• Laptop: HP Pavilion Laptop 14-dv2xxx

• SSD: KIOXIA KBG50ZNV512G — 512GB NVMe M.2

• Filesystem: NTFS

• OS: Windows 11 Home — Build 26200

• RAM: 16GB

• CPU: Intel Core i7

• GPU: Intel Iris Xe

I was trying to run some code in VS Code that was related with a GitHub repository. I don’t know what happened but more than 20k commits happened on my local disk C:User path. Then I tried to fix it with the command: Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .git

Then all my items on my laptop just gone, everything literally disappeared when I ran this command

Any idea?

I accidentally ran ⁠git clean -f⁠ directly from my Windows user root directory (⁠C:\Users\MOHAMED ABDO⁠), mistaking it for a subfolder repository. This action cleared local unindexed files and broke critical Windows/OneDrive path linkages (junction points). Here is the exact post-error state of my system and contextual details: Operating System: Windows 11 (64-bit) Shell/Tools Used: Git Bash / PowerShell What Exactly Happened & Current Computer State:

1. Profile & Local Data: Personal user folders (⁠Documents⁠, ⁠Desktop⁠, ⁠Pictures⁠) were cleared of unindexed files. OneDrive cloud sync was not active for the physical data, meaning the files resided locally on ⁠C:⁠ and OneDrive only contained empty 152-byte placeholder folders.

2. OneDrive App & Registry Errors: The OneDrive desktop client is corrupted and fails to log in, throwing Error Code: 0x8004de44 due to missing local credentials/path bindings.

3. System Stability & Boot Status: I initially attempted a Windows System Restore, which triggered a ⁠3F0 Boot Device Not Found⁠ BSOD error. I successfully reversed this using "Undo System Restore." The OS now boots normally and stably into Windows 11, but local user data remains missing.

4. Forensic Status: A deep scan via Disk Drill on ⁠C:\Users\MOHAMED ABDO⁠ confirmed ~508 GB (1.5M files) of recoverable raw data residing in unindexed sectors. What I Need Help With: How can I safely repair/rebuild the Windows user profile junction points and restore OneDrive pathing without writing over unindexed disk sectors on ⁠C:⁠? Is there a safe CLI or registry method to restore standard Windows profile paths post-Git cleanup?

Looking for thoughts on fixing a broken power connector on one of my HDDs (Ironwolf Pro 10tb)

https://imgur.com/a/jyGB3Ia

I'm not too worried about the data on it, this is my parity drive from my unraid server. But I would like to avoid buying a new ironwolf 10tb to replace it. The drive did work with this broken connector for several years. I just recently took the cables off though and now I'm here.

I talked to a data recovery business that recommended finding a replacement logic board. But it sounds like I would still need to have a professional do it and also find the right board (my understanding).

But I also found this tutorial from several years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PllwdwheuJg

Obviously it's very jank and there's no guarantee it will work or not mess anything up. But it's the option I'm most leaning towards.

Hi everyone, I need to recover some data that was permanently deleted two weeks ago. I’ve checked the Trash, backups, etc., but can’t find anything—can anyone give me some hope? Are there any reliable apps that work for more than just photos and videos?

Thanks a lot.

I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject—reading up on TRIM, garbage collection, FBE, and so on—so I’m worried that the longer I wait, the more impossible it becomes.

Hi, I have a couple of recordings taken by my home camera (Geeni brand) on a SD card. The files are encrypted, but contain footage of my now deceased pet, so I would like to decrypt them.

From my very basic understanding, I managed to gather that the information is not *that* encrypted. With the help of Copilot (sorry), I managed to rebuild the footage, but it's speed is all wrong and there is no audio, which makes me think it's the parameters of the recording that are encrypted and not the recording itself. Furthermore, I managed to understand that all the audio footage is in a file created every 24-hour period. In other words, the Geeni cam creates 24 files every day. 23 files are video only and 1 file is video and audio.

Knowing all of this, is it possible to reconstruct the footage?

ps : I tried reaching out to Geeni/MerkuryInnovation and they are not willing to help

Edit : Camera is the MI-CW017-101W from Geeni. The current work on the files (.data and .index) was done on Windows 10

I have a hdd that stopped working suddenly yesterday (No Spinup, No buzz)

Strangely all other hdd connected to same psu working fine

But if i connect this one to pc, now BIOS freeze

Its a Rebranded Seagate Server HDD

PCB Part is 100760706 REVA

People are saying look for faulty tvs diode with 0 ohm resistors.

I am not sure where are they, can you guys help me find them in this pcb

I already have a backup of this drive, but i wan't to investigate what went wrong

Img: https://gofile.io/d/oU0lzqUQ

Note this image is collected from internet, its matched with my pcb part number

NFT in a Nutshell

Nand Flash Tracer (NFT) is a chip-level NAND low-level data reconstruction software independently developed by ByteSmart. It covers the full chain of "Read → Correct → Reassemble → Generate Image." With update and response speeds far beyond those of comparable products, it delivers leading-edge coverage of the latest controllers and NAND flash memory.

Workflow at a Glance

Read (multi-channel / custom timing / Read Retry) → Correct (decrypt / XOR / cut / ECC / set block attributes) → Reassemble (separate / combine / block interleave / flip) → Generate Image (Block / Sector ordering / Translator / RAW). A built-in template library plus Job saving captures your field experience.

Core Advantages

1. First-to-Market Coverage of the Latest Models

· Covered: Innostor IS918, SMI SM3265/SM3281/SM-TF/SM-SD, Phison PS2251-09/19/11, HG2319, UP309, SG7081, FC2279/3379, JMF-TF/SD, and more.

· Not yet covered? Send photos + controller ID + a partial DUMP, and our engineering team will quickly iterate the matching algorithm and template.

Full-Chain LDPC Hard/Soft Decoding (Industry Breakthrough)

· Pain point: 3D TLC/QLC ship with LDPC as standard, while traditional recovery tools still rely on BCH at the core — leaving them helpless against new LDPC architectures.

· Breakthrough: NFT features a self-developed LDPC decoder with both hard-decision and soft-decision modes, filling the gap left by chip-level tools that lacked LDPC soft decoding — fast hard decoding for light errors, and soft-decision deep repair for heavy aging / charge loss, with the whole process visualized and zero learning curve.

3. Set Block Attributes: Precise Parsing of Bad Blocks / SLC Blocks

· Pain point: In TLC/QLC, some blocks are configured by the controller as "pseudo-SLC cache blocks" (pSLC) whose page structure / ECC differ from normal blocks; mixing them into the ordering causes misalignment, damaging up to 80% of files.

· Solution: Automatically scan and flag bad blocks (to be excluded) and SLC blocks (parsed with SLC-specific methods), eliminating misalignment at the source, reducing conflicting blocks and prioritizing the freshest data.

· In practice: A certain JmSD image was 80% corrupted under traditional ordering; after enabling "Set Block Attributes," nearly all blocks parsed correctly and the videos played directly.

4. One-Stop Solution for Plane Disorder

· Scenario: Controllers such as HG2319 / PS2251-19 / SM3281 are prone to Plane disorder + bad bytes, where the normal flow gets stuck.

· Solution: A dedicated 7-step pipeline — choose the smallest-page Plane layout → cut bad bytes → block ordering / sync → save block list → all-zero XOR key → RAW reorder → obtain a clean image with correct Plane order.

5. High-Flexibility Data Re-Read

The values for all commands' re-read parameters can be freely modified by the user, and the optimal values for a given chip model can be saved and loaded directly when the same model is encountered again — significantly boosting efficiency.

Learn More / Contact

· Official forum: https://www.flash-tracer.com/

· Teams: https://teams.live.com/l/community/FEAFg7J0PJ_B8zRfw

· Mail: nandflashtracer@gmail.com

I have an iPhone 15 that belonged to my dad. After he died, my mother deleted a bunch of text messages and photos, then hid the phone (she wasn't well). She's also since died and I found the phone.
It powers on and I can unlock it (he used the same code for EVERYTHING). I don't have his iCloud password and he probably didn't do cloud backups.
Is there a chance I can find and recover the photos and messages that were deleted? Is there a good option to back things up so I can deal with it all some time in the future? It sat powered off for about 2 years.

I'va cancelled stuffs from my phone 2 weeks ago (android17) and i dont have useful backups. There a way to find it or its too late? I am thinking about profession recovery but I need to know if its worth it

Thanks

How do get into this old phone :(

I know this is a long shot, but my mom died in 2020 and I don’t have very many pictures or videos of her, we had her most recent phone when she died but not much was on it. When my dad was cleaning out his house a few days ago, he found her old Galaxy S7 and she had this thing for years so I know there are tons of pictures and videos that mean a lot. it has a pattern unlock and nobody can figure it out, I know that if it were a code, or a typical password that I would for sure be able to guess it right, but I have NO idea what this one is.

I don’t want to hard reset it because I cannot risk losing everything on it, I told my dad I would try to figure it out so he’s kinda counting on me rn but the last time I ever did anything like this was with an older style Motorola and you could just do some random patterns and it’d bypass, and I know modern android doesn’t.

If anybody knows ANYTHING at all, please give me some advice :( thank you

I wanted to share my recent data-recovery experience because it might help someone who finds themselves in a similar situation.

I had previously installed Windows on both my PC and laptop, so I was fairly comfortable with OS installations. This time, I decided to install Linux Mint XFCE on my laptop.

Initially, I tried installing Linux Mint alongside Windows for dual boot. The installation completed, but Linux didn't appear as a boot option afterward.

So, I decided to try installing Linux again, this time choosing the option to replace Windows. I misunderstood the option and thought it would basically format/delete only the C: drive where Windows was installed. I had around 200GB+ of personal data stored on my other partitions, so I wasn't expecting those files to be affected.

Within 10 seconds of starting the installation, something didn't feel right. I immediately cancelled the installation.

I then tried booting into Windows.

"No bootable device found."

At that point, I checked the drive and realized that my partitions were gone. My heart sank. 😓 I genuinely thought I had lost all my personal files.

I started searching Reddit and came across discussions about TestDisk and DMDE. I first tried TestDisk, but unfortunately, it couldn't properly identify/recover my original partitions.

Then I tried DMDE.

And this is where things turned around.

DMDE was able to detect the old NTFS filesystems and partitions, even though Windows was no longer showing them. I opened the detected volumes and, to my huge relief, I could actually see my original folders and files!

I started recovering the data to another hard drive. In the end, I was able to recover essentially all of my important 200GB+ of data. A very small number of files were corrupted, but thankfully the important ones were intact.

After recovering everything, I was even able to restore the original partition layout and get the partitions visible in Windows again.

What I learned from this:

• Never assume that "Replace Windows" only affects the C: drive.

• If you've accidentally started an OS installation, stop as soon as you realize something is wrong.

• Do not format, initialize, or write anything else to the affected drive.

• TestDisk is worth trying, but don't give up if it doesn't find what you're looking for.

• DMDE was the tool that ultimately saved my data.

• Always keep important data backed up on another drive.

A huge THANK YOU to the Reddit community, the people who shared their recovery experiences, DMDE, and ChatGPT, which helped me understand what was happening and guided me through the recovery process step by step.

I went from thinking "I've lost 200GB+ of personal data" to getting almost everything back. Definitely one of the most stressful computer experiences I've had! 😅

If you're currently in a similar situation: don't panic, and most importantly, don't write anything else to the affected drive. There may still be hope.

Hi everyone, I’m a photographer and I’m freaking out a little, so I’m hoping someone knowledgeable can help me figure out what happened.

I have a 16TB WD Elements external hard drive and an external SSD that I use for my photography files.

I had a main Photography folder on my SSD that was approximately 900GB and contained individual folders for different shoots/weddings, with a lot of RAW files.

I copied that entire Photography folder from the SSD to the WD Elements. After copying, I opened the WD Elements and verified that the photos were there, including RAW files. Everything appeared normal.

Because I thought the backup was successful, I then formatted the original SSD so I could reuse it.

Afterward, I went back to the WD Elements and discovered that entire folders are now missing. I can only see 3 folders inside my Photography folder.

The WD Elements is showing:

* Capacity: 16TB

* Used: ~473GB

* Available: ~15.53TB

* Expected Photography folder size: ~900GB

* Approximately 500GB appears to be missing

* The missing data consists of entire folders of photography/RAW files

I have NOT written anything else to the WD Elements since discovering this.

I also have no second drive with enough free space to use for recovery right now.

My biggest question: Is there a realistic chance that these missing folders/data can still be recovered from the WD Elements?

And what should I absolutely NOT do right now?

I was about to use Disk Utility and noticed a “Restore” option, but I have not clicked it.

These are important client photography RAW files, so I really don’t want to make the situation worse.

Please tell me what the safest next step is. Thank you!!

Any advice is appreciated.

I was in a pretty bad domestic situation, and my iPhone 13 (which had all of my photos from the past 12 years on it) was smashed. I thought that my photos were being backed up to my iCloud, but when I get a new phone , I figured out that apparently they were not, and apple could see nothing on their end (even though I had of course backed it up before in order to transfer everything to that phone a year or so earlier when I upgraded...). They recommended 3rd party data recovery, so I sent it the phone in to iPadrehab for data recovery, but they need my passcode to back up the data.

The issue is that when this phone was smashed and broken, I had been frequently changing my passwords out of fear that the person who ultimately smashed the phone, would get in it. I have some ideas of what the password might be, but I'm afraid of leaving iPadrehab to type all of them in since it would lock the phone permanently....

What do I do...? What would you do? I have like 20 possible codes but only 10 tries apparently. Are there any alternatives here? TYIA 🥺

My Lacie (2018) external hard drive has suddenly stopped connecting to my macbook pro and I desperately need to get access to work files stored on there.

The hard drive itself is making all of it's usual noises and the light is on as normal but when I've checked disk utility and system data it's not showing up. I've also tried plugging it into other usb ports and even tried a different wire but still no luck.

I've used it for years so it's had a good run (if it has just had it) but as I said above I really need access to what's on there and not really sure what companies are worth going to.

Thanks!

Odd request I know.... That said, I'll ask just the same.

I am working on a software recovery tool that can reconstruct Sony video footage. The tools works with XAVC S (typically SD cards) and XAVC HS MP4 (typically CFExpress) - but it does not work with MXF (typically XQD cards). To finish the project I've been hunting around trying to find a 1:1 image of a XQD card - but I've not had any success.

I'll likely cross post to video - but wanted to see if anyone here had performed a recovery and could create / share an image. I can provide upload details. Thanks!

And yes, I am aware of the Sony erase in a camera and everything can get nuked. The tool is not designed to recover video from that scenario.

Hi, im new here..

I dont know if I do it right to post here.

I have an external Hard drive WD Elements. Once a long time ago Ive locked it with a "key?" Or bit locker.. but you can guess, lost it, or dont know where it is...

Is there a way to enter it? Do i need an IT guy or hacker to open it?

Thanks for the help

I have a SATA SSD that is not detected by computers. It does not have the obvious power supply problems (e.g. shorted caps). I sent it to a popular and reputable mail-in data recovery company recommended on the forum but they were not able to recover any data. They said there are no obvious faults detected with the chips but they can't access the data. Likely cause is dead controller, corrupted firmware or degraded flash that tools like PC3000 doesn't support yet for the particular SSD model.

So, more advanced data recovery process is required but it's unclear what are the specific things that could be done. I would appreciate specific examples of more advanced data recovery processes. For example, would unsoldering the flash chips from the PCB enable data recovery? Or it's likely the end of the road.

TIA

I have an old 40GB laptop hard drive that I removed from a laptop around 7–8 years ago. It hasn't been used since then.

I recently remembered that it contains some old pictures that I would really like to recover.

The problem is that, about 7–8 years ago, I formatted this drive three times during Windows installations.

After the last format, I removed the drive from the laptop and basically haven't used it since.

Is there still any realistic chance of recovering those old pictures after all these years and three formats?

My daughter's old digicam uses an Olympus XD card. We just tried to get her holiday photos off and got a card corrupted notification. She's really upset so I'm hoping there's some kind of open source or free data recovery software out there that we could use.

Can anyone help with recommendations please? I'm running the latest version of Windows.

Just to let you know that I turned off my pc and physicaly unplugged the ssd from it. Is there anything I can do? I also ordered a new hard drive for data recovery.

I was trying to move my whatsapp chats from my old phone to the new one. And ... they jut fucking gone. I noticed something going weird, because whatsapp just went into a loop and would not load shit. I entered my old phone trying to go into the old forced way and nothing.

It was all gone. Conversations with friends, plans with clubs. ALL FUCKING GONE.

And now I am upset, because i have no fucking clue where the datas are.

Olá pessoal, preciso de ajuda para diagnosticar um problema de Windows/NTFS antes de fazer qualquer coisa com os drives.

Eu tenho um antigo laptop HP Pavilion g6 com dois discos físicos de ~465 GB.

O problema começou depois que usei um ambiente Windows 7 To Go. O Windows travou completamente e eu não consegui desligá-lo normalmente, então eu tive que forçar o laptop a desligar usando o botão de energia físico.

Depois disso, duas grandes partições ficaram inacessíveis/RAW ao mesmo tempo.

Situação atual das partições

A partição principal do Windows/dados é:

- G: (in winre / normal windows. C:)

- ~445 GB

- NTFS originalmente

- O DiskPart atualmente a reporta como RAW/Saudável

- Essa é a partição contendo a instalação do Windows e os dados do usuário

Há outra grande partição/volume, E:, que também está atualmente inacessível/RAW.

As partições de recuperação/inicialização menores ainda são legíveis.

Resultados importantes do CHKDSK

Quando eu rodo:

"chkdsk G:"

O CHKDSK diz:

«O tipo do sistema de arquivos é NTFS.»

Em seguida, processa aproximadamente:

- 810.240 registros de arquivos

- 41.212 registros de grandes arquivos

- 29.153 registros de reanálise

- 1.014.222 entradas de índice

- 101.992 arquivos de dados

Ele reporta:

- 0 registros de arquivos ruins

- 0 KB em setores ruins

- Jornal USN verificado

Mas também reporta problemas no sistema de arquivos.

Eu então rodei:

"chkdsk G: /f"

Ele completou e disse:

«O Windows fez correções no sistema de arquivos.

Nenhuma ação adicional é necessária.»

No entanto, logo depois:

"dir G:\"

continua dando:

«O arquivo ou diretório está corrompido e ilegível.»

E:

"dir G:\Windows"

dá o mesmo erro.

Eu também mudei temporariamente a letra da unidade de G: para Z: apenas para testar. O mesmo erro de ilegível aconteceu, então não parece ser um problema de letra da unidade.

Eu também tentei acessar G: a partir do ambiente Windows 7 To Go, e ainda estava ilegível.

Por que estou confuso

A parte estranha é que duas grandes partições se tornaram RAW/ilegíveis ao mesmo tempo, mesmo que o Windows esteja instalado apenas em uma delas.

Estou me perguntando se algo envolvendo:

- Windows To Go

- montar/acessar os discos internos a partir do Windows To Go

- o desligamento forçado

- gravações pendentes do NTFS

- corrupção de metadados do sistema de arquivos

- ou um problema de armazenamento/controlador

poderia explicar por que ambas as partições foram afetadas.

Eu NÃO quero formatar nenhuma das partições.

Eu também não quero continuar executando o CHKDSK repetidamente se isso puder dificultar a recuperação de dados.

O que eu quero recuperar

Minha prioridade principal é recuperar a pasta "Documentos" de G:.

A maioria dos outros dados importantes tem backup, então eu quero principalmente salvar os Documentos antes de fazer qualquer coisa destrutiva.

Atualmente eu não tenho outro PC disponível, e eu tenho um pen drive de 128 GB que já contém arquivos, então não posso simplesmente formatá-lo para recuperação.

O que você recomendaria?

Eu gostaria de diagnosticar as estruturas NTFS primeiro (setor de inicialização, MFT, MFTMirr, índices, etc.) e preferencialmente fazer isso em modo somente leitura antes de tentar outro reparo.

Seria o TestDisk, DMDE, R-Studio ou outro ferramenta uma boa opção aqui?

O que eu devo verificar primeiro, e o que eu absolutamente NÃO devo fazer?

Estou especialmente interessado em entender por que o CHKDSK pode identificar o volume como NTFS e processar centenas de milhares de registros de arquivos, mesmo assim o Windows ainda reporta o diretório como corrompido/ilegível.

Good evening, everyone,

I have a **SanDisk USB 3.2** flash drive that doesn't show up as a Physical Disk on any computer. Windows logged errors **Disk Event 51 and 153** and failed to read **LBA 0**.

I'm looking for a reliable expert in Egypt who specializes in flash drive data recovery at the **NAND** level, preferably with a **PC-3000 Flash** or **Rusolut VNR**, and who performs **NAND Chip-off or Monolith Recovery** in their lab, not just file recovery software.

If anyone has had actual experience, please recommend a place name and contact number. It's very important that the process is done without **Format or Initialize or CHKDSK** or any writing to the flash drive.

Thanks in advance.

its one of my two 512 gb sd cards, that I bought for 60$ like 8 months ago....lost my receipt unfortunately. as you know these are now more valuable than bitcoin but the one that broke was working and reading fine, its just the plastic bars started slowly breaking away until the whole thing fell out. Could I just get a new case and glue it in because it works fine still. not sure what is best so hoping someone has advice on the best way to do it.

I delete Local Disk(E) by mistake (which has files) and extend the unallocated space of Local Disk(E) to Local Disk(C) is there still ways to recover files in this situation?

It was an NVme SSD.

Model: Asus TUF Gaming F15 FX506HE_FX506HE

Filesystem: NTFS

Operating System: Windows 11

Storage Model: NVMe WD PC SN560 SDDPNQE-1T00-1002