ShadowExplorer - Recover Lost Files and Folders

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  1. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #10

    There is one thing though. Moving 364GB on the same physical disk is a real challenge for the arm which will have to fly back and forth. I would have chosen another disk to where to move it. For those massive operations I always keep a 1TB SSHD which is attached via eSata.
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  2. Posts : 54
    Win7 Pro x64 SP1
       #11

    to whs - quick FYI - it did complete successfully; apparently (just based on my observation) when it calcs % complete it taking total num of files divided by num of files exported, so w/my situation of 4 files with one file representing 97% of aggregate size it hit that file & then didn't move (continued the pulsing tho) so the 364 gig took approx 6 hrs with my setup & a brand new WD 2T HDD ...
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  3. Posts : 54
    Win7 Pro x64 SP1
       #12

    HDD vs SSHD


    whs said:
    There is one thing though. Moving 364GB on the same physical disk is a real challenge for the arm which will have to fly back and forth. I would have chosen another disk to where to move it. For those massive operations I always keep a 1TB SSHD which is attached via eSata.
    My son was raving about his new solid state drive but I confess to ignorance regarding the tech; now you've made really curious & I'll have to do a bit of "knowledge upgrading" ... have a great week & thanx again for your help.
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  4. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #13

    Don't confuse SSD with SSHD. A SSHD is a spinning disk with a SSD as a cache buffer. A 1TB SSHD costs appr. $80 in the US and a 1TB SSD would cost appr. $400. What makes the speed of the SSD is the extremely short random access time of around 0.1ms versus a HDD of 15ms. That is 150 times faster.

    But for streaming large data masses, SSHDs are pretty good. I made some performance comparisons which you can read here.
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  5. Posts : 721
    Windows 10, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 7 Professional, OS X El Capitan
       #14

    A big thanks to you, Whs. You've saved myself numerous times with this nifty trick. Haven't had the opportunity to say it till now, but thank you!

    Recently, I lost another valuable document to clumsiness. I didn't even panic though—didn't have to—I simply launched ShadowExplorer, reclaimed my file and that was that.

    I remember the first time I needed to use this file restoration method though... I was helping a member out on this forum actually. They wanted a batch file to delete a bunch of files I guess. For no particular reason, I decided to write the thing on my desktop (where I keep everything of importance). Here’s what I ended up running that led to the genocide of every last file and folder on my desktop:
    Code:
    pushd "C:\some\path\I\thought\had\existed\but\actually\didn’t"
    
    blah
    blah
    …
    
    del * /s /q
    The worst feeling possible struck me. But I soon found this tutorial, and managed to recover everything. Never been so relieved.

    I was really lucky with the whole thing too: the very morning my little accident happened was when the last Shadow Copy backup routine took place. Backups happen once a month automatically.


    I have a few small questions, Whs, regarding this file restoration method and file backup practises... Prior to reading this tutorial, I never knew that Windows' Shadow Copy Service preserved a copy of every directory and file on the drive. The Shadow Copy service is enabled on the boot partition by default, and it's always on. So why do members on the forum still frequently suggest file recovery software, like Recuva, to users when ShadowExplorer is almost assured to find a previous version of the deleted file? And why do many still recommend the practise of manual imaging, with software like Macrium?

    Additionally, do you happen to know where Windows saves its Shadow Copies? If so, how can one extract this image, and store it elsewhere?


    Thanks in advance.
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  6. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #15

    Recuva is used when the whole disk including the shadows has been overwritten with something. Then the shadows are destroyed.

    Macrium is still recommended because the shadows can be highly volatile and you cannnot control them - unlike images that you make.

    The shadows are always in the partition to which they apply. They cannot be moved - at least I know no way to do that.
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  7. Posts : 721
    Windows 10, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 7 Professional, OS X El Capitan
       #16

    The difference between those backup methods is clear to me now. Though I shall continue to depend heavily on Shadow Copies (because who has time to remember to backup files these days? ).

    Thanks again for your help, as well as this tutorial!
      My Computer


 
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