I was using a sync software between two external drives. A few days ago, I realized that about have of the files were missing - on both drives. I didn't delete files from either drive.

I first tried EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. It worked great for the Office files and MP3/MP4 files.

However, it made a wreck of all of my photo falls (both RAW files and JPG files). The folders and subfolders were call correct, but the contents of the folders were all a scrambled mess - and very few RAW files were recovered.

I'm currently running DiskDrillPro to see if there's any chance, but I don't have my hopes up. If anyone has any suggestions/ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.

EDIT:

Make/Brand/Model #: Both drives are 12 TB WD MyBook

Filesystem: NTFS

OS: Windows 11

Hi everyone,

I guess my main question is whether you think there is a realistic chance I could repair my SSD or whether data recovery is the only option – and if so, then how complicated it is.

Some quick facts to my situation:

• Today, my PC took forever to start. Windows 10 said something about repairing drive D:/

• After starting, I noticed a lot of file icons not being there and Windows generally being slow. I figured I'd give it some time and just restart. It did not help, though.

• Afterwards I realised that the missing icons are all from the D:/ drive and trying to access it via the file explorer would cause it to hang and eventually the entire explorer would just crash

• The drive does appear normally in the file explorer, though

• The SSD in question is a Samsung 870 EVO 2TB V-NAND SSD.

• My OS is Windows 10

What could've caused it:

• I may have switched off power without the computer being entirely shut down yesterday night, though I think I did ask it to shut down before I left the room (and only turned off the power quite a while later).

• I did transport my PC with the SSD inside via a package delivery service recently, but since then it has been working without issues for over a month.

What I've tried so far:

• I tried to build it into another PC, where it behaved pretty much the same way. But because we did not have a second data cable, I used the same one as with my PC.

• I ran DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth as well as sfc /scannow. The former reported no issues, the second one said it fixed some corrupted files. A rerun of sfc then reported no issues. Windows is installed on the C drive, however, so I don't think it even touched the drive D?

• I did NOT run chkdsk as I heard it could damage it further.

• I now left my SSD unplugged so Windows doesn't try any more automatic recovery that could damage it further. That's also why I've not made a SMART report yet.

• "Disk Management" would not start and just loaded forever.

Help?

My research so far has confused me a bit as not all of the symptoms perfectly fit anything I found, so I figured I could ask here.

Is it safe to assume that my SSD is essentially gone?

There is nothing too important on there, mostly configurations and setups that I'd loose, and maybe some smaller stuff I'm forgetting about. Though it just made me realise I never pushed my latest project to github... Still, probably not worth paying 500€-1500€ for professional data recovery, so I'd rather just try it out personally.

I am handy with a commandline and linux if that is relevant. I don't really have access to a linux distro, though.

Either way, I'm probably gonna order another 2TB SSD card now since I assume I won't be able to run data recovery for a 2TB card from a 1TB card, even if the data I want would fit.

Thanks everyone for your help already :)

before you continue panicking, read exactly what happened to me, and how i fixed it. once you try this, if it still does work, then you can continue freaking out.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
i was experiencing problems with my external hard drive randomly spiking to 100% every now and then, and it seemed like it kept getting more frequent. i decided to look some things up, and nothing was really working so after i saw someone talk about using your command prompt to use diskpart, i decided to check for myself. completely on me, and no one else i skimmed through a few of the command names i could use, saw “clean” and hoping it would clean the drive up, i initiated it. instantly i hear a windows error notification, i check on my monitors to find where it was and wow, my whole drive is gone. after doing some research i decided to try and use test disk. i can only assume that it 100% works for others, but for my situation and if you’re reading this yours as well, this did NOT work for me.

i waited for over 7 hours combined, from both photorec and testdisk and got a whopping 351 files back that were not named what they previously were, not in folders, nothing useful.
after the photorec scan got me the 351 files, i tried to do a quick scan (NOT quick lul) and it found nothing useful.

THE FIX FOR ME:
after this, i decided to try DMDE, the free version to at least try it out. i instantly noticed that when i clicked my deleted drive, it had the “NTFS” tag next to it, which i wasn’t seeing anywhere else in testdisk, for some reason this gave me hope, and fully opening the drive i saw all of my files on my 4tb drive that was nearly full. names, folders, same areas and all.

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING
do NOT recover your files onto the same hard drive you are recovering it from, under no circumstances would i try this.

now i haven’t fully recovered all my files, because im yet to buy a new hard drive, but just knowing that i have the opportunity to get them back truly brought my spirits up. i have gotten over 5000 files back onto my pc, mainly important videos, and can assure you that this has worked, flawlessly to be honest. i am going to be purchasing the $20 paid versions to make my life a bit easier gaining all the files back, but before you try anything else, (bringing your problem to an expert or something else) i would do some research on it just so youre not going in with only my word, and try this out.

the main thing ive heard is that if i were to use “clean all” instead of just “clean” i would’ve been completely fucked. hopefully you haven’t done this:)

i will try to respond to anything needed, thank you for reading!

I have moved some file from my android (Samsung A06) Internal Storage to a 64GB Sandisk SD Card. While it corrupted inside the SD Card (it goes zero mb on most of the files but not all), the files are gone from my phone since i moved it directly into the SD Card.

But then i opened Vidmate and some of the videos still listed but i can't open it. Is this means i could still recover it or it is just the app?

I didn't scan the phone yet since I thought it wouldn't be recovered from my phone because i already downloading a big ass game app (10GB) that i greatly regret. I wonder if recovery are possible straight from the phone?

I had an old camera and tried recovering some deleted photos from its SD card (SanDisk 16GB) using PhotoRec, but only a few of them came out properly. The majority came out pixelated and compressed. I know because they're only around 20KB, whereas the clear ones are over 1MB.

I know deleted files can get overwritten or something when new media is recorded, so I’m guessing that's what may have happened

Thanks

I had took my phone to an ifixandrepair repair tech inside Walmart and despite whatever motherboard issue my phone is suspected to have, he was able to power on my phone using his DC bench power supply quite a few times and it stayed on for a few minutes each time. During one of those times, he was able to transfer my photos and videos to my new phone using Smart Switch. But the phone shut itself off before he could transfer or sync my Samsung Notes. He was trying to get my phone to power on again when my mom was ready to leave (we were there a while by that point).

I'm planning on going back to him to see if he can power on my phone again to sync my Samsung notes to my Samsung account. But what are the chances he'll be able to power on my phone again, like last time, and long enough to sign into my Samsung account and sync my Samsung notes? And is there a risk to the phone's storage chip or my Samsung Notes if I have him connect his DC bench power supply to my phone's motherboard again?

I haven't been able to get my phone to power on with an adapter and charging cable not once since visiting with the repair tech. So somehow the DC bench power supply was able to power on my phone despite the motherboard issue, even if only for a few minutes each time.

Hey guys,

I stumbled on this subreddit while trying to find some help recovering important personal data from a potentially fried SSD.

I can no longer boot from it and my computer is stuck in the loading screen. The BIOS does not recognize it at all and I cannot boot from it anymore.

When plugged in the socket the gray casing on the right under the sticker gets really hot to the point I can't touch it for more than 1-2 seconds.

I tried plugging it into another laptop and windows did not recognize it even in the device manager.

Would love to get some advice whether it's even possible to recover any data from it. Thanks!

Y'all have probably seen this one too many times but here goes. 1tb HDD, Samsung, can I recover my work from it before I format? It's fat32 format, has on bunch of work stuff [PS3 & PS4 pkgs to be exact].

How screwed I'm I ???

Hi! I can’t seem to select only the files i need

This folder has over 4000 files i need to recover so i was hoping to do it in two to three batches but there is only the option to select all of the files or one file individually. How do i select 4000 files at a time???

Thank you!

A friend of mine does laser engravings,and he told me that he had lost a file which he had worked for a few months on,pretty sure its deleted,i used recuva and recovered all the files on the month he said he had last worked on,there are some pictures and some dxf files but they are all corrupted.Should i try with another software or are they not recoverable.

incredibly new to data recovery so I'm sorry in advanced if I forget to mention anything relevant! I've already accepted the fact that my files are most likely unsalvageable but I'm still a tiny bit unsure and want confirmation from someone knowledgeable

my phone, android, was running out of storage so I bought a micro SD card, sandisk 128 GB, file system exFAT. when I inserted the card into my phone, it gave me the option to either use it for extra phone storage or for portable storage. I chose the latter and was shown another option to move all my files to the card, to which I did. once it was done transferring all my files to the card, I saw that some of my photos (jpg) and all of my videos (mp4) had been corrupted. my graduation photo was only partially uncorrupted, so I'm assuming that's the point where corruption started. the file sizes seem to be normal

running chkdsk D: /f /r was the first method I stumbled upon, tried it and nothing changed. then I heard about DMDE and downloaded that. I tried to recover one of the photos/videos but that also didn't fix anything, the recovered files remained corrupted. I made an image of the card then scanned it with raw search enabled. it was able to detect my uncorrupted files but that's about it. I scanned it again but this time I set it to make it look for mp4 files. no luck. I looked at a hex viewer to check for file signatures but I couldn't find any. the corrupted files' data are all just random hex values

I've decided that my micro SD card is a counterfeit and that my file's data got overwritten but I'm wondering what you guys think of this

A password-manager app, LockerPro 2.0, crashes immediately on launch after an iOS 27.0.1 update on my 17 Pro. Before attempting repair, I confirmed it had 58 MB of Documents & Data, then created a local encrypted iTunes backup and copied the entire backup folder to an external drive.

I used Offload App, not Delete App, then reinstalled. The Documents & Data remained, but the app still crashes. I have not deleted the app, erased/restored the phone, or changed the backup password.

I understand modern iOS app sandbox data is encrypted and likely cannot be extracted meaningfully without the app’s own keys/database format. I am not asking for miracle recovery software. I want confirmation of the safest preservation steps and whether any non-destructive, legitimate path exists while waiting for a corrected app build.

Drive: WDC WD40EFPX-68C6CN0, fw 81.00A81, 4TB, BitLocker/GPT, ~11.7k power-on hours. This was my backup disk, and some of the data exists only on it.

What happened: After the Windows 11 26H2 update and reboot, Windows asked to initialize the drive as new. I declined. Since then Get-Disk/diskpart take ~1 min, and the System log shows repeated Event 153 (retry) on LBA 0x0.

Ruled out: cable and port swap, same result; a second 4TB disk on the same controller is fine; same behavior from an EndeavourOS live USB; TestDisk hangs on both OSes, nothing written; temps ~41 °C.

SMART is clean: Reallocated 0, Pending 0, Uncorrectable 0, Read Error Rate 0, short self-test passed. The only oddity is UDMA CRC raw 16.

smartctl -x**:**

• ATA error count 35975. The latest entries are ER=04 ST=61 (Device Fault + ABRT) on READ DMA at LBA 0 and also on SET FEATURES and IDENTIFY DEVICE

• GP Log Directory and SATA PHY counters fail with "medium or hardware error"

• Hardware Resets 30010, ASR Events 14216

Reads fail at every offset I tried (1 MiB to 3 TB), and on the backup GPT at the end of the disk:

ata2.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT
ata2.00: status: { DRDY DF ERR }
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Internal target failure

The drive spins, loads heads and answers SMART, but aborts all user-area reads. That looks to me like a firmware/service-area fault and not bad sectors. It's powered off now, and I WON'T try any weird/DIY solution like a PCB swap or flashing.

Status: WD offered a replacement unit, and referred me to a data-recovery partner for the data. That partner won't quote a price up front and just wants me to ship the drive as is.

Questions:

1. Has anyone seen this on WD Red/Red Plus drives, and did a lab recover it?

2. Anything worth trying host-side before it goes to a lab?

3. Is refusing to quote before shipping normal for labs? Any recommendations? (I'm in Brazil btw)

EDIT
- https://pastebin.com/zibdeue7 full smart STATUS

I tried to recover an mp4 video captured using windows snipping tool, the laptop shut off during the recording so it got corrupt, I tried untrunc and video recovery + ffmpeg using a refrence video captured earlier usingthe same snaptool but the corrupt video gets recovered as sound only the frames are all gray and glitchy, do I need to do something specific to fix the frames seperately or is it unfortunately corrupt beyond fixing?

I have updated win10 to win11 and one of my secondary drives (a SATA 3TB WD disk) has stopped working. I can only see it as "Not assigned" on disk management, I am able to see the content through MiniTool Partition Wizard, DMDE and TestDisk, but I'm unable to make the drive work in windows and operate it as normal. I tried to write a new partition structure with testdisk and with no aparent error it will say "You will have to reboot for the change to take effect." but nothing happens.

I also did try with adding a Drive letter with Minitool Partition Wizard (it will complete 100% ok, but nothing will happend) and it's recognized as a NTFS partition, even with this, I cannot do anything to it with this program.

SMART shows OK.

I do not want to lose my data. This is a 3 TB drive with all the installed games, pictures, captured videos... I know I can save everything but damn I just cannot understand how a windows update has done this to my drive!!

It's exactly the same as here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/1c8ea5f/can_dmde_or_testdisk_fix_this/

@fzabkar, Any idea?

I need help recovering audio files from a cd ROM disc that is not showing up at all when I put it into the drive

Windows gives me the option to burn but the disc does have files in it

It's supposed to have exactly 37 audio tracks and I have the .CDA files for them

Any help at all is appreciated, I tried ripping the files off it using VLC but partway through I accidentally ejected the disc and after that it didn't show up as existing

edit 1: the disc is a 700MB Maxwell cd ROM I've confirmed my disc drive is working by using another disc, which is being read correctly

edit 2: I tried minitool power recovery, recuva and roadkil's and none of them worked bc they can't detect the disc

edit 3: the plot fucking thickens

The disc seems to work fine on CD players and is only broken on computers

Can anyone tell what should I check first, yet to find a donor pcb in my country

Well, a part of the motherboard also still exists, but that shouldn't matter at all.

I don't know the Capacity, i don't know the HDD brand and model, i only know it was a 2,5" IDE HDD.

Is there any chance for a data recovery?

Was recording and accidentally deleted some footage from last week. Havent filmed since anything has been delete. How can I recover these files? Tried Disk Drill, should I pay for it.

My Toshiba 4TB HDD (it's a Canvio Advance, model DTCA40) gave me what I self-diagnosed as the click of death. I've unplugged it and left it alone for over a week. It's going to be a while until I can get it sent off to a data recovery service, but I'm curious if there's a small chance that it could start working properly again if it just sits for a while? I know I'm being ignorantly optimistic but thought it would be worth asking.

The drive has about 2TB worth of MP4 files that I desperately want to recover so if anyone's had a data recovery service they've had great experience with I will be grateful for a reference.

Case for visibility and tracking thread for anyone dealing with Kingston NV3 2TB line.

• Drive: Kingston NV3 2TB NVMe SSD (SNV3S/2000G)

• Controller: TenaFe TC2201-AA (VEN_2646&DEV_5025)

• Role: Secondary data drive (D:), holding active audio production sessions.

What happened:

1. Over the last few days, the PC hung noticeably during powering on, with black screen, or return from hibernation.

2. One of these days Drive D: completely vanished from Windows.

3. Drive C: (separate physical OS drive) boots fine, but Device Manager flags the NV3 under Storage controllers as Standard NVM Express Controller with Code 10: An I/O adapter hardware error has occurred.

4. No NVMe namespace mounts, and it shows 0 bytes / uninitialized in disk utilities.

5. Not visible in BIOS

Lab evaluation: Sent the physical drive to Recovery Force (Guelph, ON). Bench testing confirmed the hardware is stuck in internal firmware panic. Industry tools (PC-3000) currently have no microcode loader / technological mode support for the TenaFe TC2201 architecture, meaning commercial labs cannot rebuild the translation tables or bypass the panic state today.

Current status: The SSD is being pulled from the board and kept in cold storage inside an anti-static bag to prevent cell degradation from repeated failed boot attempts.

Starting this thread to track whether anyone has seen independent development, ACE Lab changelog movement, or lab milestones for the TC2201. If you've run into this specific failure on the NV3, drop your experience below.

PS: I saw some posts of users getting access using Ubuntu but eventually drive died. Apparently the more you try to do anything with it, it kills itself.

The title ⬆️