iPad Mini: Recovering Deleted Video from iPad

[Akash.B]

Last night I deleted an important video from my iPad mini and I hadn't made a backup. Photostream was also off.
I've tried mounting the iPad as a drive using iexplorer in Windows and Mountain Lion, but none of my image recovery software seems to recognize it as a mass storage device.
The other alternative I've seen is using openssh to make a disk image, and then run recovery software on that. Has anyone tried that before?

[charlituna]

Quick question. Have you turned off or rebooted the iPad since the deletion. Because if you did the system likely purged out any spot it might be in order to be recovered.

[Akash.B]

Haven't turned it off yet. Wifi is off and I haven't used any apps

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by Akash.B

Haven't turned it off yet. Wifi is off and I haven't used any apps

Good, temp files can overwrite data quickly which makes recovery a beast. Let me ponder for a few and I'll get back to you if I think of any ideas

[HazyCloud]

Have you tried restoring from a backup? I know iCloud and iTunes restores videos in the Camera Roll, so it's worth a shot.

[Mike Oxard]

DiskAid may be of help, though it's not specifically for recovery of deleted files. They offer some advice here:

http://support.digidna.net/entries/2...om-your-iPhone

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by HazyCloud

Have you tried restoring from a backup? I know iCloud and iTunes restores videos in the Camera Roll, so it's worth a shot.

Per the original post, the iPad had not been backed up. Which is why all this fuss.

To that end, all the programs etc I could find require the device to be jailbroken. Which could end up overwriting portions of storage where the data might be hiding. So i'd say do it as a last resort and perhaps back up first. I've heard iTunes backups are a literal disk image so perhaps it might include any hidden deleted but not overwritten areas is try to hack into later. To that end, perhaps also so a iCloud one before playing around to get back the current data if needed. Even perhaps two iTunes ones. One to play with, one to use for hacking attempts. Or even three. Two before and one right after the jailbreak (for further hacking attempts). I'd add ifunbox to your arsenal. I couldn't find anything on a jailed device but I heard rumors on a jailbroken one it can see more levels. And it's free so why not try it

Good luck

[HazyCloud]

Originally Posted by charlituna

Per the original post, the iPad had not been backed up. Which is why all this fuss.

I see that but for some reason I looked at it like no backup of the video (as in deleted from the computer.) Just another reason to turn on iCloud backups so you've always got a recent one.

OP, is the video not on a computer somewhere? If not, how'd you get it on the iPad in the first place?

[Akash.B]

Originally Posted by charlituna

Per the original post, the iPad had not been backed up. Which is why all this fuss.

To that end, all the programs etc I could find require the device to be jailbroken. Which could end up overwriting portions of storage where the data might be hiding. So i'd say do it as a last resort and perhaps back up first. I've heard iTunes backups are a literal disk image so perhaps it might include any hidden deleted but not overwritten areas is try to hack into later. To that end, perhaps also so a iCloud one before playing around to get back the current data if needed. Even perhaps two iTunes ones. One to play with, one to use for hacking attempts. Or even three. Two before and one right after the jailbreak (for further hacking attempts). I'd add ifunbox to your arsenal. I couldn't find anything on a jailed device but I heard rumors on a jailbroken one it can see more levels. And it's free so why not try it

Good luck

Thanks for looking into this. My iPad is already jailbroken (before deleting the video). I'll back it up and try to play with that file.

And the video is one I took on the iPad itself.