data recovery failure?

[cfraser]

Hi,

I just completed a disk recovery using RStudio 8.2

Everything looked good. The data I was looking for seemed to be there, file names, file extensions, and file sizes were accurate, etc.

However, when trying to open a recovered file, Windows says that the file is damaged, corrupted, or too large.

Is this a symptom of data that is not recoverable, or did I perhaps do something wrong in my data recovery process.

I scanned the disk, browsed through the "Recognized" categories, and found the data that I wanted to recover. Did I perform this process incorrectly, am I missing a step, or is the data lost for good?

If any other additional information is needed, I'd be happy to provide that.

Thanks.

[Alt]

The main question: what happened to the data? How was it lost?
This article may be of some help: File Recovery Basics: How Data Recovery Works.

[Corsari]

In few words previous actions e.g. windows disk check, could have messed up the real position of the file on the disk against what the current master file allocation table points to.

Practical real life example the old yellow pages are the Master File Table (MFT), the index to browse for a company address.

The index points you to some address, but the company has moved... you go there but you find a restaurant while you expected a dry cleaner.

[RForce]

My usual experience is that those who get these results do so because the are writing back to the same drive from which they are recovering the files.

[cfraser]

The main question: what happened to the data? How was it lost?
This article may be of some help: File Recovery Basics: How Data Recovery Works.

Hey, thanks for your response.

All of a sudden, Windows wants the disk to be formatted before it can be used further. Unfortunately, formatting erases all data contained therein.

I ran a Short DST on the disk and it passed, so I'm not sure what exactly happened. I'm guessing the drive was corrupted somehow.

Any ideas?

My usual experience is that those who get these results do so because the are writing back to the same drive from which they are recovering the files.

I'm writing back to a separate volume on a completely different physical disk. It wouldn't make much sense to write back to a corrupted drive.

[Alt]

All of a sudden, Windows wants the disk to be formatted before it can be used further. Unfortunately, formatting erases all data contained therein.

Depending on the file system type, those articles can help you:
Data Recovery from a Reformatted NTFS Disk
Data Recovery from a Re-Formatted exFAT/FAT Disk