friends pc xp pro 32 bit sp3>unknown virus>he restored to original config using windows recovery>i removed hd hard drive and jumped to my desktop via sata doc/usb>pandora dug for over 20+ hrs to find every kind of .jpg image one could imagine>all had red "x's" but could see images (most intact) in pre-view window>moved to ntfs external hd in a folder>hooked same to two different pc's and explorer crashes every time i try and open it on both machines running 4gb of ram> tried numerous suggestions found on web to no luck>i can some times see the thumbnails but still crashes>booted Puppy Linux to try and cut down on resource overhead>no luck>scoured web and thought about buying a program but afraid it's a waste of money....Thoughts? Thanks in advance. Honestly-- this is the first time that I have been stumped recovering data, but I'm guessing no the last.
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About to give up?
- Thread starter firegeek
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IMPORTANT note up front: If you're having resource issues on another machine, make SURE this virus is history, and that it's not trying to infect your machine as well.
If you've not already scanned the drive, it may well be worth doing. Try scanning with malwarebytes antimwalare and superantispyware, at minimum.
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You said you connected the hard drive via a USB adapter? Have you tried directly connecting it internally to your computer? Sometimes connecting over USB doesn't give quite the same results as a direct mainboard connection. Especially if there are any issues with the hard drive, maybe file corruption,etc.
Also, software-wise, have you looked at any of these:
Recuva
Active UnDelete
There's another that gets mentinoed around here all the time, but I (once again) can't remember the name of it. hopefully someone else will.
Recuva is free, Active File Undelete has a free version, I think, and a paid version. The other is free to try, and you only pay if it finds anything, so no risk of buying it and it not working.
Another free file recovery tool I've used on many occasions rather successfully is called Restoration.
IMPORTANT note up front: If you're having resource issues on another machine, make SURE this virus is history, and that it's not trying to infect your machine as well.
If you've not already scanned the drive, it may well be worth doing. Try scanning with malwarebytes antimwalare and superantispyware, at minimum.
***********************************
You said you connected the hard drive via a USB adapter? Have you tried directly connecting it internally to your computer? Sometimes connecting over USB doesn't give quite the same results as a direct mainboard connection. Especially if there are any issues with the hard drive, maybe file corruption,etc.
Also, software-wise, have you looked at any of these:
Recuva
Active UnDelete
There's another that gets mentinoed around here all the time, but I (once again) can't remember the name of it. hopefully someone else will.
Recuva is free, Active File Undelete has a free version, I think, and a paid version. The other is free to try, and you only pay if it finds anything, so no risk of buying it and it not working.
Another free file recovery tool I've used on many occasions rather successfully is called Restoration.
- Thread starter
- #3
Good point about jumping straight to the mb. I have seen this before when trying to format a new out of the box hd. I tried the Recuva, but the Pandora actually seem to work better. And, tried a try before you buy version and didn't seem to make a difference. Finally, just gave up but but still have the files in a folder on external drive and will see if I can do anything with it this way. Thanks for replying and I welcome any ideas on how proceed from here. I really think there's a way because I can see the photos in the preview window and actually used my screen capture to grab one and it;s not bad quality; just would take forever to run through 16gb of files.
kjv1611 is probably thinking of GetDataBack available at
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks to all...I know have the folder containing the "corrupted" photos on an external hard drive formatted to NTFS. The original drive is history. I realize that this complicates things a bit, but still would like overcome this challenge. Has anyone had nay success with situation? Basically, what I have is a folder containing about 16gb of .jpg files. Most are banners, etc, for use in software and such and the rest are family photos. Every time I try and open the folder--Explorer crashes! I wish that I could have kept the original drive but my friend's got impatient and gave up. I know that the pics are there. I could see them in the preview pane.
- Thread starter
- #7
- Thread starter
- #9
No Photoshop...At this point I have a folder containing about 16gb of .jpg files. And, every time that I try to open Explorer crashes. These files were recovered from a non-booting Windows drive via a SATA dock and Pandora after 20+ hours of grinding. Thanks again to all replying. So many forums are dead to new members.
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