Raw files not found. how to search for them?

[photohawk]

I just finished running a full format scan on my External LaCie drive (250 gb drive, maybe 150 was full)(40 hours scan time)) but it did not find very many of my files although it did find some. My question is... The scan did not find any of my camera RAW files or the .xmp files (correction files). How do I search for these types of files? The extensions are .TIF (not tiff), .CR2, .XMP. Can I run the scan again if needed? I may want to do that to find these files and because It also only found only 1 Word file which I know I had many more than 1 .doc file.

Ok, one more question lol... can the files that are not veiwable because the are corrupt be veiwed after saving? I purchased the activation key, but if it is worthless to save these, I don't want to put this many more hours saving when it won't work.

Thanks!
Tod

[GDH]

Hi,

Please let me know exactly how your files were lost and I will tell you the best type of search to run to get them back. No search with Recover My Files should ever take more than 24 hour maximum.

In relation to your current results, the TIF and CR2 files will both be found as TIFF - you should be able to preview these files and then you can rename the extension when saved.

Thank you.

[photohawk]

Originally Posted by GDH

Hi,

Please let me know exactly how your files were lost and I will tell you the best type of search to run to get them back. No search with Recover My Files should ever take more than 24 hour maximum.

ready for this.....

I sent this drive in for repair about a month ago, got it back and still was not fixed (it was not reading the Firewire 800 port, but USB and FW400 worked fine). They did NOT format my drive at this point. They told me to send it back in and when I got it back this time, it had been formatted by them! Everything gone!! I was not too paniced since I have back ups of most everything (everything important).

They ran a scanning program on it – HD Tune. They ran a proprietary software on it (mac format) and then a quick xp ntfs format on a PC.

I bought this drive as new last year but after running the scan, I am finding the files of a know author who I had never heard of (since I don't like to read)! I have his books, covers and a bunch more! Sorry for the back ground, but this has been a nighmare experience for me.

I am using a USB 2.0 connection from the drive to my PC which has XP and a 2ghrtz processor purchased new early last year. So my equipment is up to date and not slow. I ran the scan the first time and on the 36th hour, the PC restarted on it's own overnight due to a windows update. This is the second time I ran the full scan and it took ablost 40 hours! (but you are saying it should never take that long? hmmmm...) I just purchased the activation key and will look into getting more support on this. Sorry for the back ground, but this has been an experience to say the least. (I will be talking to this writer when he returns to the states from Thailand in December).

[GDH]

You drive has had a lot of things happen to it! It is hard to know exactly what changes have been made.

First, make sure you have the latest version of Recover My Files, which you can download here: http://www.recovermyfiles.com, or as you already have it installed, click on the UPDATE button on the main program screen.

I would start by running a Fast Format Recover on the physical drive - this search should take less than 1 hour and you files will be displayed in Folder View of the results screen.

The next search you should try is a Complete Format Recover. Again search the physical drive, and search ONLY for the default selected files types, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .avi, .bmp, .jpeg, .pdf, .wav. All files will be located (not just these) and displayed in Folder View at the end of the search.

If you still find that you are missing files, then try a Complete File Search of the physical drive searching for specific file types.

[photohawk]

Thanks, I will try this. Also, I recovered and saved an .MPEG file and a few PSD files, but I can not view the .MPEG due to the following error I get when trying to open:
Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

I also can not view the .PSD file because it is saying that the version of Photoshop is not compatible with the file I am trying to open. I have tried PSD CS, CS2 and even version 7. none of them work. I have never even seen CS3 and the files were most likely created with CS2.

[GDH]

It is possible that some of the files are corrupt because other data has overwritten parts of the file.

Try and open graphics to www.irfanview.com to see if you can get access to the content.

The problem may also relate to file fragmentation. The Format recover searches do a good job of tracking a fragmented, so try the new searches and see if you get better results.

Thank you.

[photohawk]

I am in the process of saving the files found so far. I noticed that the 212,000 .mpegs are all the same exact size (90% of them). Also, there are a lot of .mp3's that are the same exact size. I have not been able to play any of the .mp3's either. they all just sound like a scratched record sound.

I have to restart my PC, but don't want to before I have saved everything found. can I save the log and then restart? Will I have to run another scan or will I be able to see what this last scan found?

It is possible that some of the files are corrupt because other data has overwritten parts of the file.

no, at least not my files. I have not written to this drive since they reformatted it when in for repair. Now the other files that are on this drive, the answer would be yes. I have written to it when I purchased it and used it for the past year. Of course these "other files" are not important and don't need to be recovered (although it is making for an interesting story lol....)

I will try the ifranveiw tomorrow.

[admin]

You should get much better results when you run the Format Recover searches I described in my earlier post. You will need to start a brand new search.