec found were from my computer, right?
And having created and then deleted the destination folder where photorec had saved many files, did I delete the files from my pc?
My question is because i was wrong and did not create the folder in an external drive, as I see it needs to be done, so I ask ...
I don't know if I've done any damage

the doubt comes to me from your statement:

So I stopped the operation and deleted the folders created by Photorec.
The problem is that I had created a folder Photorec on the desktop of the pc.

Now I have the doubt that I have deleted the files inside my pc!
It's possible?


"That could happen if you write on your source drive".

Another question please, how do i uninstall Photorec? I can't find it in the list of installed programs. Just delete the folder I downloaded? Thank you

In practice, if I scan my internal hard drive and create the destination folder on the desktop, and delete it with all the contents found, can I have problems?

MiLord wrote: 22 Jul 2021, 22:04 Thanks, I'll do it for sure!
But do you think I deleted something from my pc since I deleted the destination folder that I had created and in which Photorec had saved many files?
This is now my most important question.

Yes, you deleted the destination folder.

The files Photorec found were from my computer, right?

I don't know since I don't know your computer. Files originate from drives and partitions.

And having created and then deleted the destination folder where photorec had saved many files, did I delete the files from my pc?

What are "the files"? Please speak in terms of "source" and "target". Obviously you deleted the files where photorec had saved many files.

My question is because i was wrong and did not create the folder in an external drive, as I see it needs to be done, so I ask ...
I don't know if I've done any damage

If you selected by mistake a drive in your computer that was working correctly as a source drive you did not loose anything. Photorec extracts (copies!!!) stuff from your source drive to your traget.
BUT copying means WRITING on the TARGET. If you select your TARGET to be the same as the SOURCE drive writing on the TARGET means writing on the SOURCE drive thus destroying possible information to recover.

And if your defective drive was not recognized by your computer there was no chance to either read or write on this drive.

Another question please, how do i uninstall Photorec? I can't find it in the list of installed programs. Just delete the folder I downloaded? Thank you

Photorec is an executable file that does not install itself anywhere. There is nothing to uninstall.

[/quote]
My question is because i was wrong and did not create the folder in an external drive, as I see it needs to be done, so I ask ...
I don't know if I've done any damage
[/quote]If you selected by mistake a drive in your computer that was working correctly as a source drive you did not loose anything. Photorec extracts (copies!!!) stuff from your source drive to your traget.
BUT copying means WRITING on the TARGET. If you select your TARGET to be the same as the SOURCE drive writing on the TARGET means writing on the SOURCE drive thus destroying possible information to recover.

And if your defective drive was not recognized by your computer there was no chance to either read or write on this drive.[/quote]

recuperation wrote: 22 Jul 2021, 17:42

MiLord wrote: 22 Jul 2021, 22:04 My question is because i was wrong and did not create the folder in an external drive, as I see it needs to be done, so I ask ...
I don't know if I've done any damage

If you selected by mistake a drive in your computer that was working correctly as a source drive you did not loose anything. Photorec extracts (copies!!!) stuff from your source drive to your traget.
BUT copying means WRITING on the TARGET. If you select your TARGET to be the same as the SOURCE drive writing on the TARGET means writing on the SOURCE drive thus destroying possible information to recover.

And if your defective drive was not recognized by your computer there was no chance to either read or write on this drive.

Thank you very much!
This is the answer I was hoping to get!
So I didn't do any damage and I didn't lose any data. I really thank you for your patience

I was afraid that I damaged my internal Windows hard drive "Windows C : "
Photorec I think extracted the data from "Windows C : ". As I understand it I mistakenly selected "Windows C : " as source and created a Target folder on the desktop which I then deleted
Thanks!!!