help i am having strange problems from photorec. should i be using testdisk?
 

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop/v$

I checked off all the boxes for the different data formats. I maked ext2/ext3 as yes. Then I tried again. This time I got something strange. I got many files that look like this f369.exe , and I didn't have any windows 32 bit executable files on the hard drive with lost data. I lost data from a 20 gigabyte hard drive. I tried recovering by letting photorec run over night. When I woke up, photorec as still running and said out of space. It has filled up my 120 gigabyte drive and wanted to keep going. It looks like I am going to have to compile the program from source code, so I can get the newest version, and then try this again. I don't like the rm command in Linux. It would be better if rm sent files to the trash instead, but it doesn't. Are these problems known, or am I using the software incorrectly? What is the difference between testdisk and photorec? Should I be using testdisk? Has anyone had luck with this software? Please help.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop/v$ sudo du -h
615M ./recup_dir.26
20K ./recup_dir.48
3.9G ./recup_dir.32
8.3M ./recup_dir.3
11M ./recup_dir.17
11M ./recup_dir.8
1.6G ./recup_dir.24
13M ./recup_dir.7
7.8M ./recup_dir.4
4.2G ./recup_dir.25
8.0M ./recup_dir.5
8.9M ./recup_dir.16
20K ./recup_dir.46
13M ./recup_dir.10
3.9G ./recup_dir.28
3.9G ./recup_dir.34
3.9G ./recup_dir.42
3.9G ./recup_dir.38
20K ./recup_dir.52
3.9G ./recup_dir.36
20K ./recup_dir.51
20K ./recup_dir.54
3.9G ./recup_dir.33
6.5M ./recup_dir.21
24M ./recup_dir.6
49M ./recup_dir.18
3.9G ./recup_dir.31
4.4G ./dvd_install
3.9G ./recup_dir.41
9.7M ./recup_dir.13
11M ./recup_dir.20
5.9M ./recup_dir.22
9.5M ./recup_dir.12
141M ./recup_dir.45
3.9G ./recup_dir.43
20K ./recup_dir.56
8.7M ./recup_dir.9
5.3G ./recup_dir.1
3.9G ./recup_dir.44
3.9G ./recup_dir.29
24K ./recup_dir.47
3.9G ./recup_dir.30
3.9G ./recup_dir.35
32K ./recup_dir.49
8.0K ./recup_dir.57
13M ./recup_dir.14
20K ./recup_dir.55
8.4M ./recup_dir.11
707M ./recup_dir.2
21G ./A
20K ./recup_dir.50
20K ./recup_dir.53
7.7M ./recup_dir.23
3.9G ./recup_dir.37
13M ./recup_dir.19
2.5G ./recup_dir.27
3.9G ./recup_dir.39
3.9G ./recup_dir.40
18M ./recup_dir.15
107G .
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop/v$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
unionfs 1001M 754M 248M 76% /
varrun 379M 88K 379M 1% /var/run
varlock 379M 4.0K 379M 1% /var/lock
udev 379M 140K 379M 1% /dev
devshm 379M 0 379M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 379M 8.8M 371M 3% /lib/modules/2.6.15-23-386/volatile
tmpfs 379M 28K 379M 1% /tmp
/dev/hda1 19G 8.4G 9.1G 48% /home/ubuntu/Desktop/a
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
111G 111G 0 100% /home/ubuntu/Desktop/v
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop/v$

I got many files that look like this f369.exe , and I didn't have any windows 32 bit executable files on the hard drive with lost data.
This could mean Photorec just can't properly detect images (anymore). Did you mount the victimized disk read-only mode all the time? What was the filesystem type of the disk? Did you try other tools depending on filesystem like NTFSUndelete (NTFS, of course), Fatback (FAT) or Foremost (similar to Photorec)?


I tried recovering by letting photorec run over night. When I woke up, photorec as still running and said out of space. It has filled up my 120 gigabyte drive and wanted to keep going. It looks like I am going to have to compile the program from source code, so I can get the newest version, and then try this again.
Reserving minimally two times full disk capacity should do in most cases. Filling six times that is kinda odd.


I don't like the rm command in Linux. It would be better if rm sent files to the trash instead, but it doesn't.
It would not because then people forget emptying their thrashcan and the system fills anyway. Someone here at LQ who had a similar unfortunate experience recently wrote an rm wrapper script that moves to thrashcan, or was that you?


What is the difference between testdisk and photorec?
These tools aren't comparable.
Photorec tries to recover files using file header and footer information ("file" command or "magic" man page).
Testdisk tries to recover your Hard Disks Master Boot Record or Partition Table.

should i replace rm with that script? no, it wasn't me that made it, but i had been thinking about making one. i need to replace rm with the script and put it in a bin directory correct? i can't find the script you are talking about on the forum. i tried searching. The reason I didn't try other tools is because it is hard to find file recovery software for ext3, but if you know of any good ones, please let me know.

You did not answer all my questions.
I postpone commenting until you have done so.