Unable to preview video files which shows black screen in R-Studio - trying to recover accidentally deleted video files
Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2021 7:09 pm
Hello,
I am writing for some help. Any help is most appreciated. Thanks in advance. Sorry in advance for the length of my message but I didn't want to leave anything out.
I had accidentally deleted files on my external 5 TB hard drive (not a solid-state drive). The file system is NTFS. There is no physical damage to the hard drive and it is working perfectly. Since the accidental file deletions, I have stopped using it which was back in November 2020.
I am using R-Studio on a Windows 10 64-bit PC. As a safe precaution, I first created an image (compressed image) using R-Studio and saved it to another external 5 TB hard drive (not a solid-state drive). The original hard drive from which I am trying to recover accidentally deleted files from was also an external 5 TB hard drive. I kept the default settings. This took about 1 day and 14 hours if I am not mistaken to create the image.
I then opened the image in R-Studio and mounted it as drive X. Afterwards, I ran a detailed scan of the entire drive with "extra search for known file types" checked. The scan took about 5 hours and 57 minutes to complete.
Next, after clicking the show files button, the scan displayed a list of the deleted files. There was a red X on all the files.
Here is an attached a jpg picture showing what I am seeing.
These are the accidentally deleted files I would like to recover. The file icon has a red cross or X.
I then tried to preview several files, but none of the files could be played using the built-in preview video player. All I see is a black screen. No sound or picture can be seen or heard. Just a black screen. Pushing the play button also doesn't do anything.
To show you what I am seeing, here is an attached jpg picture of a screen shot of one test video file named "A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - 2017" that I am trying to preview. You will notice the screen is black and nothing plays.
Does this mean that this file and all the files won't be able to be recovered? I tried to preview other video files (with extensions. mp4, .mkv, and .ts) but none would play back in the built-in preview player which is disappointing.
I plan to buy a license to the software but I wanted to make sure I can recover the files. If all my files are black and don't play, then it would be a waste of money. I just hope at least some of my files are recoverable but it is beginning to look like none of them are as I can't preview them. It is my understanding that R-Undelete and R-Studio use the same technology only that R-Undelete is a lighter version.
Does anyone know if a file can't be previewed does that mean it can't be recovered? I wasn't sure. Or does anyone know what to do when the preview screen is black and nothing plays and how to solve this issue?
I also noticed the recovery chances for my files is listed as "Undetermined". Please see the next attached jpg picture of a screen shot which shows what I am seeing. I am not sure why is says "Undetermined". The good news is that I see the correct file name, file size, created date, and modified date columns.
On the other hand, if I were to buy a license, and attempt to recover my accidentally deleted files, I suspect they might be corrupted. This is just a guess though. Can corrupted files be corrected?
I would like to point out that all of my deleted video files were playable before they were accidentally deleted. So again, I hope they can be recovered.
On a different matter:
Since I made a compressed image file, would making a byte to byte image make any difference? I wasn't sure. I chose the compressed image option since it doesn't need to be compatible with earlier versions of R-Studio and saves space. However, if anyone thinks it is better I could try a byte to byte image as well. In some cases, some software that create an image do not include or copy free space (where my accidentally files may be located). But I wasn't sure if R-Studio's compressed image did the same by not copying free space. if so, that may explain why I can't preview any of my accidentally deleted video files which may reside in the free space, but this is just a guess.
If you can help, that would be great. I thank you for your time and I appreciate it.
By the way, R-Studio looks like a great program. Hopefully this program can help me.
Anyway, if anyone can help me resolve my issue of unable to preview videos which show a black screen, any help is most appreciated.
Thanks again.
I am writing for some help. Any help is most appreciated. Thanks in advance. Sorry in advance for the length of my message but I didn't want to leave anything out.
I had accidentally deleted files on my external 5 TB hard drive (not a solid-state drive). The file system is NTFS. There is no physical damage to the hard drive and it is working perfectly. Since the accidental file deletions, I have stopped using it which was back in November 2020.
I am using R-Studio on a Windows 10 64-bit PC. As a safe precaution, I first created an image (compressed image) using R-Studio and saved it to another external 5 TB hard drive (not a solid-state drive). The original hard drive from which I am trying to recover accidentally deleted files from was also an external 5 TB hard drive. I kept the default settings. This took about 1 day and 14 hours if I am not mistaken to create the image.
I then opened the image in R-Studio and mounted it as drive X. Afterwards, I ran a detailed scan of the entire drive with "extra search for known file types" checked. The scan took about 5 hours and 57 minutes to complete.
Next, after clicking the show files button, the scan displayed a list of the deleted files. There was a red X on all the files.
Here is an attached a jpg picture showing what I am seeing.
These are the accidentally deleted files I would like to recover. The file icon has a red cross or X.
I then tried to preview several files, but none of the files could be played using the built-in preview video player. All I see is a black screen. No sound or picture can be seen or heard. Just a black screen. Pushing the play button also doesn't do anything.
To show you what I am seeing, here is an attached jpg picture of a screen shot of one test video file named "A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - 2017" that I am trying to preview. You will notice the screen is black and nothing plays.
Does this mean that this file and all the files won't be able to be recovered? I tried to preview other video files (with extensions. mp4, .mkv, and .ts) but none would play back in the built-in preview player which is disappointing.
I plan to buy a license to the software but I wanted to make sure I can recover the files. If all my files are black and don't play, then it would be a waste of money. I just hope at least some of my files are recoverable but it is beginning to look like none of them are as I can't preview them. It is my understanding that R-Undelete and R-Studio use the same technology only that R-Undelete is a lighter version.
Does anyone know if a file can't be previewed does that mean it can't be recovered? I wasn't sure. Or does anyone know what to do when the preview screen is black and nothing plays and how to solve this issue?
I also noticed the recovery chances for my files is listed as "Undetermined". Please see the next attached jpg picture of a screen shot which shows what I am seeing. I am not sure why is says "Undetermined". The good news is that I see the correct file name, file size, created date, and modified date columns.
On the other hand, if I were to buy a license, and attempt to recover my accidentally deleted files, I suspect they might be corrupted. This is just a guess though. Can corrupted files be corrected?
I would like to point out that all of my deleted video files were playable before they were accidentally deleted. So again, I hope they can be recovered.
On a different matter:
Since I made a compressed image file, would making a byte to byte image make any difference? I wasn't sure. I chose the compressed image option since it doesn't need to be compatible with earlier versions of R-Studio and saves space. However, if anyone thinks it is better I could try a byte to byte image as well. In some cases, some software that create an image do not include or copy free space (where my accidentally files may be located). But I wasn't sure if R-Studio's compressed image did the same by not copying free space. if so, that may explain why I can't preview any of my accidentally deleted video files which may reside in the free space, but this is just a guess.
If you can help, that would be great. I thank you for your time and I appreciate it.
By the way, R-Studio looks like a great program. Hopefully this program can help me.
Anyway, if anyone can help me resolve my issue of unable to preview videos which show a black screen, any help is most appreciated.
Thanks again.