Category Archives: file recovery

USB flash drive keeps freezing / disconnecting – Recover Data

A USB flash drive constantly freezing and disconnecting is most likely a sign of degraded NAND. NAND has a finite number of erase/write cycles, the cheaper the NAND used, the smaller this number is. Also certain conditions can lower the number, such as the drive being exposed to heat.  Despite numerous sites recommending you run… Read More »

If photos can be recovered, I will.

In several places on this website I make the bold claim that I may recover your photos even if: File recovery or photo recovery software does not. File or photo recovery software recovers corrupt photos. Other labs can’t or recover corrupt files … Of course this is a claim you should not take my word… Read More »

When DIY data recovery is not a good idea ..

What’s wrong with using (DIY) data recovery software to recover data from an ‘unstable drive’? By unstable drive, I mean a drive that has problems delivering the data due to underlying physical problems. Physical problems that potentially get worse due to stressing the drive. Reduce stress on drive So, first goal is to reduce stress.… Read More »

Recover photos from a hard drive

When choosing the best photo recovery software it’s important to consider from what type of drive you need to recover from. To recover photos from a hard drive, in 9 out of 10 cases generic file recovery software will do better, give less fuzz and be quicker than specialized photo recovery software. In advance: SSD… Read More »

Why is photo repair more expensive than photo recovery?

In this post I’ll try to explain why photo repair is relatively expensive compared to photo recovery. Why is it many photos can be recovered at a fraction of the cost of repairing just a few images?

How can a data recovery lab get the data you can’t?

I am all for DIY (do it yourself). In fact my first website was called ‘DIY Data Recovery’, and the idea was to provide people with information and tools to perform their own data recoveries.  I learned a few things from that. Some things are not suited for DIY’ing. And some things that are DIY-able,… Read More »

Create a disk image of a SD Card or small USB flash drive

In this post I’ll explain how you can create a sector-by-sector disk image of a small USB flash drive or memory card using JpegDigger. This type if disk images are also referred to as dd or RAW image files. The disk image is an exact copy of each sector of the drive that was imaged.… Read More »

Repair MP4, MOV, 3GP, M4V, WAV, MP3 after STOP/DJVU ransomware

As most ransomware STOP/DJVU encrypts files to make them inaccessible. After you pay the ransom (in bitcoins), the attackers send the tools and information needed to decrypt your files and make them accessible again. The encryption is very hard to ‘break’ but ransomware researcher every now and then have success creating decryption software. Some time… Read More »

Accidentally deleted pictures from SSD. Recovered but they’re corrupted.

Case study, Story goes like: Accidentally deleted some pictures. Recovered them but they’re corrupted. Anyway to fix it? “I used Recuva to recover a good chunk of my pictures that were deleted but it seems that even though the file was recovered I can’t view its contents? Any program that helps with this? They were… Read More »

Recover deleted DCIM folder on android mobile phone (Samsung)

Original question: Help, I deleted my entire DCIM folder from mobile phone (Samsung) Micro SD Card. Can I recover my photos? A typical answer to this question in many forums and communities is, pull the SD Card from the phone and run PhotoRec. This is indeed an option, but I’m not sure if it’s the… Read More »