recovering deleted files from iPod?

[cb911]

i've just moved some files (about 3-4GB of my work and such) off my iPod and onto my PB. then when i was installing Gentoo Linux (or trying to figure out how to) i accidentally wiped my HD. at the time i thought who cares, cause i just wanted to get on with installing Linux.

but now i realise how much important stuff was in that bunch of files. i've already re-partitioned my PB about 4 times, and almost finished installing Linux, so i'm guessing i can say goodbye to anything that was on there?

but then i remembered that i had stored it on my iPod. is there any way i can recover my files from my iPod? music has been played from it a bit, but i'll make sure that it isn't used anymore.

please help me out. is there any way i can recover my files from my iPod?

 

[SilentPanda]

If you could it wouldn't be any different really than recovering from a Hard drive... any program that will let you recover data from a hard drive should work just the same for an iPod.

 

[cb911]

yeah, that's what i'm hoping.

i'm guessing you can get some trial versions of apps from versiontracker.com? i'll have to have a look when i get OS X installed on my PB again...

if anyone here's had experience with this kind of thing, please post your experiences.

one last question - if i use a cheap, dodgy, bad program to recover the data, is it possible to actually futher harm my chances of recovering the data?

 

[rainman::|:|]

any time you use a disk for anything at all, you risk ruining the file you want to recover. it's kind of a game of chance, whether writing data will cover the old data or not. i've managed to recover files from years ago on some drives, i've also been unable to recover a single file from an hour ago. it depends on a lot of things... i always used Norton Unerase for file recovery, unfortunately anymore they require you to install filesaver on each disk *beforehand*, which is just stupid... i don't know how much luck you'll have finding a recovery app that can do blind (after the deletion) searches... let us know if you do, it would come in handy now and then.

pnw

 

[cb911]

i've stopped using my iPod so i don't risk anything, but it was used a couple of times to play mp3's after i moved the stuff off it.

i'll keep people updated with my progress. but surely there must be someone out there who knows about this sort of thing?

 

[kylos]

I recently wiped my user partition on my mom's hd.
I found something called binarybiz Virtual Lab (http://www.binarybiz.com). You pay per gb recovered and you're allowed to see if it will successfully recover what you want before paying. $100 for the first gig (not sure after that). It uses file signatures to identify files; you won't have file names anymore, but you may get your files back (depending on whether or not it has the proper sigs). You can generate your own sigs if you need.

Personal experience with it was not so good, but you might as well give it a try. It recovered about 200 files (there should have been quite a few more); most were pics. The word files it recovered didn't all open (you'll have multiple copies of documents from ms apps since they write a new file every time you save), and none of the appleworks files opened. YMMV. Best of luck getting your files back.

 

[cb911]

well i'm trying Data Rescue X out now... it seems good from all the reviews. but whatever i use it seems i'll have to spend some serious money to get all my files back. the apps all have demo modes, but at least with Data Rescue you can only recover one file at a time.

and the VirtualLab demo only lets you recover 1MB.

oh well, i guess it's worth at least $200-300 of my money to get all my files back.

 

[kylos]

You can recover more with Virtual lab after paying for a session. Once you verify that it seems to be recovering files properly, pay for a session and then recover them. They provide previews so you can verify if you are getting good files (that doesnt help with word docs and other formats with alot of headers and such).

 

[cb911]

Virtual Lab doesn't seem very good at all. i went to search for jpeg files, then it didn't even return the search results with anywhere near the proper amount of jpeg file i had on there. then when i went to preview, they were only from manuals, etc. nothing that i had myself.

i'm still looking into Data Rescue though... it seems good. i've already recovered a mpeg file that worked fine when i played it. so i guess there's still hope.

 

[OutThere]

Try Norton UnErase, I have had it work quite well for me in the past.

 

[kylos]

Originally posted by cb911
Virtual Lab doesn't seem very good at all. i went to search for jpeg files, then it didn't even return the search results with anywhere near the proper amount of jpeg file i had on there. then when i went to preview, they were only from manuals, etc. nothing that i had myself.

i'm still looking into Data Rescue though... it seems good. i've already recovered a mpeg file that worked fine when i played it. so i guess there's still hope.

Yeah, didn't have much luck with Virtual Lab. Wish I had known about Data Rescue earlier.

To previous poster, Norton Unerase must be installed before you delete files in order to work. Unfortunately, cb911 (as well as I) didn't take such a precaution.