Data Recovery and Disk Utilities Forum @R-TT

hi there, ive recently got r-studio to recover data off of an old HD that crashed. we're talking 2k in mp3s and some films. it took a few hours scanning the HD which was fine and it found lots of mp3s which was great! the only thing is that all the mp3s it found only have numbers and no name, they play fine but i have no idea what song they are *shrugs* is there any way around this? is there a setting that ive missed when setting it up?

thanks for reading

Most likely those MP3s were recovered using scan for known file types, using the mp3 fle signature. This recovery method can recover file content, that is, the mp3 itself, but not the file name.

ok thanks for getting back to me Alt and yes that is how i recovered them... is there a way that i can go back and do it again with another setting? is so, whats the best way?

Just recovery files from the file system on the recognized partition. If there's no such, or those files aren't recoverable, well, bad luck.

There is a remote chance that if you view a file in the hex editor you might see the name, and the artist of the song. Also the name of each MP3s could be as well. I think you have a drive that was using FAT as I seen #s as well as numbed files. Hopefully your drive was not fragmented too much or some of your finds may only be part of the songs.
If I remember it right, the "file allocation tables" (FAT) there were 2 of them, 1 was for backup. If 1 is still good, it is FAT that has the names of all files. After you tried what you can with the drive, you could try (if you haven't already) run Scandisk under DOS and see if it fixes the FAT. Then you would have the whole drive working again.
I think R-Undelete home can put together some so you would have the whole song. You could put the files together yourself as you would know the songs. I have not tried this tho, I know this would work. I you have the time.

Hope this helps

I'd add two comments.
1. R-Undelete home is free for FAT disks.
2. Before running Scandisk be sure that you have an image of the disk, or you're through with the recovery. Scandisk, when unsuccessful, corrupts data beyond any recovery.