> Data Recovery for Windows > Why the Lost Data cannot be Recovered with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

Why the Lost Data cannot be Recovered with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

The article mainly tells you why the lost files would be unrecoverable in some conditions.

Updated on 2014-02-12

This article applies to:

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (Windows and MAC versions)

 

Symptom


Sometimes, the file recovered with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is incomplete, for example:

File name or folder structure is missing.
Only part of file content is viewable or cannot be open at all.
File is recovered in 0KB but product lists it with original size.


This article explains why this happened and provides you possible solutions if you encounter one of the situation now.


Video Tutorial about why the lost data cannot be recovered:


 

Background


To know why the issue happens, it is necessary to understand how a file is stored on a hard drive first. Generally, a hard drive must be formatted two times separately with low level format and Windows format before you can save the file onto it.

Low level format is naturally done by hard drive manufacturer, which divides each platter into multiple concentric circles named Tracks first. Then it creates many areas on each track for saving data. These areas are called Sector (The size of a single sector is usually 512 bytes or 4KB).

Sector and Track

Data is still unable to be writen to the drive although the "room" for data is prepared. As there is no "directory info" to manage how and where the written data should be placed. We all know Windows format will create a partition on unallocated space, and the required "directory info" is also created during this operation.

After the "directory info (file system)" created, new written data will be organized with specific rule in the partition. File name, time stamp, size info and some other file properties are saved to directory part (file table), while file content is separately written to data storage part. And sometimes, a file may not be saved in continuous sectors, that’s why defragment is necessary to improve partition I/O speed.

A hard drive used for a period of time maybe look like the picture below shows.

Data Storage Mechanism

 

Cause


Only when the two parts, Directory info and content in storage area keep completely untouched, data recovery tool can help you recover data in exactly original status. If either of the info is damaged because of new written data after data lose, further operation on the partition or hardware issue, you will get the error mentioned at the beginning of the article.

And a huge file, such as Blu-ray video file more than 20GB, might be divided into thousands of pieces in a partition, it is also hard to recover all of them correctly.

 

Solution

To ensure the data recovery quality, our software adopts 2 different ways to help you scan the disk, the scan based on the file directory and the one based on the storage. The first one will list all the files with original file directories, names and other file attributes.


But if the directory part has been damaged already, the second can read all sectors on the drive and try to re-build every possible file. All files found in this way are listed in Extra Files (RAW Files) folder with the new file names like FILE001.PNG.  Related article:

https://kb.easeus.com/data-recovery/30011.html


So you can also try to search desired data from Extra Files (RAW Files) folder if the normal scan result cannot satisfy you.

But if the file still cannot view completely in both scan results after the test, then we belive the file has been partly damaged either in directory part or in storage part. It would be hard to get it back correctly this time.


Do you need specialized Manual Data Recovery Services?

You may need further help for tough data loss situations like reformatting drive, RAW disk, partition loss, repartition failures, system boot error and virtual disk corruption. Consult with EaseUS Data Recovery Experts for cost-efficient one-on-one manual recovery service. They could offer the following services after FREE diagnosis:

1. Repair corrupted RAID structure
2. Unformat the drive which was formatted by mistake
3. Repair damaged RAW drive that needs to be reformatted (Bitlocker encrypted drive is also supported)
4. Repair unbootable Windows operating system
5. Recover/repair lost partition and reparitioned drive (the one that cannot be recovered by software)

6. Repair corrupted virtual disk file (.vmdk, .vhd, .vhdx, etc.)

Activate Live Chat     Call Us: 1-800-992-8995

 

Was this article helpful?