Corrupted pictures on external HDD

[kunjila kobasa]

Hi everyone,

I was storing my pictures on the external 2TB Transcend hard drive for years and recently I've found out that some of my (random) pictures can't be accessed anymore! The majority seems to be in one particular folder (that still has cca. 40% of pictures that are still ok) but also on some other folders as well.

When I set large icons on folder view, the pictures that are ok are visualized, and the ones that are screwed have the general windows blue/white icon.

I can't open them in any image viewer I tried, including W10 picture viewer and Lightroom. The message I get is: We can't open that file. Some of the screwed files are displaying 0 byte, while some of them are displaying the pretty much usual size (for 70% export in Lightroom, as default for all the photos, 4-8 MB approx), but the result is the same, I can't open them! All of the damaged files can be c/p like normal files.

I tried pretty much everything, trying to save them using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and some software like StellarPhoenixJPEGRepair but nothing helped. I also tried with checking/fixing disk for errors and it didn't help. I also googled like hell but couldn't find anyone with the exact problem!

I'm running out of ideas and getting a bit desperate here, so if anyone has the similar experience or any ideas of how to help me, I would appreciate!

Cheers,

Lovro

 

[DR_Luke]

This is a sign that the hard drive, itself, is probably failing. Running data recovery software like EaseUS will only put extra wear on the drive and result in more damage. If you value the files, you should consider sending the drive to a professional data recovery lab where the cost for this type of recovery should be well under $500.

A few labs on my growing list of labs that I trust and don't overcharge are:

Recovery Force
Data Medics
Data Savers
PC Image
Data Busters
Mind Merge

If you insist on going at it on your own, you should first try to get a full sector-by-sector clone of the drive with ddrescue (Guide to ddrescue) and then run your various data recovery programs against the healthy clone. But, don't forget that the more you power the drive on, the higher the chances of making things worse.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

And in future bear in mind that you should be using at least two external hard drives for that purpose, with the same data on both of them - - that way you've got a backup if one of them fails (actually I should say when one of them fails, not "if", because all hard drives fails at some point).

I keep my data on no less than four external drives - - same data on each one.

I'd have to be very unlucky for all four of them to fail at the same time.

 

[kunjila kobasa]

This is a sign that the hard drive, itself, is probably failing. Running data recovery software like EaseUS will only put extra wear on the drive and result in more damage. If you value the files, you should consider sending the drive to a professional data recovery lab where the cost for this type of recovery should be well under $500.

A few labs on my growing list of labs that I trust and don't overcharge are:

Recovery Force
Data Medics
Data Savers
PC Image
Data Busters
Mind Merge

If you insist on going at it on your own, you should first try to get a full sector-by-sector clone of the drive with ddrescue (Guide to ddrescue) and then run your various data recovery programs against the healthy clone. But, don't forget that the more you power the drive on, the higher the chances of making things worse.

Well, I used ES recovery very successfully before when I wanted to recover the deleted files, but in this case, the damaged jpg files actually exist, the name is still there, and size (in some cases) but are damaged. Thanks for the support. Most of the photos I lost are from my BRAZIL folder, from my first visit there, and for the money, I guess I could simply take another trip

And in future bear in mind that you should be using at least two external hard drives for that purpose, with the same data on both of them - - that way you've got a backup if one of them fails (actually I should say when one of them fails, not "if", because all hard drives fails at some point).

I keep my data on no less than four external drives - - same data on each one.

I'd have to be very unlucky for all four of them to fail at the same time.

Well. the most irritating part is that I do. What I did a few months ago is c/p all the data on my wife's identical drive, but I guess I c/p-ed all the crap files.