unreadable recovered files

[fuzznight]

hi, ive tried using active@ undelete to restore some deleted files from about 4 months ago from ntfs external hd (did full, advanced scan). i found all the files in the explorer (all their names and extensions are correct), but none of them are readable (.doc's are filled with unreadable data, e.g.) except the very small .txt files. im trying again with getdataback right now.

is there anything i can do to repair the files or am i all out of options?

[GDH]

The names of the files are contained in MFT records and are stored in a separate location to the actual file data. The MFT record for each file tells the computer when that file is located on the disk. The reason the files that you have recovered are corrupt are:

a). The the MFT records point to the correct location on the disk, but the data at that location has been overwritten;

b). The MFT records are corrupt and they do not point to the right location on the disk.

c). The MFT records are OK and the file data is intact, but the programs you have used are not performing the restoration properly.

I suggest you download Recover My Files from www.recovermyfiles.com. Install and run the program. Close down the first wizard window and on the main program screen click the OPTIONS button. In the search tab take the tick out of "Search for deleted files" so that only "Search for lost files" is selected. Now start a search, run a "Complete File Search" for your specific files types.

What you are telling the program to do is to scan sequentially over the disk. It will search for and find files by their structure, ie. the header, content and footer of the files. This search will not return the file names, as it does not use the MFT records, but it will tell you if your files data is still on the disk. Clic on the files found to preview their content in the preview window.