Recovery of actual file names

[miester]

Good morning, I have just purchased 3.1 and it is plugging away right now getting my lost files (phew!).

I was wondering if there is a function or another program that can read and rename the files correctly.

This would be a huge help as for instance it says I have 1200 excel files , but each with almost the exact same new recovered name.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

John

[admin]

File names are actually stored in a different location on the disk to the content of the file. It is often the case that the file can be recovered, but the file name has been destroyed. In this case, Recover My Files puts the file name in the format "Recovered_filetype_1".

If you have Microsoft Office documents like this, then you can try a Mass Renamer. You can download one here: http://support.getdata.com/index.php...ndetails&_i=32

The secret with this one is to drag and drop the file into the Mass Renamer window. It uses the Microsoft file properties to rename the file. I am not sure how well it will go with XLS files, but you can give it a go.

The next thing you can try is ExplorerView from www.explorerview.com. If you are familiar with using Windows Explorer, then ExplorerView gives you a full preview of the file within Windows Explorer. You can use the F2 key to rename a file. It is still a manual method, but when you get the combination of ExplorerView and the F2 key working it can save some considerable time.

[Ulf]

I purchased Recover My Files a few days ago and I was pleasantly surprised that it seems to have recovered a large number of files which Windows in its wisdom had decided to delete. However, that is only the start of the process as you only get the Recovered_file_number. It is good that they have been recovered but, like in my case, I have some 700 wav files and 2500 mid files to sort out.... and the whole directory structure is gone.

I tried to use the MassRenamer which works fine for Office documents. At least you get a quick idea about what kind of documents you have recovered. It would be great if it would work with all the file types that RecoverMyFiles can identify.

So I installed the ExplorerView and it kind of works but it is cumbersome to use. Unless I am missing something, unfortuately, you have to call up two additional files in order to rename the first file you previewed as the utiliy locks the file and doesn't release the file until you preview the second next file. If it would not lock the file it would be good but as it is, it is no better than doing manual renaming together wit running with other applications, in my case Windows Media Player. So it is a case of, thanks but....

So if there is any way of reconstructing a directory structure?

Regards,
Ulf

[john]

Ulf,
Firstly, in relation to files recovered by Recover My Files and the renaming of files using Mass Renamer, I can say that it isn't really possible to rename WAV files like it does for Microsoft Office Documents. The reason is that Microsoft Office documents like .DOC .XLS and .PPT contain extra information embedded in them such as Title, Author, Created Times and Dates etc. Unfortunately WAV files and many other file types do not have this type of information.

Secondly, you are quite right about Explorer View locking the file and therfore preventing the renaming. We are going to see if it's possible to fix this, as I can see that it would be very annoying.