Recovering Deleted Files on exFAT External HDD (Disk Drill vs R-Undelete vs DMDE)

[itchcrushing]

Hi everyone,
I recently lost a large folder from my Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB external HDD (exFAT). I suspect it may be due to disk failure rather than accidental deletion.

I’m new to data recovery and have tried Disk Drill, R-Undelete, and DMDE. Disk Drill can detect some of the missing files inside an “Orphans” folder, but the files are large (~12 GB) and the free version has a 500 MB recovery limit.

However, R-Undelete can’t find those same files, and DMDE is still running a full scan.

Does anyone know why Disk Drill can see the files while R-Undelete can’t? Also, how can I locate these files in DMDE or R-Undelete once the scan finishes?

Thanks!