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Question

Fixing Video Files after Hard Drive Recovery

Apr 25, 2016 7:08AM PDT

A couple nights ago I accidentally reformatted my external HD while trying to install windows via bootcamp on my mac. I bought a data recovery tool to get back all the files I lost and it seems like I recovered them but the video files (the part I most need) are all corrupt/broken. I tried using a free repair tool as well as VLC's built in repair tool but neither seemed to work. Any tips?

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Repair Isn't The Direction to Go
Apr 25, 2016 8:04AM PDT

First off, if a video is corrupt after data recovery then there is no tool to "repair" the videos. 99% of the time it's because the files contain the wrong data, and you can't "repair" that. You would need proper data recovery of the correct sectors.

A few questions so I can point you in the right direction. How full was the drive? If if was ever, at any point in history, full or near full, then the files are most likely fragmented and recovery will be extremely difficult.

Also, what type of files are they? AVI, FLV, MP4, etc.

Also, did you recover the data back onto the same drive your were recovering off of, or onto a different drive?

Is it actually a spinning disk hard drive, or an SSD, CF card, SD cart, etc.?

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Re: Repair Isn't The Direction to Go
Apr 25, 2016 2:43PM PDT

It wasn't too full, less than 100 gigs and its a 1 tb drive.

It's a mixture of MP4, M4V, and MOV.

I'm not entirely sure, I can tell you it's a G Drive mobile USB. Does that help?

Thanks!

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Answer
I fear the answer hasn't changed.
Apr 25, 2016 8:12AM PDT

Video files are mostly lossy compressed content. So any loss is forever since there is no redundant data to rebuild from.

The lesson here is the same as before. We only lose what we don't backup.

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Answer
Need specific software for video
Apr 25, 2016 10:48AM PDT

This is it.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

However, if you could have recovered the entire partition, including it's file table you'd be a lot better off.

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Questions
Apr 25, 2016 2:47PM PDT

Downloaded PhotoRec, having trouble figuring out which Disk is the external hard drive. Any tips?

Thanks!

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look at files
Apr 25, 2016 3:41PM PDT

see if they are from your current drive or the external.

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Answer
Fixing Video Files after Hard Drive Recovery
Jun 14, 2016 5:33AM PDT

To fix video files you might have to make use of a repair tool... VLC's built in tool is also an alternate option but however if that doesn't fix your file then try repairing your file with a repair tool -