How to recover Cancelled Moving Files From an external drive

acekyd · 17 Feb 2013

Hello, i am facing a very disturbing problem right now... On my external hard disk, i tried moving a folder that contained all my important files into the hidden folder named $RECYCLE.BIN.... this was successful, but in my quest to secure the folder more, i tried moving it into one of the folders named "S-1-5-21-3653930289-2530686896-918681669-1001", this was beginning to take a long time so i pressed Cancel. Only to find the folder missing, And i cant open the above named folder for access.... While checking the hard disk property and diskspace, it shows that the folder is still occupying its space.. I tried undoing the move but i still cant find it... any help??

Layback Bear · 17 Feb 2013

Boy oh Boy that is the first time I have ever head of anybody trying to do that. What in the world made you try that? The only thing I can think of is doing a search for $RECYCLE.BIN using Windows Explores and see if there is a folder with your things in it.

Kari · 17 Feb 2013

I have really big difficulties to believe this is true, must be a troll. Nobody, absolutely nobody can be so ~~stupid~~ inconsiderate and thoughtless.

If we have the mother of all Darwin Award winners here, you have exactly four options (the fourth one is not a real option, just a fact):

Restore an earlier system image
Restore the folder from an earlier file backup that contains the folder in question
Restore an earlier version of the parent folder which contained the folder you moved to trash
Forget those files, they are gone

Kari

Phone Man · 17 Feb 2013

Download and run Recuva and see what it fines. Get the Free version.

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

Jim

MSchild · 17 Feb 2013

Is there not the option of using a forensic filesystem utility to restore deleted files? I don't understand why they would be gone though; I was pretty sure the way Windows handled a move operation was to write the destination before deleting the source. Although I also don't understand how copying your files to these folders would secure them.

Layback Bear · 17 Feb 2013

Darwin Award
Now why didn't I think of that?
Thanks Kari.

mohammadmusleh · 08 Sep 2016

Hi.. It happened to me and I fix it.. Thanks God (My father will kill me if he know)
The story start when I MOVE my folders in desktop to the hard-disk external when it reach 40% by accident I touch the cable of hard disk external then it stops working so I decide to cancel and copy again after check the cable then I "sign out " after it I realized every thing remove I check both location nothing appears then I use recovery program I use it "The best I think" in both location also I search everywhere

So I go to Pray and then come back ...
SOLUTION:
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click (Windows-Key+R) to open RUN > type (recent) > then search for you lost files and open anyone of them if you see (this will show you last open folder in your PC) after it open you will see the data are safe and located in windows location (for me its C:/) with the name you typed it . I hope it help you as well .. I learn from this never made Move unless I made copy before...