The Ultimate "Fail"

[falcon409]

Somehow yesterday, while thinning out my various HDD's of unwanted and unused folders and files, I somehow deleted my entire scenery library. Every scenery folder I've added over a 4 or 5 year span. . .gone. Normally any deleted items go to my Recycle Bin, however the sheer volume of deletions must have been such that some of the larger ones were simply wiped away as this particular folder does not show up in the recycle bin. I've done a search over all 3 HDD's in case it somehow was moved into another folder and that was also unsuccessful. I haven't purged the Recycle Bin as yet, so does anyone know if there is a way to recover items that don't show in the "bin" but might actually be there or am I wishing for the impossible? lol

[SixGhost]

I've been in the same situation myself. First of all, if you can, try not to use the HD in question. The files you deleted are not really deleted. Avoid copying stuff on your HD so they don't get overwritten. Get a recovery program and do a scan. After that it's probably a matter of patience and a bit of luck, but it can be done. I used http://www.file-recovery.com/ and it literally saved my life! Good Luck!

[Wizard]

I am not an expert - but as long as nothing new is written to the memory area - you *can* recover the data. Windows, AFAIK, does not actually delete the file - it just removes the entry in "file list". So, you should be able to recover it/them. But I don't know what software to recommend - probably it's pretty expensive. I'd search for forensic/recovery software... just make sure to install anything new on a different hard drive.

[Chris Sykes]

Backup! Always have a backup! As the previous post say it can be done!

[falcon409]

I've been in the same situation myself. First of all, if you can, try not to use the HD in question. The files you deleted are not really deleted. Avoid copying stuff on your HD so they don't get overwritten. Get a recovery program and do a scan. After that it's probably a matter of patience and a bit of luck, but it can be done. I used http://www.file-recovery.com/ and it literally saved my life! Good Luck!
I found the folder, went to purchase the recovery program, (of course this folder exceeds the amount of recovery the "Free" version can do so it must be purchased to proceed.) and the purchase form keeps dropping the "Credit Card Security Code" window so the purchase keeps getting declined. I have sent an e-mail to their Sales Dept. in hopes that someone (or something) will answer this week, lol. I'll just refrain from doing anything with that drive until I get the software registered.

Thanks for the HU.

[roger-wilco-66]

Hi Ed,

sorry to read this, I know how much work is involved here. Did you try to right click / properties the next folder above the one that you deleted? It might be possible to recover it via the shadow volume function (activated by default in Win7), just look for "previous versions" in the context menu that pops up.
The other possibility is to recover the files by rebuilding the FAT with a tool, but this depends on the integrity of the data that remained on the hdd. If it's already written over it's gone.

Cheers,
Mark

[Bradburger]

Ed,

You might want to try Piriforms excellent (and free!) Recuva.

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

I've used it before to recover deleted files, and it did what it said it would do.

Cheers

Paul

[falcon409]

Thanks to everyone for their assistance with this. I was able to purchase the program mentioned by SixGhost (Active@ File Recovery) and I was able to successfully recover the Scenery Folder with all folders intact. I did also try "Recuva" Paul, but it was unable to find anything recent to recover. Not sure why, but it could only find files up to 5th of this month and the Scenery Folder was just deleted yesterday. Anyway, The scenery is back and again. . .thanks for the help, much appreciated.:applause:

[Bradburger]

Glad to hear you recovered it in the end Ed!

Cheers

Paul

[_ben]

might be worth buying an external hard drive to copy your folders to :-)

[falcon409]

might be worth buying an external hard drive to copy your folders to :-)
I did that about 6 years ago, kept my backups on that drive and only on that drive. . .that drive failed leaving me with nothing. In my world, nothing is absolute. . .if I had two external drives they'd both fail simultaneously.

[_ben]

I did that about 6 years ago, kept my backups on that drive and only on that drive. . .that drive failed leaving me with nothing. In my world, nothing is absolute. . .if I had two external drives they'd both fail simultaneously.

err, ouch!

[glh]

I did that about 6 years ago, kept my backups on that drive and only on that drive. . .that drive failed leaving me with nothing. In my world, nothing is absolute. . .if I had two external drives they'd both fail simultaneously.

Mr. Murphy sez: "You KNOW you cannot escape -- you'll only get tired trying."

[Jafo]

Good to hear you were in luck...;)

When windows 'deletes' a file it is simply an altered first character to the name so that the OS file system [fat-ntfs-etc] cannot 'find' it again....unless it's in the bin still.
Rewrites to the same drive sectors eventually obliterate the data....more than 'just' the name.

Invest in redundancy backups....meaning more than one. Ideally you should have the original files....on one drive....a backup on a second PHYSICAL drive...and a second backup on a third [in case both prime and backup 1 both fail/corrupt].
Odds of a third going too is long enough to be meaningless.

External drives tend to fail a little too often due to heat in the enclosure and/or bad data CRC due to wobbly cabling.
Internals are more reliable...and while you're at it...get an UPS to protect from spike/surge and forced shutdown [blackout/brownout].

I do this.

One eternal truth in Computers...

There are only two types of User...
Those who backup...
and those who cry....;)

Edit....
I should also add....with someone who 'skins' aircraft...and really wants to protect the hours, days, years of 'work'... I actually have a fourth drive....not in the computer....that is updated less frequently...as it resides in a fire-safe...;)

[glh]

Burn to CD/DVD.

[roger-wilco-66]

Glad you got everything back, Ed.
I know what I'll do tonight - I didn't back up for half a year now and much work would be lost if the drive would fail.



Cheers,
Mark

[Chris Sykes]

Burn to CD/DVD.

Which eventually degrade over time, get scratches or even lost, redundant backups is the way to go. I use a Windows Home Server which has multiple drives and stores eveverything duplicated. Its handles all of my 3x system backups and i can just browse the backups to drag a file off them. Dead simples! The latest version is Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials as MS dropped WHS.

[jandjfrench]

Hi,
If "System Protection" was turned on for the drive FSX is installed on (it's on by default for C), "System Restore" would have restored the file pointers so they were again visible. Any additions or deletions of files would have to be re-done from the time the scenery was deleted until a System Restore was made. This usually isn't a big problem. As Scenery.cfg is treated as a text file it wouldn't have been modified and you'd see all sorts of warnings about scenery problems but once the system was restored it would once more be happy. Don't forget that this is "SYSTEM" restore so it's not only FSX that will be returned to the restore point but all Windows files. Protection is not on for text files so if any have been modified they won't revert to some earlier version.
Jim F.

[Dumonceau]

For a truly failsafe backup solution, you might want to consider a NAS with two (or more) drives in RAID. if one of them fails, replace it with a new one and the data will be restituted automatically.

I have one now after having two external drives fail on me. Never again!

Dumonceau

[falcon409]

I appreciate the great lengths many of you apparently go to to protect your files. Despite the times I have had HDD's fail, I've been pretty lucky in that other than purchasing a replacement HDD and the time it took to reinstall the things I've lost. . .I've missed very little. I'm not a developer so in that sense there isn't anything I would lose that would just be devastating to my livelihood and I do have a pretty good stack of DVD's with a lot of work backed up on them. Fact is, if I had the money to invest in some of the suggestions here, I wouldn't put it into my system anyway. I have a 7 year old car that will most likely be my last. Keeping it in running order is more important than anything I might want for flightsim or my computer. Thanks again for the information and help with retrieving the lost files. By the way, apparently there was some corruption of some of the scenery folders as I have found at least three so far that lock up the sim when I try to install them. There could be more, but I haven't tried installing anything else at this point.

[Chris Sykes]

Could go down the cloud route which generally is much cheaper. Such as Google and Microsoft drive gives you 15 gb free. Not sure how large your scenery folder is however though.

[expat]

Phew, Ed, that was a close one!

Right. Time to back up. I have two 250gb SSD's, a 1TB internal mechanical and a 750gb mechanical WD external drive. I don't have much spare time to fool around installing and playing around with specialty backup software (including imaging). So, if I want a quick and dirty backup, I would use good old fashioned "copy and past" (overnight) of my FSX folder (107gb size currently) probably onto the 1TB internal drive. Any better way to do this as quickly? Also, my inactive aircraft "hangar" of over 1,000+ a/c along with scenery mesh are solely on the 750gb external drive. Take it this means it also needs to be duplicated as well on another one of my drives for safety sake?

Thanks

expat

[falcon409]

Could go down the cloud route which generally is much cheaper. Such as Google and Microsoft drive gives you 15 gb free. Not sure how large your scenery folder is however though.
Thought about that but just that one folder contains over 30gig of scenery, lol

[Chris Sykes]

Well to do backup propperly you should have said back up replicated at least 2x, one stored locally and one stored seperate to your location. This allows for replication and also your not storing them in the same location. You should also think about damage recovery, for instance what would you do to recover your data for a major loss? Say what would be the easiest and quickest to grab if you had to leave your house? The PC or your back up system?

In reality you could get away with purchasing an external HHD caddy, or hot swap drive bay and a good 1tb HHD for quite cheaply. This way they are more reliable than the USB external drives. Powering/plugging in to process your back up, then when completed disconect and store in a safe location that is either quick to grab or in a seperate location altogether.

[Chris Sykes]

Thought about that but just that one folder contains over 30gig of scenery, lol

Well the likelyhood is most scenery would need to be reinstalled (ORBX for instance) so have the installed saved, and then if you have just scenery that didnt need installers (Zip copy and paste type) then take a backup of these. If the folders are too much then maybe you need to look at a hard drive backup.

[Jafo]

Well to do backup propperly you should have said back up replicated at least 2x, one stored locally and one stored seperate to your location. This allows for replication and also your not storing them in the same location. You should also think about damage recovery, for instance what would you do to recover your data for a major loss? Say what would be the easiest and quickest to grab if you had to leave your house? The PC or your back up system?

In reality you could get away with purchasing an external HHD caddy, or hot swap drive bay and a good 1tb HHD for quite cheaply. This way they are more reliable than the USB external drives. Powering/plugging in to process your back up, then when completed disconect and store in a safe location that is either quick to grab or in a seperate location altogether.

...or follow post #14 ...;)

Mentioned....redundancies .... remote storage [my case....fire-safe]...as to be certain....if you're not even 'there' to grab the PC...or backup then your backup plans are toast...along with your data...;)

Forget CD/DVD unless 'temporary'....the jury is still 'out' as to real/reliable expected life-span of a burnt disc.

Forget the 'cloud' or any external 'storage' outside of your own physical control. If you do not control it physically then you cannot guarantee it is always there...or will continue to be.

Just last night I was explaining to a Stardock customer that since his subscription had expired he no longer had access to the files he had 'assumed' he could always download.....he can....simply as long as the sub continues. Last time I purchased an aircraft the DL link was to remain active for a fixed/limited time.....which meant I could not rely on its 'cloud' as a backup source...to DL as and when I want....no....I'd be responsible to DL and keep the product safe on my HD while I could.
Nothing you can do will prevent whatever calamity may befall data on a 'cloud storage' server managed by someone else for their own agenda. It is a 'second condom' at best [to be sure to be sure] ...;)

[falcon409]

Just a word about restoring lost files, and this is coming from what I have discovered after "thinking" I had gotten my scenery files back. What you see is not always what you think you got back. Thus far I have attempted to install the Hawaii Mega Scenery, Aerosofts Dillingham and my own Sherman Municipal Airport. The only thing at Sherman that shows is the AFCAD, Dillingham doesn't show at all and neither does any of the Mega Scenery. There were a few Islands in the Hawaii group that would lock the sim up and so I discarded those for the time being, the rest load fine, but they don't display. So, despite being able to recover the scenery, it appears that "recovery" doesn't always equate to successful recovery. If, after loss of files you don't touch the computer in any way, defraging, cleaning out the Recycle Bin or any other seemingly minor function. . .you may get everything back intact. In my case I didn't notice the mistake until a full day after it happened and probably did at least one defrag that previous evening. That's all it took I guess to separate enough of the files that they are useless now.

[Jafo]

"In my case I didn't notice the mistake until a full day after it happened and probably did at least one defrag that previous evening. "

Dang! That'll toast success.

Typically what's able to be 'saved' are 'simple' files like a photo or a doc .... something that exists in singularity and is not reliant on other files to also be intact.

You likely now have close to zero chance of complete recovery as a functioning database....and will have to bite the bullet and start over.

I feel for you.
The most complex architectural drawings I'd ever done [27-unit tilt-slab Motel] were 'drowned' when I was cleaning my dye-line printer [years ago]. Tracing paper does NOT like liquid.

I broke my hand punching the wall [found a stud, naturally].

Took me 2 weeks to salvage what I could and get back to where I was.