cgsecurity.org

So, i stupidly deleted my 3TB D Drive partition, the drive it currently in an 'unallocated' state as i dont want to convert it to a 'New Simple Drive' in fear of destroying any data on the drive, testDisk was high recommended to be so i have download it and using the GUI version qphotorec.

Im about 1hr into the the search and it has found a bunch of files which is great but looking in the directory where its placing these saved files the folder structure is not being maintained from my original drive. QPhotoRec seems to be placing the files in loads of folders named 'recup_dir.1', 'recup_dir.2', 'recup_dir.3' etc and not maintaining the directory structure and the files inside these folders appears to be randomly generated as well like 'f0015424.zip' or 'f277417224.mpg' etc and not their original names.

Im just wondering if qphotorec actual maintains file names and directory structure from the drive its recovering information from, does it actually fix the directory structure once its completed searching the partition or am i stuck with these randomly generated name and folders?. The only reason i ask is as its a 3TB drive with 1000's of files so actually identifying the files let alone renaming them will be an endless task if not and might have to try another recovery program?. I dont want to waste something like 5 hours with QPhotoRec search the partition if once its finished im left with 100's of randomly generated folder names and even more files if the program cant keep the drivers original folder structure and names

Thanks for any help

PhotoRec/QPhotoRec doesn't recover the directory structure. Files can be renamed automatically as explained in https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf

Thanks for the reply.

Does Testdisk_win recover the directory structure?

Testdisk provides an export function for single files but also directory trees and keeps names and folder structures.

OK testdisk has finally finished the search and i have got this screen....



but im not sure what steps i need to do next, i did press 'P' to list files but when doing so i get the following message, 'Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged' but it appears to have saved loads of folders to the J drive (but with randomly generated file names)

Do i need to change partition characteristics??

BlockABoots wrote: 11 Feb 2020, 19:05 OK testdisk has finally finished the search and i have got this screen....



but im not sure what steps i need to do next, i did press 'P' to list files but when doing so i get the following message, 'Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged'


but it appears to have saved loads of folders to the J drive (but with randomly generated file names)

Who is "it"?

Do i need to change partition characteristics??

No, as it's already primary and bootable, as expressed by the leading star.

recuperation wrote: 11 Feb 2020, 19:59 Who is "it"?

I mean teskdisk seems to have saved some folders on my J drive......or though on further thinking this might have been left over folders form when i tired QPhotorec earlier one

recuperation wrote: No, as it's already primary and bootable, as expressed by the leading star.

so what is my next step, use the write command, or will that fail as i was getting the 'Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged' ?

BlockABoots wrote: 11 Feb 2020, 20:14

recuperation wrote: 11 Feb 2020, 19:59 Who is "it"?

I mean teskdisk seems to have saved some folders on my J drive......or though on further thinking this might have been left over folders form when i tired QPhotorec earlier one

" form when i tired QPhotorec earlier one" => Is that supposed to be an English sentence that I should understand?

recuperation wrote: No, as it's already primary and bootable, as expressed by the leading star.

so what is my next step, use the write command, or will that fail as i was getting the 'Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged' ?

Try a deeper search.