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I have a 500 gb hard drive with about 6 months worth of pics Kids bday etc.. that shows folders but says 0 bytes

can anyone recommend a good free software tool that might help get pics back?


it does say 336 mb used in drive properties but when i go into a folder it says 0

Try these.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecov ... ograms.htm

thanks I tried easus data recovery software and it said no data found ... . I see folders.... do you think if i formatted it and tried again that would help?

Randy wrote:thanks I tried easus data recovery software and it said no data found ... . I see folders.... do you think if i formatted it and tried again that would help?

NO!
Whatever you do, DO NOT reformat it.
That would wipe out anything that's on there.

Run chkdsk
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... d385dcbb12

Worked for me https://www.speedguide.net/forums/ ... =USB+drive

Formatted or not, the data can be recovered using Testdisk or Photorec.

Well?

You can try Mini Tool Partition to try to recover the partition.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-par ... nager.html

Humboldt wrote:Well?

just started chkdsk 30 min ago , seems to be stuck at 107269..?

Randy wrote:just started chkdsk 30 min ago , seems to be stuck at 107269..?

Give it some time.
Depending on your OS make sure you check "automatically fix errors"

If from the command line use /F to do this: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu ... x?mfr=true

Chkdsk corrects disk errors only if you specify the /f command-line option. Chkdsk must be able to lock the drive to correct errors. Because repairs usually change a disk's file allocation table and sometimes cause a loss of data, chkdsk sends a confirmation message similar to the following:

10 lost allocation units found in 3 chains.

Convert lost chains to files?

If you press Y, Windows saves each lost chain in the root directory as a file with a name in the format Filennnn.chk. When chkdsk finishes, you can check these files to see if they contain any data you need. If you press N, Windows fixes the disk, but it does not save the contents of the lost allocation units.

If you do not use the /f command-line option, chkdsk sends a message if a file needs to be fixed, but it does not fix any errors.

If you use chkdsk /f on a very large disk (for example, 70 gigabytes) or a disk with a very large number of files (for example, millions of files), chkdsk might take a long time (for example, over several days) to complete. The computer is not available during this time because chkdsk does not relinquish control until it is finished.

It helped me with a 500 GB drive, I'd leave it going overnight and it'd finish by the morning.
I used /f /r (/r repairs physical errors)

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Best of luck.

We use EaseUS for most data recovery jobs. Gotta let it run for a day or several days on some tanked drives.
Since you have folders (Directories) listed, but no files inside...I'm wondering if you got hit with one of the newer variants of crypto malware. Crashed drives usually do not still have directory structure intact like you have.

i hope you get them pics back, in the future i recommend something like crashplan for issues like this.......

http://www.code42.com/crashplan/

YeOldeStonecat wrote:We use EaseUS for most data recovery jobs. Gotta let it run for a day or several days on some tanked drives.
Since you have folders (Directories) listed, but no files inside...I'm wondering if you got hit with one of the newer variants of crypto malware. Crashed drives usually do not still have directory structure intact like you have.

the folders and directories start to disappear after 20 - 30 min and after about 1 hr I restarted chk dsk it cant find the drive...it seems if i shut the drive off /cool down folders reappear.. I wonder if its a mechanical heat issue ,,,?

thx for all your help with this guys.

im running chk dsk again and am going to leave it running even if it stays stuck.

humboldt i had automatically fix errors selected and ran from drive /properties/ tools/ chk dsk ... I will try from CMD Prompt instead.

Mark wrote:i hope you get them pics back, in the future i recommend something like crashplan for issues like this.......

http://www.code42.com/crashplan/

thx Mark

I picked up a 1.5 tb drive and a 1tb drive and now have the computer A set to auto backup to new 1tb E: drive,
the 1.5 is external and will do manual back ups with it. The one thing i like about crashplan is its off site so if the house burns down its still safe so i will consider something like that.I do have CX which gives me 10 gb but its a slow process

If all else fails, stick the drive in the freezer overnight and then try and get your data (quickly mind you).

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Randy>chkdsk /f E:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
108000 file records processed.
File verification completed.
665 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
0 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
51 percent complete. (107269 of 124662 index entries processed)

.....and stuck there


and then run chkdsk again and get this
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Randy>chkdsk /f e:
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.


C:\Users\Randy>

I know it sounds crazy but at this point it wouldn't hurt to try my above suggestion.

tried it... no change, not that crazy heard of it before..

its asking to format so im thinking format it and then try recovery...?i'm outta options

Sorry to hear that Randy.

Did you try command line /f /r?

As I said, I had a really similar situation and it worked for me.
If it's freezing maybe the lack of the /r (repair) would make a difference.

Couldn't hurt.

Best of luck.

Testdisk can find the lost partitions and recover the data.

You don't want to run checkdisk many times, each time you run it, it beats the living crap out of a hard drive. Works it VERY hard. If your hard drive is already failing...it will likely push it off the edge of the cliff.
Depending on level of corruption, running checkdisk just once can sometimes get a drive readable enough to copy data. Beyond that...turn to data recovery tools.

The freezer trick has worked for us quite a few times, when the issue is a physical problem with moving parts in a drive, such as failing bearings. Cools them enough to shrink the moving parts of the drive to spin long enough to quickly copy data. We put the drive in the freezer overnight...and then connect to our bench rig, and copy as quickly as we can. Yes the drive will get lots of condensation on it...so what, it's already bad and about to be thrown out. Not like I'm worried about it rusting and going bad.

Another great tool is DDRescue. This is actually the correct approach to take to recover data from a failing HDD....if it's due to bad corruption on the platters (which the freezer trick will do nothing for). You use DDRescure to do a sector by sector copy of the failing drive to another drive. And then you do your data recovery from the cloned drive.

Randy, I had luck with a stand alone bit by bit duplicator, copying the bad drive to a new drive... It worked the 1 time that I tried it anyway... Just look for hard drive duplicators and read the reviews... It was ~$100... Much cheaper than the $600 and up (probably ~$1000 now...) price to have a clean room duplicate it...


Do understand that the more things that you do to it, the less your chance of recovery...

YMMV...

I often send customers to the company below. VERY satisfied with them.

https://gillware.com/

Let me know if you decide to use them. I can give you the info that will get you a great discount.

Solved!!! the problem seemed to be a power/ voltage connection problem on the board of the drive. what would happen is the drive would take the power for about 10 - 30 seconds ( enough to display the folders) but then drop some power/ enough to make it not accessible. Somehow how i realized that if I put pressure with my hand by squeezing on the board the drive operated normal! and i was able to copy and paste my pictures. It took me about 4 attempts to copy all the pictures bcz i couldn't keep a consistent squeeze on it.

I gotta say that this was one of the weirdest problems I've had. *note a new board for the hard drive is about $50

Great work.