Strange problem with corrupt files

[fiyazkanji]

I am doing a Complete File Search to receover my hard drive. I find that if i restrict my search to fewer number of sectors (start at X, finish at X+2000000) I get fewer currupt files.

For example, I did a search from start=0, finish=10000000 and found that 75% of my files were corrupt. Next I did a search from start=0, finish=2000000 and only got about 10% corruption. In a nutshell the limited search (the second search) returned files that were deemed corrupt in the first run.

What is the difference?

[GDH]

Do the corrupt files have their original name? If so, they have been found during the MFT search method.

It is likely that in the longer search you have found valid MFT records, where as in the shorter search, the MFT records that were located were not pointing to the correct data.

[fiyazkanji]

I am doing a 'Complete File Search'.

Unfortunatelly the recovered files do not have the original files names ... all files have been given a default name from 'Recover My Files' such as "Recovered_JPEG Digital Camera -XXXX" and are saved in a folder titled "Lost"

It appears that the MFT is not being found.

[GDH]

Yes, files with names like "Recovered_JPEG_1" have been found by locating the file header and footer. The original name is not stored with the actual file data which is why you are not getting it back.

However, these files should still be ok - and when you click on them you should be able to preview the photos and documents.