How to uncorrupt files? Need help with restoring corrupted data.

OneClick · 2024-11-08T11:21:52+00:00

Hey everyone! I ran into a problem after a sudden power outage — the file system got messed up, and I had to recover data with R-Studio. When I copied it to...

Nonprofitech

OneClick
At least tell us what kind of files are 'corrupted'! You might have to fix them manually or use some special software. Either way, it's gonna be a long and tedious process. So yeah, get ready to be patient!

OneClick

Nonprofitech I’ve got archives, photos, videos, and office documents. There are also some corrupted software files, but at least I can download those again. As for the other files, I’m not sure what to do with them yet.

Nonprofitech

OneClick
Try to use something like Stellar File Repair. It's mainly for office files. For videos, audio, and photos, they’ve got separate software: Stellar Repair Photo, Stellar Repair Video, and Stellar Repair Audio. As for archives, I couldn’t find anything. There might be alternatives, but I didn’t really dig into that.If you look to uncorrupt a file, these programs might help.

KindnessCatalyst

Nonprofitech There’s also a fairly extensive set of software from Recovery Toolbox, which includes specialized applications that recover many popular file types. For Zip archives, I’m aware of DiskInternals ZIP Repair. Additionally, if I’m not mistaken, 7-Zip can extract files from damaged archives. There may be other tools out there that I’m not familiar with as well.

Nonprofitech

KindnessCatalyst
Noted! Gonna keep that in mind. Lately, I run into disk problems like this way too often!

HopeInSleep

Nonprofitech From my experience, these “programs” don’t recover files well. Tons of marketing claims don’t hold up in reality, so I’d take their functionality with a big grain of salt.

You can attempt to work with damaged media files through software specifically designed for those formats. For example, VLC for AVI files or Photoshop for photos. For photo files, try to open them in Adobe Photoshop or RAW editing software instead of the standard Windows viewer. Photoshop can sometimes open partially damaged files, which gives you a chance to recover something. If Photoshop can’t do it, try other image recovery programs like JPEG-Repair Toolkit or an online service like Aspose.

For video files, especially AVI, give VLC Media Player a shot. Open VLC, go to “Tools,” then “Preferences,” and look for the section on handling problem files. VLC might be able to fix playback issues for you.

HopeInSleep

OneClick Hey, did you mention what file system was on the drive? Recovery can depend on whether it’s NTFS, FAT32, or something else. Different systems might need different methods for data recovery.

OneClick

HopeInSleep The disk was formatted in NTFS. Does that affect which recovery programs I should use?

HopeInSleep

OneClick Yeah, NTFS has its quirks. Some programs, like GetDataBack for NTFS, are specifically built to handle this file system and can give better results compared to the general recovery tools. At least I believe so.

SocialImpactCoder

OneClick With all the data recovery software options out there, you’ve got a lot of sleepless nights and wasted time ahead of you. 😅

OneClick

SocialImpactCoder Oh yeah, that’s for sure. By the way, I took your advice and created a disk image. It took a while, but I managed to do it. Now I will clone the image onto a healthy drive and run experiments from there. I will put the original drive on the shelf for now, just in case I miss something important and need to consult a specialist later.

SocialImpactCoder

OneClick Exactly, you did the right thing. If you mess up the original, your recovery options get way more limited. Each step along the way must be saved in these situations.

OneClick

Thanks everyone for the help and responses, I’ve got plenty to work on! Now I just need to find enough time for it all! =)

oleksandr-lukashyn

Looks like I missed this thread earlier and didn’t get a chance to chime in - so I’ll try to summarize @OneClick’s case for anyone who might run into a similar scenario. Having a clear recovery sequence can make all the difference.

@OneClick faced a situation where, after a power loss, his NTFS partition turned into what looked like complete chaos. When he attempted recovery with R-Studio, he ran into bad sectors on the drive and a batch of corrupted files.

The advice that followed in the thread was absolutely on point, and it’s worth outlining the recovery steps here:

Create a sector-by-sector image of the drive. This is the smartest move you can make. By doing this, you stop all further direct interaction with the failing drive and preserve its current state. Even a single imaging pass puts far less stress on the drive than a recovery scan, since most recovery tools read the disk multiple times using different file search algorithms. Imaging limits the risk and gives you a safer way to proceed.
Scan the image with multiple data recovery tools. Each tool uses different scanning techniques and detection heuristics, so results vary. In cases like this, it’s best to try several tools. The most effective ones for NTFS recovery (based on both experience and user reports) include: Disk Drill, R-Studio, UFS Explorer. We have a comparison article here - https://www.handyrecovery.com/best-data-recovery-apps.html
Sometimes recovery succeeds only partially - the files are present, but damaged. At this point, specialized repair tools for different file types come into play. For video files - VLC (built-in AVI repair function), Clever Online Video Repair (online tool, if you have a reference video). For images - Photoshop (in limited cases), JPEG-Repair Toolkit, Aspose. And for archives: DiskInternals ZIP Repair or 7-Zip (sometimes recovers from partially broken archives).

If all this does not help and your important files are still not recovered/repaired, you can contact a professional data recovery service with a damaged disk, and they may be able to get undamaged versions of the files using special tools and techniques.

Would be great to hear how it turned out for @OneClick , but unfortunately, he never came back to update us. Either way, if you follow this path step-by-step, you’ll be in the best possible position to save your files.