Data Rescue X

[fowler.]

I fugged up and formatted a really really, really, really important firewire hd.

I used DR X yesterday trying to get everything back. I got around 3700 of my 4500ish mp3s back, but those aren't important as the other stuff which doesn't seem like it wants to be recovered.

I have a bunch of different projects that range from InDesign files to Quark to a bunch of other formats. But everything that I get back seems very cryptic. All the file names have changed... the organization is basically gone.

The first time I tried Content Scan I got back a bunch of random image, video and audio files. Then I did thorough scan and got back a few dmg files.. but nothing of real relevance. Now, while I'm at work, I'm doing a combo content/thorough scan.

Basically, what other programs besides norton and disk warrior can I use? Or is there a way to us DR X and maintain a somewhat similar file structure as I had before everything was deleted?

[fowler.]

I've been doing a little reading and came up with this... which really isn't helping me much..

I just initialized a hard drive with data that I need still on it. Can I use Data Rescue to recover those files?

Possibly. Data Rescue works with the catalog, when you initialize a drive you are effectively creating a new catalog. Data Rescue will check that catalog, but as a newly initialized drive it is empty.

Try running a Thorough Scan on the drive. There might still be files that Data Rescue can recover.

Is there anything else that I can use to effectively recover data from an initialized drive?

[fowler.]

Well, no one seemed to want to help :p

No worries. I pretty much figured it out. I tried VirtualLab Data Recovery and it found everything that was lost on my initialized drive.

Only problem is that they want to charge me $375 to recover around 56gigs of data.

I widdled it down to 20 something gigs of stuff that I really really need, which is still nearly $170. Guess I gotta pay it.. but yeah.

[jsw]

I'm sorry, fowler., that no one posted any assistance. I would have, but I simply didn't have any advice to give. Still, the price they charge seems reasonable for the value of the data you'll get recovered.

[fowler.]

Heh, it's not a big deal. It was a learning experience. I walked away with some pretty good stuff I think.

And yeah, considering the price that people charge for recovery, this is a steal.. but it's still $160 that I don't want to spend :(

[seamuskrat]

I have always had good luck with Data Recovery X. But I have an external FW drive to dump to, so I can rebuild structure.

Virtualab in my experience was VERY slow, and took forever to recover to my local drive.

But it may be a good idea to spend that 170 on an external fw drive.