Data recovery that keep file structure/folders/file names?

Tengis

Tengis

Supreme [H]ardness
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I have a hard drive I somehow messed up the partition on but when I recover the data it's just in random file names. I'm trying to see if I can recover the original names with the original folders if possible.

The original recovery took a couple days because it's about 4tb of data. I could throw the hard drive in my main system that is faster and possibly recover it with a windows tool? Or a different live distro? I used a command line tool in Linux (can't remember off the top of my head what it's called) and it pretty much recovered everything... but there are thousands of pictures and thousands of video files 🤷‍♂️😔.
 
Tengis said:
but there are thousands of pictures and thousands of video files 🤷‍♂️😔
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Might try a cataloguing application like Darktable, which is similar to Adobe's Lightroom but free.

Essentially, for media that should have metadata, such an app would load stuff up based on the metadata rather than the file name and allow you to browse through all of it quicker.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Might try a cataloguing application like Darktable, which is similar to Adobe's Lightroom but free.

Essentially, for media that should have metadata, such an app would load stuff up based on the metadata rather than the file name and allow you to browse through all of it quicker.
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It will rename the files based on metadata or just display it? I've never used Lightroom.
 
Tengis said:
It will rename the files based on metadata or just display it? I've never used Lightroom.
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Display it initially, the tools usually have an option to 'export' with various customizable file name conventions.
 
Tengis said:
I'm trying to see if I can recover the original names with the original folders if possible.
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Depends if the file system table/MBR is readable to that extent. Most files do not include their own file names, since they can be renamed through any number of external applications. This is data stored in the file system. Some files may contain tags, such as ID(v3) tags in MP3/audio files. Similar conventions are available in most video container formats and picture/photo file formats, but whether those were used is up to the creator.

But you can try several data recovery software like iBoysoft to see if they can retain all file structures and file names: https://iboysoft.com/data-recovery/free-data-recovery.html
 
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FSCDiablo said:
Try a partition recovery tool such as https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk ? I would imagine you might want to dd the drive to another drive first if you haven't, then attempt to repair the duplicate. Just a first thought stab in the dark.
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I did DD the drive. I haven't been able to recover it even after doing a deep scan... although I've recovered all the data.

At this point I'm just going to sort out the family photos/videos and start over with the rest I think.
 
Files are just addressable locations on storage. And "directories" are just special files to present a hierarchical view of such. So, in a "recovery", you might be able to find these orphaned files on a disk, but don't expect too much "meaning" to be found. So, while somewhat painful that context (names, hierarchy, and such) may not be present, at least you were able to get to the data.
 
cjcox said:
Files are just addressable locations on storage. And "directories" are just special files to present a hierarchical view of such. So, in a "recovery", you might be able to find these orphaned files on a disk, but don't expect too much "meaning" to be found. So, while somewhat painful that context (names, hierarchy, and such) may not be present, at least you were able to get to the data.
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This 100%. Data recovery is never 'clean'.
 
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