Comments on: Recovering deleted files with a Ubuntu CD

By: ImmigrantUS

ImmigrantUS — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:10:06 +0000

Used Photorec on Ubuntu Rescue-Remix CD yesterday to recover deleted files in Ubuntu.

Lessons learned:
If using secondary internal HD (suspect the same for external HD) for recovered file import (from main HD, where the files originally were), it’s necessary to make a directory, into which the files will be put in on secondary HD.
To do it, you need to have BIOS setting for booting from CD first!
1. Start Live Ubuntu Rescue-Remix CD, give command to boot, then when it boots into terminal, check your HDs by command – Code: sudo fdisk -l

Realize what HD is main, and which is secondary, and what partition to check for files and into which to recover them – linux ext3 or Windows NTFS! Mine was Linux. Have enough room on it!
(Then you can try to run Photorec (“sudo photorec”) and hopefully you’ll be able to see all your HDs. I was not that lucky, so I had to make directory and mount sec. HD.)

2. Make directory for recovered files first, e.g. – media/disk. Give command – Code: sudo mkdir /media/disk

If alright, terminal prompt simply returns.

3. Must mount secondary HD, or it’ll be invisible, even if “sudo fdisk -l” does show it. Give command for your secondary HD –
Code: sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb2 /media/disk

If alright, terminal prompt simply returns.

4. Run Photorec by command – Code: sudo photorec

Go thru settings, and only choose file types that you want, otherwise you’ll have thousands of files to sift thru! I had 25000.
————————————————————–

Unfortunately, I did not find my photos (jpegs) in recovered files…
I suspect they were over-written, and I’m not sure if it’s possible to recover them… Is it? If anyone knows, please tell me!
Will try DD rescue and others in upcoming days.

Good luck to everybody!

By: ImmigrantUS

ImmigrantUS — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:20:15 +0000

Please help! I’m trying to recover jpeg files from master HD Ubuntu partition by using photorec on latest Rescue-Remix live CD. Intend to put recovered files into secondary (slave) HD. And stumbling at choosing it…
When booting into R-R live CD, both HDs listed, then I choose master to recover files from, go thru options till choosing secondary internal HD to put recovered files into, and it is not in the list… When checked previously it’s labeled Media/Disk, but when I go twice up directory thru double dot to Media, “Disc” is not there…
I tested this procedure with secondary internal HD disconnected – and all lines in menu are exactly the same when trying to choose the secondary internal drive to put files into…

What to do? Should I mount secondary internal HD in Rescue-Remix before starting photorec? or what else?
Please help!

By: Break

Break — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:51:35 +0000

thnkzzzz a lotz,now i recvr my precius photos includin n bday’s snapes, my old frenz snapes etcc…..thnk u so much……….

By: Rohit

Rohit — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:44:45 +0000

hey bro, i’m using windows Xp. n i’ve installed the software “deep freeze” for the C drive only… by mistakelly i’ve stored some of my data on my desk top…. n due to power cut i loose all that data… the data was in the form of excel files, word file, photos, videos, mp3, some softwares… can u plzzz plzz plzzzz tell me how can i recover the data which was deleted by deep freeze…. its a request dear…. plzz help me out…

By: Ellipsis

Ellipsis — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:12:42 +0000

Thanks. Very helpful for my ubuntu system.
There are so many random files left over for old users (2nd hand laptop).

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:38:19 +0000

Yes, it works for anything. XP, Vista, 7, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Jaunty, Hardy.

It doesn’t what operating system is installed.

By: hari

hari — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:46:28 +0000

hi,
will this work for windows XP?I formatted my C drive without taking the backup.I later realized that i left some important files on my desktop.can i somehow recover them back?Plz help me……..

By: Jek

Jek — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:48:30 +0000

I had already recovered a bunch of files off of a failed drive with photorec, but it is a good tutorial. I will send this to my friend who still thinks proprietary software is better than FOSS software for data recovery. And this also works great with external drives. Just do a normal Ubuntu install to an external drive, install the boot loader to the external drive (instead of main HDD) and then install all the drive/file rescue tools you will need.

By: Hooty

Hooty — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:38:03 +0000

Thanks. That worked…

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:15:34 +0000

It's possible that the videos have been overwritten and are just now unrecoverable. Or maybe you're doing something wrong. I would recommend you start a thread on the Ubuntu Forums asking for help. The folks there are both helpful and knowledgeable. It'll be far more productive than trying to get support through comments on my blog post.