HELP!!! I deleted my video files... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 01:47:38 pm
content: I will refrain from swearing or calling myself names...I accidentally deleted the latest soldering tutorial videos from my SD card.I realised straight away and DID NOT overwrite the card with anything.I tried PhotoRec to recover the files to my hard drive, but they wouldn't play.I tried Recuver and it listed the actual file names I want (see attachment, files xxx11-30), but it says they are overwritten with older files from my other camera that I deleted BEFORE I recorded the new videos onto the card.I tried to recover anyway and it did, but some files don't play, and those that do are actually the older video from my other camera!This just doesn't make sense, I did NOT overwrite the files. Somethings getting confused somewhere...Can anyone who's really good at this stuff offer any advice?I *really* don't want to shoot this soldering video again. I hope there is some way to recover the video.Thanks.Dave.

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 01:57:47 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on July 13, 2011, 01:47:38 pmOups nasty turn out, did you try to play the file with the camera ? with the computer ?Both failed?Did you try to open it with Video studio ? what happens ?

author: williefleete
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 01:59:47 pm
content: on old 3.11 machines when you deleted something it replaced the first character of the name with a null in the FAT not sure how it does it in modern OS'es and in FAT32 systems but surely most of it should be still there

author: FreeThinker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:00:14 pm
content: Never had a great lot of luck with SD cards at any time. Looks like the Fat table is messed up. Only (very slight) hope is that it was never written to the SD card in the first place (would explain why you can see the old files but not the new ones) but is still on the internal memory of the camera. Happened to by brother in law some time ago when he didn't get the card in correctly and the camera defaulted to it's internal memory. Slim chance but good luck!

author: Joshua
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:05:53 pm
content: Did you use the deep scan mode? If not, it might just fix some of the quirkiness. Also, it might be just me being senile, but I don't see any file names containing ***11/30. ??

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:06:46 pm
content: Quote from: FreeThinker on July 13, 2011, 02:00:14 pmI can see the exact file names I recorded, with the correct time and date stamp and everything, but with the first letter replaced with an "_". Yet when I recover them I get the OLD video from the other camera. I can't understand how the data could have gotten overridden - I shot the video, took the card out, put into my notebook, and accidentally selected them and hit delete. Then I uttered lots of 4 letter words and tried the recovery tools. I figure the data should still be there...Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:11:22 pm
content: Quote from: Joshua on July 13, 2011, 02:05:53 pmYes, tried it, exact same result, the video from the other canon camera.But deep scan does find all the extra MOV files the other program found. But they don't play, and my camera does not record. mov files.The videos from _ANYO011 through 030 are tonight time and date 13/7/11 10:30pm, exactly as I just recorded them.Dave.

author: PeterG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:27:13 pm
content: I have had good results recovering files with Pandora Recovery.You can also use PhotoRec if you have a linux machine available.Regards

author: speeek
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:27:49 pm
content: did you pull the card with the video still on?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:37:19 pm
content: Quote from: speeek on July 13, 2011, 02:27:49 pmI very often take the card from the video camera with it still turned on, never had a problem. It's not that.The files were on the card, just like always, I even imported them into the edit program timeline (and showed the correct thumbnails), but I hit delete on Explorer accidentally.Dave.

author: PeterG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:45:18 pm
content: As a question. Does Windows 7 use the recycle bin for SD cards?

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 02:47:24 pm
content: Give this a try Dave, I've used this on a couple of SD cards with success. Admittedly though this was only with around 100 .jpeg images I'd deleted, and not video although it is supposed to be able to recover mp4 too.http://www.pcinspector.de/SmartRecovery/info.htm?language=1

author: vtl
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 03:08:10 pm
content: Restoration 2.5.1.4 has been around for ages, I've been using it for yearshttp://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.HTMLNice lightweight application with no need to even install, you just run the program.Maybe give that a go but usually flash memory is much harder to recover deleted files than hard drives.The recovered borked files might be playable with other programs. Typically the open source stuff is better at this than stuff like WMP. Try VLC (Player) and VirtualDub(video editing) to see if that helps.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 03:56:43 pm
content: Hey, use the read-only switch!You don't want to alter the card right now.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 06:42:21 pm
content: http://www.active-undelete.com/but i used older version. if you cannot recover or partially recover from software, writing the whole image to hdd and manual search the data might give you some luck. but if it got fragmented, then it will be difficult.

author: WhyMe
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 07:06:45 pm
content: I shot a very important ceremony at work, took the card out, plugged it into my PC, and did what you did...... this program recovered all the jpg files from my card.http://www.undelete360.com/

author: onemilimeter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 07:38:50 pm
content: I used this software "OnTrack Easy Recovery Professional v6.10" to recover approximately 30GB data (including MS DOC, PPT, PDF, JPG, AVI, MOV, etc), which I accidentally deleted them. Recovered items are readable or viewable or playable.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 08:05:04 pm
content: GetDataBackis another well-known data recovery program. Many of the commercial programs have a free demo that shows what they can recover (or can recover to a certain limit), and ask you to pay if you actually want your data. Not very helpful if the files turn out to be corrupt after recovery, though. I would try the free alternatives first, although most of the recovery programs are fairly cheap compared to the data.I would create an image file of the card to make sure you have an untouched copy, in case some program decides to write to it or the card suddenly dies.

author: img
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 08:30:13 pm
content: After all these replies the problem is probably solved, but my 2 pence is please make sure that the software you're using is non-invasive, as many consumer-targeted utilities can be a bit cavalier with that.What can I say, send the SD to the UK, and I'll give it my bestest.If that's not an option, I've got for you, in random order, prayers, good wishes and the suggestion to use Ontrack or maybe GetDataBack NTFS.Or, best option, a hex editor.

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 09:02:18 pm
content: I have recovered video files many times with PhotoREC, under GNU/Linux. haven't tried it under Windows.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2011, 09:15:38 pm
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on July 13, 2011, 06:42:21 pmGood idea, having an image of the card in the computer allows you to play with the data without loosing the already deleted data. Do two images, and remember to set the "Lock" switch!

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 14, 2011, 07:12:19 am
content: Thanks everyone.Finally was able to recover everything in 3 step process.None of the basic recovery tools worked for some unknown reason.I had to sector scan the entire disk and pull out what the program though was unassociated files, and then they were corrupted anyway.Had to use a video repair tool to fix them all one by one, and then they were in the wrong format for my editor so I had to convert each one.But finally all done, and the SMD soldering tutorial is now complete.Yes, high hindsight it likely would have taken less time to actually bite the bullet and go re-shoot all the video...Dave.

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 14, 2011, 07:42:53 am
content: Tool name?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 14, 2011, 08:59:53 am
content: Quote from: EdoNork on July 14, 2011, 07:42:53 amErr, sorry, I don't actually remember!, I tried like 7-8 of them. Only one of them was able to exact the corrupted files after a half hour scan, and at the time I thought they were just garbage files.But it turns out they were good and could be recovered with Video Repair Tool 1.61. And then I used Handbrake to convert to a usable MP4 format.Dave.

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2011, 12:17:52 pm
content: The : Video Repair Tool 1.61 ( finds errors in damaged video files and become playable )Still the web site of the German author looks dead.Did you find a Trialware version, or a free one ?

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2011, 03:01:41 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on July 14, 2011, 07:12:19 amThe satisfaction of telling a non-techie you recovered a video is always cooler than the jokes they make if you have to do the thing again.

author: FreeThinker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2011, 04:54:48 pm
content: When are you uploading it then Dave?

author: jaren hender
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 12, 2015, 03:04:22 pm
content: I was having the same problem and I followed thissd card data recovery solutionwhich helped me get back my files.

author: williefleete
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2015, 03:14:12 pm
content: I think this is classed as "necroing" a thread. This is a 4 year old topic/post and should be dead. Create a new topic with your question and someone should help

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2015, 09:46:43 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on July 13, 2011, 02:37:19 pmSounds to me like the camera may have been buffering the data internally, but checking the SD for available space - and allocating FAT/directory space. Then, when you shut down the SD card, it resolves the closed files.

author: Artlav
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2015, 09:53:02 pm
content: What a blast from the past...Quote from: jaren hender on July 12, 2015, 03:04:22 pmRecuva.Scan for it, if not found or corrupt - try all the files in the ? folder and unnamed files.Also, make sure the read-only switch on the card/adaptor is active, just in case something would like to write to the card.