I have a 256 GB hard disk that became raw after my laptop shut off suddenly while in use.
It had a separate 100 MB partition that survived. I've tried things like chkdsk, bootrec.exe,
windows 10 auto repair options at startup, startup recovery with a bootable USB drive among
other things i found online. I also tried trial versions of some data recovery programs like Easus,
Getdataback but no luck.
I'm now trying Photorec after I could not get far with testdisk. The raw partition was not showing,
only the 100 MB partition. And testdisk said the disk size had to be correct for successful recovery.
So I've been using Photorec for almost a week now. It started off well. It showed lots of tiny files recovered. These seem to be files from the browser cache, cookies and maybe program files. Non of the files I'm interested in. Like PDF documents, word documents, ZIP files, some videos and software.
Some days later I noticed that photorec was getting stuck. It would go 20 to 30 minutes and stop.
It appeared to be working but was not making any progress. The files recovered, the time elapsed
and time remaining would not change. The only way out was to close it and resume the process.
but the same thing would happen. And it would still recover more tiny files.
I'm starting to wonder if this is a lost cause. Perhaps I should let go and start over. I'd like to recover and get back to work but I'm loosing hope. I'd like your view on this. I'm not tech savvy. I just know how to use a computer, the internet and can try to solve some problems on my own.
I saw autopsy recommended, haven't tried it, they say it's a learning curve but download page says easy to use. I'm in a small town in Africa.
It had a separate 100 MB partition that survived. I've tried things like chkdsk, bootrec.exe,
windows 10 auto repair options at startup, startup recovery with a bootable USB drive among
other things i found online. I also tried trial versions of some data recovery programs like Easus,
Getdataback but no luck.
I'm now trying Photorec after I could not get far with testdisk. The raw partition was not showing,
only the 100 MB partition. And testdisk said the disk size had to be correct for successful recovery.
So I've been using Photorec for almost a week now. It started off well. It showed lots of tiny files recovered. These seem to be files from the browser cache, cookies and maybe program files. Non of the files I'm interested in. Like PDF documents, word documents, ZIP files, some videos and software.
Some days later I noticed that photorec was getting stuck. It would go 20 to 30 minutes and stop.
It appeared to be working but was not making any progress. The files recovered, the time elapsed
and time remaining would not change. The only way out was to close it and resume the process.
but the same thing would happen. And it would still recover more tiny files.
I'm starting to wonder if this is a lost cause. Perhaps I should let go and start over. I'd like to recover and get back to work but I'm loosing hope. I'd like your view on this. I'm not tech savvy. I just know how to use a computer, the internet and can try to solve some problems on my own.
I saw autopsy recommended, haven't tried it, they say it's a learning curve but download page says easy to use. I'm in a small town in Africa.
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