In uninstalling Adobe Lightroom Classic, where previously I had 1Tb worth of jpgs and PDF files that opened without any issues before Lightroom was installed, ever since that Lightroom Classic Uninstall, despite recovering the images, unfortunately I now cannot open them as it as it seems they are corrupted. Why I have no idea. Can anyone kindly shed some light to recover 1Tb worth of images going back many years, or recommend a company that can recover them or a freeware or paid-for utility that will repair corrupted images? Thanks
I know this might seem a bit "told you so" but, if you can get these files restored, get them backed-up to an external drive as soon as possible.
First, clarity: are you saying that you uninstalled Lightroom and it deleted your image files, and that you subsequently recovered them but they are corrupt? If so, how did you recover them? Second, but first in priority, STOP USING THE DRIVE. Every single second you spend using that drive makes it less likely you'll be able to recover any usable data. If the photos are important turn the system off, remove the drive, package it safely, and get in touch with a data recovery firm - but you'll be spending hundreds if not low thousands to get a terabyte of data recovered, so prepare your wallet accordingly. If they're not that important, get yourself a second drive big enough and image the first drive onto it (specifically image, not copy, as you don't want the files but the raw data) then attempt all your own recovery efforts on the new drive - not the original. Then when (hopefully) you get your files back, use one of the two drives to store a backup so you're not put in this position again. Two is one and one is none, after all.
Yes, I uninstalled Adobe Lightroom Classic and opted to delete everything when it flashed up to either save or delete, as I was intending to re-install it again. But when I went to find the .exe file, the entire folder where I stored everything photographic,----- albeit, on a separate internal WD 6Tb SATA drive as this capacity was not available as an External Drive(to answer the reply before this)--had vanished. I then used a Recovery Program to do a Deep Scan and it found that folder and 894Gb worth of files, consisting of jpgs, MP4s, PDFs, etc which I then saved to a 2Tb NVMe.M2 drive, and tried to open them from there.The original jpg file-names were as had been saved, but none of them would open. Same with PDFs as Adobe Reader threw up an error of being corrupted, etc, etc, and VLC would not playback any of the photographic videos saved to the MP4 formats. Nothing has been added to that internal WD 6Tb drive. As the photographs are absolutely crucial that require recovering but have to be usable, so, yes, I am prepared to dig deep into my wallet., but would rather I avoided that Last Resort-route, hence asked here I have noted your very sound advice in Para 3 and thank you gratefully for that advice, and will follow your suggestions
What was the recovery program? If they'd literally just been deleted and nothing else had been written to the drive, they should all have recovered fine - so I'm wondering if the recovery program is at fault. I've used Photorec with great success, although that was on Linux (and I was working on DSHD floppy disk images...)
Thanks,once again. I used Puran File Recovery at first. It found the files but not in the file-names structure, jut weird numbers. But then, a friend sent me Wondershare Recoverit as I had those issues trying to open the recovered files, whcih did find the files in the same tree layout with Folder and file names of individual photographs. But could not right-click open them. So, I then tried several 'JPG Repair programs' in Trial Mode to see if they could even restore one single JPG image before I made a purchase, but none of them were any use. Should have come here first, looking back now.
Having spoken to a photographic dealers whose 'Recovery Expert' suggested that the Puran File Recovery may have caused the corruption in the first instance, is there a far more reliable Recovery Software that can, hopefully, undo that corruption, and hopefully save my 'bacon'? Any help is appreciated.
It's unlikely that Puran File Recovery has actually damaged the original files. It's more likely that it's just rubbish at retrieving and making a copy of those files. Gareth above mentioned Photorec, and you could also use Recuva or something similar. I personally use DiskGenius for most of my recovery needs, but it's likely significantly more than you need, and is not the most user friendly program. I'd recommend sending it for professional data recovery if the photos are critical or very important.
I'd say give Photorec a go, but like @noizdaemon666's suggestion of DiskGenius it ain't the most user-friendly thing around. Recuva's a good call, I remember using that back when I still had a Windows box with files I cared about on it. I'm less confident than Noiz that one of what you've already tried hasn't hosed the data on the drive, though. It's weird that all the files would be corrupt - the ones that were fragmented, maybe, but all of 'em? I still say you need to image the drive and try recovering on that, in order to avoid risking any further damage to the files. I saw that the drive you recovered the files to was different to the one on which they were originally stored, which is great - but does anything else use the drive that got wiped? Is it the operating system drive?
Good question Gareth! If the drive is used for literally anything else, it needs pulling now. Imaging the drive is definitely a good shout! Looking back, the fact that Puran had to do a deep scan isn't a particularly good sign.
Thank you all for your kind replies/suggestions. To clarify, the drive that has lost that folder is a non-OS drive. Strictly being used to store images, videos, PDFs, txt files. And ever since the posts here I have taken heed and nothing has been written to it, only copying that 'Lost' folder's contents to a 2Tb USB drive, which unfortunately the photographic dealer was only successful in recovering 1696 images from 1Tb's worth. I asked Puran to do a Deep Scan as I thought that way it'd find that 'wiped' photos folder. I have contacted one IT company found for me by that photographic dealer via a Google Search, after another one they located for me turned out to be a dead-end as they folded up 4 weeks ago. They in turn passed me on to another company that deals in recovery. So, fingers crossed, I can save my bacon.
If you're looking at professional companies, I can highly recommend East Anglian Data Recovery. Was anything written to it prior to your posting here?
Thanks for that reply. Noted. No, the 6Tb drive has been physically removed from the system to give to that Recovery Specialist in the Fylde area.
