Search of Physical Drive does not show Folder tree

[Noteworthy]

My XP has crashed. Have restored XP using HP's recovery/reinstalltion disks.

Have run RMF using Complete Format recover option. I have also chosen physical drive 0 whose size approximates the active drive but all it does is to find only the 5 recommended file types. Whereas I wish to recover the full structure, folder tree etc. I scrolled to the bottom in folder view to see if the structure had been found but to no avail.

What am I doing wrong?

Secondly most of the 1000s of jpegs appear to have been corrupted. Is this normal?

You may want to add a file type with extension .muc which is the Collectorz Com music collector. I have absolutely no idea how to recover my extensive database.

Yes, I have vowed I will religiously backup daily.

Your help would be much much appreciated.

[GDH]

Hi,

I would have expected the "Complete Format Recover" to have recovered your file and folder structure. Are you looking in "Folder View" of the results screen for your files. Make sure you check all the folders with a red X next to them as the red x indicates that the folder name has been lost but any sub folders should be intact.

You have done the right search, a "Complete Format Recover" of the physical drive for the default file selection only. You may want to try this again, and make sure you are looking in "Folder View" of the results screen.

Recover My Files uses the Master File Table at the start of the disk to rebuild the old file system. It is unusual, but possible, that your re-installation of windows has destroyed all the MFT records which is why you are not recovering the data by this search.

If you run another search and the results do not improve, the best thing to do is to run a "Complete File Search" of the new drive letter for the selected file types that you need. However, the original file names will not be recovered with this and unfortunately we do not currently specifically support the .muc file type. We may be able add it in the future, but due to the holiday period it would be unlikely that we could attempt this until mid to late jan.

[Noteworthy]

Thanks Graham for your prompt response.
I have indeed looked in the folder view.
I get the file structure but it relates to the folders of the new installation of XP. Not a single folder of pre-crash vintage appears. I will check folders with the red cross. I am currently searching the C drive which will take another 5-6 hours.

PS: I checked the box for outlook (pst) files but only 5 files were picked up the max size being 80KB. The program is however recovering Word and Excel and jpg files but only under file types.

Will let you know of the outcome.
Brgds

[Noteworthy]

Further to my last, I have checked the folders with the 'x'. Most are empty and the few with any info have corrupted information.

The pre-crash file structure still does not appear in folder view. I am doing a a "Complete File Search" of the new drive letter for the selected file types as recommended by you. This will take a long time as I have added some other files types. The program is recovering the files under file types.

I appreciate that nothing can be done during the holiday period and I am prepared to wait right through January if the file type .muc can be added. Music Collector is a widely used database program url: www.collectorz.com. They also have Book Collector etc. Please help as years of painstakingly entered data will be lost forever.

MS Outlook file .ost does not appear to be in your list of supported file types. Since this is the file that contains the last know email data, it is important that it is included in your list. If I have someohow missed it, my apologies in advance.

Kind regards

[GDH]

It is possible that the old Master File Table was overwritten and destroyed with the new installation of Windows. If the Complete Format Recover does not work then the best you can hope for is a "Complete File Search" of the physical drive for specific file types. This will use the file header and footer search technique, and will not recover original file names.

Whilst the current search is running, move the progress window to one side and test to see if you can preview some of the JPEGS found so far (click on the the file type in the top left window of the main program screen, the in the top right, click on a file name to preview the content in the preview window). If you can see files, then you know that there is data on the drive that can be recovered.

If this data is very important to you then you may consider removing the drive from your PC, buying a new drive, and loading Windows as using this as your boot drive. The reason I say this is that the more you use a Windows C: drive after a data loss, the more chance that Windows has to dump data on the C: and overwrite your deleted files. You can then connect the problem drive as a second disk which greatly reduces the chance that it will get written to.

[Noteworthy]

Thanks Graham.
The Complete File search is pulling in proper jpegs, ppt, excel, word, pdf, camera jegs, wav and mp3 files. Once the search is complete I will save them to an external drive.

The purpose that XP has been used is to run the RMF program from the external drive.

I would be grateful if you could confirm that the Music Collector, Book Collector files and the Outlook ost files will be added to the list. As stated previously, I am prepared to wait. I am a client of Get Data having purchased the program.

Many thanks. Kind regards

[GDH]

You should be able to find the OST files by searching for the PST file type as they structure is almost identical.

Send some sample Collector files to support@getdata.com and we will see if they can be added in Jan.

Thank you.