How to recover corrupted photos - high difficulty request!!

[Lucas Goh]

Hi guys, I need some major help here. Any expert advice would be much appreciated! Here's the problem:

My mother-in-law ran out of space on her Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300, 32GB (note that she has no microSD, only internal memory), and requested that I help her get everything onto a DVD to clear up some space. I initially copied and pasted 3 folders of her photos (approximately 800+ files) into a re-writable DVD successfully and she was happy with it. She got me to delete those folders on her phone. Following that, she decided that she needs more space so she wanted me to do a cut and paste into the DVD instead. Since a cut and paste is much faster than a copy and paste, I very much obliged. There were up to 12 folders containing 4,000-5,000 photos from her various trips around the world. The estimated time to completion was around 2-3 mins, so I decided to surf the internet a little while waiting. To my dismay, I realized that my mother-in-law was looking through her photos "one last time" before it disappears from her phone - VERY BAD MOVE!! But I couldn't do anything else to salvage what she did at that point of time. Unsurprisingly, the photos were all corrupted and although they managed to fit into my DVD (total of 2.02GB), each of the corrupted file was 3.2-3.5GB in size!! I have no idea how that is possible, but it still says that when I look in its properties. No clue how all of that can fit in a tiny DVD, but I guess the corrupted photos were presenting inaccurate information. Anyways, surprise surprise, no photos in her phone as well. I ensured that she did not use her phone at all since, to make sure any existing memory of the photos will not be overwritten. She has never ever backed up her phone since buying it last year - I just did one with Keis that took 4.5 hrs.

I have since tried several of the top data recovery software on both the phone and DVD with no luck at all. With regards to the S3, it is on Jelly Bean 4.1.2 and has no USB mass storage capabilities (no "USB Utilities" option in settings). I have tried looking at apps to unlock UMS, but none works with internal memory for the S3 (let me know if you find one). Also, most programs require rooting of the phone which I cannot risk voiding her warranty with. Furthermore, who knows what will happen to the memory of the lost photos when I root the phone and rollback the version (was planning to get it back to ice-cream sandwich so that I can access UMS). Tried using flashtool to downgrade the phone as well, but can't find a suitable ROM (again, not confident of keeping lost photo memory by doing that - don't wanna risk it).

I'm not an android user myself and have only been doing my research over the past couple of days for this. I hope you experts out there can help me out here!

Thanks heaps in advance!

-Lucas O

 

[Lucas Goh]

Come on guys, no one??

 

[Rukbat]

1) Cut and paste is actually copy and paste and then delete, so it's not faster.

2) Considering the time it took and the amount of data, I'd guess that what you copied were shortcuts, not the actual files. (Shortcuts are just pointers to the file.)

3) If the files on the phone aren't overwritten, a program like DiskDigger should be able to restore them.

4) You probably won't find anything on the DVD, because what's on it is what was pasted. There's a big difference between a corrupted file and a deleted, but not corrupted, file. It's kind of like the difference between going into another room and dying. If you're just in another room, you can be brought back to the original room.

Always back up any file you don't want to lose. Always check the integrity of the backup at the time you make it. Any file you haven't backed up is a file you don't really need.

 

[Lucas Goh]

Hey evilmonkey, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the link's not useful because there's no UMS accessibility. Thanks nonetheless!

Yes, I'm making sure she learns how to back up her stuff from now (she's not lazy, she's just not tech savvy at all - doesn't even know what backing up is).

 

[Lucas Goh]

1) Cut and paste is actually copy and paste and then delete, so it's not faster.

2) Considering the time it took and the amount of data, I'd guess that what you copied were shortcuts, not the actual files. (Shortcuts are just pointers to the file.)

3) If the files on the phone aren't overwritten, a program like DiskDigger should be able to restore them.

4) You probably won't find anything on the DVD, because what's on it is what was pasted. There's a big difference between a corrupted file and a deleted, but not corrupted, file. It's kind of like the difference between going into another room and dying. If you're just in another room, you can be brought back to the original room.

Always back up any file you don't want to lose. Always check the integrity of the backup at the time you make it. Any file you haven't backed up is a file you don't really need.

Hey Rukbat,

I was told a "cut and paste" from a different drive altogether is faster because it does not involve duplicating the file(s). I generally feel cutting and pasting's faster too, especially when they're on the same partition! Either way, it doesn't really matter for now...

As I mentioned, there are files in the DVD, corrupted as they could be. And by looking at the properties of the DVD, it seems to reflect an accurate amount of space taken for the 4-5k photos (around 2.02GB). However, shortcut or not, I can't do anything to repair them. I hope you're right though - that the files are still in the phone. I'm not giving up hope.

I've tried DiskDigger. It couldn't detect the phone's internal memory. I've really gotta find a way to enable UMS without voiding warranty! Meanwhile, I'm not sure I get your theory... My files were cut and pasted onto a DVD, which were corrupted DURING the transfer. So what do you reckon's my scenario? The files currently on the DVD are corrupted, but you think they're just shortcuts or some useless file (when I say useless, I mean un-recoverable). And since I don't see any folders in the phone, they were "deleted" by cutting. Makes sense?

Anyways, since you mentioned that a cut and paste = copy and paste and then delete, I assume you're 100% certain that if I the data recovery program I'm using can detect the phone, it will definitely be able to restore all - or at least most - of the photos (assuming they've not been overwritten)?? Most photo recovery software advertise their ability to recover DELETED photos, not CUT photos. But you're saying in this case it's exactly the same, yes? Good then

 

[Rukbat]

I was told a "cut and paste" from a different drive altogether is faster because it does not involve duplicating the file(s).

That's backwards. A move - cut and paste - to the SAME partition is just deleting the entry in one directory and adding it to another directory. The file itself stays where it is. But moving to another partition, on the same drive or another drive, involves making a copy of the file, then deleting the old entry. (The old file stays where it is, the same as with any delete.)

My files were cut and pasted onto a DVD, which were corrupted DURING the transfer. So what do you reckon's my scenario?

Not a clue, since that could be a hardware or software issue.

The files currently on the DVD are corrupted, but you think they're just shortcuts or some useless file (when I say useless, I mean un-recoverable).

You can't "recover" a corrupt file, only a deleted file. A corrupted file is "recovered" - it's fully accessible. The only difference between a corrupted file and a non-corrupted one is that the corrupted one doesn't have the data you want. At the filesystem level, it';s just a perfectly good file.

And since I don't see any folders in the phone, they were "deleted" by cutting. Makes sense?

If you copied whole folders, yes. But to the filesystem, a folder is just a file, so they should be recoverable with the same utility that other files are. (There are internal differences, but the user interface of a recovery app won't show you any.)

Anyways, since you mentioned that a cut and paste = copy and paste and then delete, I assume you're 100% certain that if I the data recovery program I'm using can detect the phone, it will definitely be able to restore all - or at least most - of the photos (assuming they've not been overwritten)??

Assuming that they're in a folder that the app can access and has create rights to.

Most photo recovery software advertise their ability to recover DELETED photos, not CUT photos. But you're saying in this case it's exactly the same, yes?

Yes. Cut/paste to a different partition or drive is copy/paste/delete. (Anyone who had to do it manually with a raw disk editor doesn't forget what it is. There was once a time when we had access to disk drives but there were no disk operating systems as we know them today.)

 

[Lucas Goh]

Thanks mate. I gather from what you said the DVD's useless, even though it seems that the files are in there. But the phone's got everything in it, although there seems to be nothing! =) I'll keep working on the phone.

In the meantime, any other genius advice would be very much welcomed!

Cheers

 

[Jacob Desuza]

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[Ealevenish]

Hi guys, I need some major help here. Any expert advice would be much appreciated! Here's the problem:

My mother-in-law ran out of space on her Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300, 32GB (note that she has no microSD, only internal memory), and requested that I help her get everything onto a DVD to clear up some space.

Not a good idea: (re-)writable DVDs lose bits from Day One and are unreadable after a few years.

I initially copied and pasted 3 folders of her photos (approximately 800+ files) into a re-writable DVD successfully and she was happy with it. She got me to delete those folders on her phone. Following that, she decided that she needs more space so she wanted me to do a cut and paste into the DVD instead. Since a cut and paste is much faster than a copy and paste, I very much obliged. There were up to 12 folders containing 4,000-5,000 photos from her various trips around the world. The estimated time to completion was around 2-3 mins

4,000-5,000 full-size photos in 2-3 minutes?
Yeah, right.
Sounds like you only copied the tags of those photos instead of the contents of those files. That would explain why there's nothing on the DVD.

so I decided to surf the internet a little while waiting. To my dismay, I realized that my mother-in-law was looking through her photos "one last time" before it disappears from her phone - VERY BAD MOVE!! But I couldn't do anything else to salvage what she did at that point of time. Unsurprisingly, the photos were all corrupted and although they managed to fit into my DVD (total of 2.02GB), each of the corrupted file was 3.2-3.5GB in size!! I have no idea how that is possible, but it still says that when I look in its properties. No clue how all of that can fit in a tiny DVD, but I guess the corrupted photos were presenting inaccurate information. Anyways, surprise surprise, no photos in her phone as well. I ensured that she did not use her phone at all since, to make sure any existing memory of the photos will not be overwritten. She has never ever backed up her phone since buying it last year - I just did one with Keis that took 4.5 hrs.

That looks more realistic than 2-3 minutes. Chances are that that backup data set contains real stuff.

I have since tried several of the top data recovery software on both the phone and DVD with no luck at all.

Forget the DVD. It was cooked before it got out of the starting gate.

With regards to the S3, it is on Jelly Bean 4.1.2 and has no USB mass storage capabilities (no "USB Utilities" option in settings).

So what m.o. did you use to get those data off the S3 and onto the DVD to be burned?

I have tried looking at apps to unlock UMS, but none works with internal memory for the S3 (let me know if you find one). Also, most programs require rooting of the phone which I cannot risk voiding her warranty with.

If it's over a year old what warranty would you void?
I wouldn't be surprised if rooting is the only m.o. that might work to get at the photos. Maybe!

Furthermore, who knows what will happen to the memory of the lost photos when I root the phone and rollback the version (was planning to get it back to ice-cream sandwich so that I can access UMS).

If you want to roll it back to ICS (assuming that's what it originally came with) you'd be resetting to factory settings. Yes, that would wipe all data off that S3. So you don't want to do that.
Hopefully other forum members have some ideas.
But I take it the value of regularly backing up – onto a separate medium! – will be painfully clear now, right?