cgsecurity.org

Hi
I have been trying to recover my data from my formatted 500Gb hard disk drive, I was following the exact steps from this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhWbSM-630E

It seems like after ~20 of hours the mission was successful, but instead of getting my files back as a structure of folders I created before formatting, I found my output folder with total chaos inside, 2600 of folders(295Gb) with unsorted files.
It looks like this:

-(...)
|-my_recovery_folder
|-(...)
|-recup_dir.2637
|-recup_dir.2638
|-recup_dir.2639

What did I possibly do wrong? Is there a way to sort those files somehow now?
Thanks in advance.

dwdanielo wrote: 09 Feb 2022, 11:08 Hi
I have been trying to recover my data from my formatted 500Gb hard disk drive, I was following the exact steps from this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhWbSM-630E

Please change the title of your posting. The whole rescue package is called "Testdisk" and it contains two programs, "Testdisk and "Photorec". You used the "Photorec" software!

I apologize that Photorec did not behave as expected after viewing a BAD THIRD PARTY tutorial.
This tutorial is bad as it's constructed in a way that Photorec produces just one file as a result which is a totally untypical behaviour. The reality is that - depending on your recovery settings - Photorec will produce lots of useless files as well. This is not a bug, it is a natural consequence from the way Photorec operates.
Feel free to complain with the youtube channel maintainer!
Couldn't you ask him this question?

It seems like after ~20 of hours the mission was successful, but instead of getting my files back as a structure of folders I created before formatting, I found my output folder with total chaos inside, 2600 of folders(295Gb) with unsorted files.
It looks like this:

-(...)
|-my_recovery_folder
|-(...)
|-recup_dir.2637
|-recup_dir.2638
|-recup_dir.2639

What did I possibly do wrong? Is there a way to sort those files somehow now?
Thanks in advance.

You did nothing wrong. Photorec is the armagedon tool and does not use any possible remains of metadata information like file names and folder structures.
Other (commercial) software may yield much better results as long as there are remains of metadata available.
The disadvantage of that other software taking into account metadata is that is has to be programmed for each file system individually.

As for sorting read
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/After_Using_PhotoRec

or use a search engine for different solutions.