Did PhotoRec stuck?

Using PhotoRec to recover lost data
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Mars1979
Posts: 4
Joined: 19 Aug 2021, 10:59
Location: Poznań, Poland

Did PhotoRec stuck?

#1 Post by Mars1979 »

Hello. I leaved yesterday PhotoRec recovering one type of files, it was counting them and writing to disk as usually. I turned on "brute force" type recovery this time. Today I see no progress, neither estimated and lapsed time, just "Stop" button on the screen. The recovering disk LED is flashing, but I don't see any progress.

My question is, does PhotoRec still doing something useful and should I wait more, or what is happening? I attached the screenshot of console window.
Image
Update: the free space on the target disk is shrinking.

recuperation
Posts: 2719
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Did PhotoRec stuck?

#2 Post by recuperation »

Disable "brute force".
Your disk is too big.

Mars1979
Posts: 4
Joined: 19 Aug 2021, 10:59
Location: Poznań, Poland

Re: Did PhotoRec stuck?

#3 Post by Mars1979 »

Thank you.
Well, yes – the recovering disk has 2 TB, and disk where I write recovered files has only 1 TB. But I am looking only for .doc files, to be precise, for one file. I tried it on default option before and unfortunately I didn't found it, so I am trying what I can.
This is external USB HDD drive. The disk has broken NTFS table, probably not unmounted in Windows when writing the file. Well, the guy that gave me disk said he opened the file in Word (the file has 1.2 MB before and that was correct), there was no content in Word, then he closed it doing no save, then the file size in directory appeared to be zero. So, I'm looking for any way to recover it. BTW, DMDE didn't recover the file (says also 0 B).

recuperation
Posts: 2719
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Did PhotoRec stuck?

#4 Post by recuperation »

By the way, are you from Russia?

If Photorec does not find a matching fingerprint, brute force won't help you.

Stating just a size of 1.2 MB as only description of a word file deserves to be punished with failure anyway.
Such a job requires a detailed description - pants down! - like for a bank robber to enable any form of success.

Mars1979
Posts: 4
Joined: 19 Aug 2021, 10:59
Location: Poznań, Poland

Re: Did PhotoRec stuck?

#5 Post by Mars1979 »

No, I'm from Poland. :)

Well, I know some keywords. I tried to search within text on Windows Explorer and opened them in Word as well, and all those was not that files.

I guess the disk owner had to remove the disk without "safety removing" when writing that file, and when plugged it again some new data have to land there unfortunately. I guess doing chkdsk /f now is bad idea.

recuperation
Posts: 2719
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Did PhotoRec stuck?

#6 Post by recuperation »

Mars1979 wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 14:07 No, I'm from Poland. :)
I got curious because of the missing articles in your sentences... 8-)

Well, I know some keywords. I tried to search within text on Windows Explorer and opened them in Word as well, and all those was not that files.
I don't know how Microsoft Word is coding charakters in the doc-format. It maybe Unicode perhaps. If you hit keywords of the word document you might just have discovered one interior cluster. If the first cluster is missing you won't be able to open the remains.
I guess the disk owner had to remove the disk without "safety removing" when writing that file, and when plugged it again some new data have to land there unfortunately. I guess doing chkdsk /f now is bad idea.
If you duplicate your drive as described in the manual you don't have to fear chkdsk /f. Once done, checkdsk /f can't be reversed.

Mars1979
Posts: 4
Joined: 19 Aug 2021, 10:59
Location: Poznań, Poland

Re: Did PhotoRec stuck?

#7 Post by Mars1979 »

recuperation wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 15:54I got curious because of the missing articles in your sentences... 8-)
Well, I know my English is messy a lot, I often try to check twice what I type, but I was in a little hurry. Sorry for that. :)
recuperation wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 15:54 If you duplicate your drive as described in the manual you don't have to fear chkdsk /f. Once done, checkdsk /f can't be reversed.
There was no time for that, also I had no spare 2TB+ drive then. I was warned on Windows to fix the disk but I didn't do that, and on Linux I disabled auto-mounting feature as well.

Anyway, all signs points the data was overwritten due the error in filetable. I gave up. Thank You for your help.

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