Question How can I fix corrupted files?

[manolis-ned]

I deleted by mistake the /Downloads folder with many files in it. Since it was too large (1400MB) it didn't go to recycle bin. I tried using recovery software such as EASEus to recover them but they come back corrupted (most of them). They are documents, images, music, videos and other types as well. Is there anything I can do?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Ease us is one of the best software out for this. You could try other software (not installed on the same drive as corrupt files) and see what happens.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

If they are corrupted then there's nothing you can do except to restore those files from the backup you should have been keeping for just this situation. Consider this a learning experience and move on.

 

[USAFRet]

I deleted by mistake the /Downloads folder with many files in it. Since it was too large (1400MB) it didn't go to recycle bin. I tried using recovery software such as EASEus to recover them but they come back corrupted (most of them). They are documents, images, music, videos and other types as well. Is there anything I can do?

Those aren't "corrupt".
Those are recovered file fragments. The software you used did the best it could.

What you're looking for is some magical way of putting all those fragments back together into fully readable files.

Did you by chance "recover" this stuff to the same drive where it was originally?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

If you recovered the files to the same drive they came from it could have damaged the files further.

 

[manolis-ned]

I did try to recover them at the same drive yes, cause it was my only drive that could fit all that data 🙁 . Later I did try to another drive, but I guess it was too late.

Even files that say that are in excellent condition with no overwritten clusters detected, come up unusable after recovering...

 

[USAFRet]

I did try to recover them at the same drive yes, cause it was my only drive that could fit all that data 🙁 . Later I did try to another drive, but I guess it was too late.

Even files that say that are in excellent condition with no overwritten clusters detected, come up unusable after recovering...

This is when you recover the files from your automated nightly backup.

 

[Colif]

This is why you should copy any files you don't want to lose by accident onto a cloud server or just into another folder on a USB drive.

I just looked through my downloads folder and most of it there is just programs I would need to reinstall anyway with windows. Not every type of download I have goes to there, pictures and music go to their own locations. Most of the files I create are auto saved to Onedrive as well.

Losing data is best way to learn why you need backups. Its not painless, but you sure remember. I lost hdd's worth of data years ago and now I am careful to have copies of everything in a few locations, though I don't run nightly backups as things don't change very fast on my PC.