Recovering lost files

A work mate of mine recorded very imporant audio files (.wav), when he tried to transfer it to the USB stick it gave an I/O error and it all somehow disappeared. Im not sure how, im guessing it is a virus or just user idiocy.

Recuva will be my first program to try. What other programs can retrieve it back?

Very Urgent and important.

 

Recuva should be able to do it, there are different levels of scanning that you can set in option.

Restoration is another good freeware, no installation required just like Recuva.

 

EDIT:

Wait, I misread, if it's I/O error and the USB stick has gone bad, then these software won't be able to recover the files. Forensic data recovery companies can recover the files that were saved in the UFD before though.

 

The files should have still been on the C: drive.

 

If he/she did a "move" or "cut & paste", yeah it should still be in the C: drive. Try scanning the C: drive with Recuva or Restoration.

 

It probably wasn't a virus and may not have been user idiocy (particularly since the files should, as you say, still be on the c: drive); it's more likely that there was some sort of power interruption to the USB drive, or a flaw in the flash memory in the drive, that caused the I/O error.

 

I trust PC Inspector File Recovery since it was the only one that managed to find the files I had accidentally deleted.

 

Handy Recovery, cost a bit, worth it. Maybe GiveawayOfTheDay will do it again

cheers ...

 

Thanks for the input guys, Appreciate it. You just saved someone from losing his job (no not me)

I managed to recover half the files this morning. The other half cannot seem to be found on any of the file tables which is impossible. One possibility was it was never deleted but moved or renamed but an hour of searching didnt find anything.

Im currently looking through over 200 deep clusters of .wav files. They have no proper filenames and some date back to 2005.

Any ideas where the missing files went? They are audio recording (propriety .wav) which automatically splits into 5mins intervals.

 

If it's overwritten, then the chances of recovering it is extremely low. And since those files were on C: drive, there is a good chance that they got overwritten by other temp files.

 

Yes but it will always leave a trace on the file table. It has to be overwritten over more times than that.

I made sure not to create disk writes to preserve the files.

 

Active@ File Recovery will recovery their files used it myself and it does the job http://www.partition-recovery.com/products.htm Also their Active@ Partition Recovery will also do the recovery but go for option 1 (Active@ File Recovery)

 

thats why i never cut or move important files.

i always copy them.

coz if theres any bug or mistake or human error..your file will be lost or messed up during transfer.


'Undo Delete' is better than Recuva but its a trial version..although it ll easily work for 20 days .

but for long term u ll have to buy it.

 

Point is: if you only have one partition with OS and data, just booting into windows could cause overwriting of the file's remnants.

I'd use a Linux live CD and testdisk+photorec. IIRC I did recover some audio files along with the pictures on my sister's camera. You could then save the recovered file on a usb-- no wait, try to burn a CD instead.