Data Recovery

Im trying to recovery data from one of my IDE drives and im using my SATA drive. For some reason all the programs I am using, i cannot find files, only folders. Like for example, I'm in my Desktop folder, looking to X where there should be a bunch of AVI files, but nothing. Does that mean all hope of recovering the data is lost?

NeoSpawn

It doesn't necessarily mean that it is lost. I am not sure what the recovery conditions are but it could mean that you do not have permission to read/view those files. What size info is listed for those folders in rclick|property, are they listed as 0KB or? How about the security tab, what OS are we talking? Also you may need to do raw recovery and transfer the files. Again I am not sure exactly what you are using or how you are going about this. Some specifics will help us better help you.

AND WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

And thank you for welcoming me ^_^

Well just a program deleted My Documents, which contained like 15gb of data, so just need to recover that. Im using WinXp Professional, and I just downloaded and have Stellar Phoenix do a full drive scan. All the folders are showing up and they all show up as 0kb. Its just an NTFS drive, because Windows likes to do everything in that format.

So I was told that I would have to use a hex editor or something like that and just change something in the front. Is that right? Because I have no idea how to use one of those things.

Any other kind of information you would like? I'll give up anything for this great advice ^_^

No I don't think you need to go in and read/mod with a hex editor or that deep. You have XP and another drive, sounds like you are slaving and digging? Again, not sure what you are doing. If you just lost/had deleted some files from your my documents file then you can still boot your XP?

You can google for "recovery undelete free" and then run some of those programs you find, there are alot out there. Also search these forums for undelete, or recovery, there have been other threads like this and some of them recommend specific programs.

The basic issue with simple recovery is that windows does not actually destroy deleted files, what it does is mark the space as rewritable and removes your access to those deleted files so they no longer are listed(basic explanation). So there are some chances that when you go in and install recovery software on a drive you have a chance of writing into the files you seek. That is why some folks recommend slaving up a drive and running from a different drive.

You say you are using stellar Phoenix and I am not familiar with that stuff but if it is a demo mode/trial it most likely will not recover but only will show you(tease) what is still on your drive. Do not put to much store into crippled demos. If it is the full version call them and get support. If the hex edit the font is specific to their software then it's an odd thing, it should be able to read your stuff without all that.

Here is a link to some free recovery stuff, I use some specific stuff that costs $$ so I really cant help on the freeware stuff, but like I said do some searching here & google. This program looks OK-but really I do not know; it has a small footprint and a filter so you can search for like *.avi or whatever you need. I would run it right from the drive you want to recover from, unless the recovery is very important and you can not chance any loss.

You do not list the specifics to the loss but if it was malicious activity there may be more of a chance that simple recovery will not work.
List more details and I or others will chime in, I'm sure. Good Luck

Edit heres the link

http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/