All files disappeared from my HDD. What are my options?
Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
1–10 of 11 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#2If HDD, remove the hard drive, image it, apply data recovery software to image
If SSD, mourn your lost data
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#3Learn to have and use backups.
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#4Spinrite (https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm) might help.
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#5Learn to have and use backups.
And if backing up, use the 3-2-1 strategy:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/
> You may have heard of the 3-2-1 backup strategy. It means having at least three copies of your data, two local (on-site) but on different media, and at least one copy off-site.
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#6[dead]
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#7Spinrite ( https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm ) might help.
I'm just going to point to this blog post by a reputable data recovery company that tested spinrite and found that it "fixed" a bad sector by overwriting it with irrelevant data from elsewhere.
https://www.recoveryforce.com/spinrite-a-data-recovery-progr...
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#8If HDD, remove the hard drive, image it, apply data recovery software to image If SSD, mourn your lost data
How to image it?
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#9Recuva works.
Re: Ask HN: How to Retrieve Lost Files?
#10If it's an HDD as you said, you can try a tool like recuva: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva, and if it's not enough, if you have knowedge in linux you can try foremost which is a forensics tool, it's gonna take more time but it's way better than recuva because of the way it works.