recover avi, wmv, mp3, etc

[mase305]

i went to restore a back-up image of my system partion (c using Acronis True Image and inadvertently clicked restore to my logical(data) partition instead of C:. [image= approx 3GB , data part. = 31 GB with only approx. 2GB free space]. What is, in your opinion, the best recover option to use in the wizard, or no wizard? And if video & audio files are recovered, there success rate of being playable in Windows Media Player. Its my understanding from forum reviews is the files are found but likely not recognized or playable. Since most of the files are audio & video, .rar and app .exe's, should i change the file type search to 5 of these? Thank you in advance for your help.

disgraced mase

[admin]

I need a bit more information about your drive to give you the best search methodology.

I understand that you have restored an image over your data drive, resulting in the loss of your music etc.

How much of the image did you restore? (all of it?). Do you mean that the image file is 3gb in size, and the hard drive that it was restored to is approximately 33gb in size?

I suggest that you first try the "Complete Format Recover" using the wizard. Do not change the default file types, but add the rar file type to your search. At the end of the search Recover My Files will rebuild the old partiton information and you will get your files back with full file and folder names.

The success of the "Complete Format Recover" will depend on how much of the old partition informatioin is left, i.e. you may have overwritten and destroyed a lot of it with the image. I suggest after you try this search you then try a "Complete File Search". Search only for one or two file types at a time. I suggest you start with RAR to see what you can get back.

Please let us know how it goes. Thank you.

[mase305]

yes... i restored the whole system image approx 3 gb to my data partion... which was about 31 gigs...i remember it only had about 2 gigs free space on the data partions...so it was almost full. the first time i used RMF, i changed the search types under complete recovery to only the files i was lookin for and removed the tick mark on the softwares default file types... i will under your suggestion, go back and use the default types and do it again... ugh... about 40 hours on a pII 333mhz laptop running w2k pro, 256 ram. RMF found the files but no file type would play... WMP says the file doesnt match the format or corrupt. the size of the files are recovered ok. since i made this mistake i havent added any more files to or touched the partion in hopes of recovering the files i put alot of time in. i will go do as you requested and will let this forum know the outcome.

[admin]

As you are running Windows 2000 the Master File Table that tracks file locations on your disk is located at the start (where as Windows XP has the MFT more toward the middle of the disk). This is a problem, as when you have loaded the 3gb partition onto the drive you have overwritten the old MFT and destroyed it.

It is unlikely therefore that a "Complete Format Recover" search will help you - as there are no MFT records left to find. Just to be sure, you should still give "Complete Format Recover" a try. Search only for RAR files - this is the fastest search possible and should take no more than 5-10 hours to scan the entire disk and at the end of the search rebuild what partition records it can find.

You only other option is to run a "Complete File Search". The complete file search does not use MFT records, but finds files by their actual structure, ie. the header, contents and footer. The problem in your case is that because the files are large (eg. music) they are most likely fragmented - and without a MFT record to track the fragmentation, the file cannot be fully recovered.

I suggest you try a "Complete File Search" for RAR files to start with. After this, search for music files, but only search for 1 or 2 file types at a time as finding music files is very resource intestive.

I hope this helps.