Data Recovery: I couldn't have made it muchworse.

June 25, 2019 11:23 AM

I lost about 1500 pics by moving them from my phone to my hard drive then shredding them and reimaging the source. Is there ANY hope?

This is a self-inflicted wound. I'm hoping that I still have some hope left.

I went on a trip and took 3500 pics on my DSLR and about 1500 pics from my phone. Nothing unusual. When I got back home, I moved the files from both the dslr and phone to my pics directory. So far so good.

Until. I was in the middle of filesystem maintenance and wasn't paying attention as much as I should have. I shred the phone subdirectory with bleachbit. The DSLR files are fine. It's all the candid, one-off shots I destroyed. But it gets better. I panicked, thinking hey! I can restore my phone from the handy backup I so smartly ran before all this happened! So I ran the restore and it went great. Except...the backup was apparently run after the files were moved. So now I have a reimaged phone and no way to recover from there, either.

I have tried a good eight or nine different recovery programs, but I'm either not using them right, or the data really is well and truly gone. The hard drive folder never shows (neither do the files) and the phone isn't an option with data recovery (I've tried a couple of phone specific ones but they all rely on icloud or itunes backup)

So as it stands, I have no way of recovering the missing data. Any ideas? I'm open to just about anything at this point. I REALLY want those files back, if they still exist. I'd even consider sending it in to a service, but I have content I don't want anyone else to have access to, ever.

If relevant: iPhone 6+ and win10 but I also have a mac (El Capitan).

posted by geckoinpdx to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Hmm -

Well, here's my thoughts.

1. Any chance the photos are saved to icloud.com or google photos? If not, maybe start using one of those for future whoopsies ;). Even if you don't trust them, there are smaller companies with end to end encrypted cloud storage.

2. Did icloud have a backup before the current one? You could restore two backups ago? you should be able to see if there's more than one in your phone settings.

So, uh, without the above, I really doubt that a service would do anything more than run what you already ran, unless it's the fbi/cia/facebook headquarters that already has access to everything. So, without 1 or 2, I'd consider it a loss. Sorry for your loss!

One of the side effects of making SURE that nobody gets your photos, is that sometimes, you can't get your photos. Kind of like the people that hide bitcoins on an offline drive, then when the drive fails, well, whoops, they can't get their bitcoins. I kind of think that unless it's illegal enough to put me in jail, or unless I want to run for president (even then, these days) nobody really cares as much as I'd think to hack my icloud for photos of my (exciting for me, but boring to everyone else) life.
posted by bbqturtle at 11:33 AM on June 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Honestly, it sounds bad. I’d still give PhotoRec a run on the computer though.
posted by procrastination at 11:38 AM on June 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Do you have your phone's photos sync to iCloud? I'm not sure if that's even required, but perhaps they're in your 'Recently Deleted' folder on your phone? Go to Photos app > Albums > Recently Deleted (last menu item).
posted by homesickness at 12:21 PM on June 25, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks. No iCloud, google photos or any other kind of backup. I know, I know. I didn't have it enabled due to sensitive material, and it wouldn't have mattered much as I was in an area with zero coverage (I know it'd have caught up, but...)
posted by geckoinpdx at 12:23 PM on June 25, 2019

If your computer's hard drive is actually an SSD then there might be a chance that the Bleachbit shred has not actually overwritten every bit of data you pointed it at; if it's a real spinning hard drive that actually writes what it's told to write where it's told to write it, then those photos no longer exist on it.

If it is an SSD, there is no way to recover shredded data from it other than via direct access to its flash chips - it can't be done via the hard disk interface, and that makes professional data recovery your only chance.
posted by flabdablet at 12:27 PM on June 25, 2019

Once upon a time I worked for Geek Squad, and we would send drives out for data recovery at a super fancy facility specifically designed to undo the sort of damage you're talking about. I've seen their operations recover data that I would have considered impossible. You won't get 100%, but there /is/ a chance.

The service you need probably runs about $2,000. $1,600, minimum. On at least one occasion someone declined a service that was quoted at $5,000+. You don't have a RAID involved, so that's probably not you, but I just wanted that data point to be in there for you.

Things may have changed, but the last time I worked for them it was $70 and about 4 days to get an estimate for full service. It might be worth sending both devices out (the drive and the SD card for the DSLR). I can't speak personally for the data recovery facility, but in the Precincts (and supposably also in the service centers) file transfers were handled by a piece of software that didn't let us open individual files. I'm not saying I couldn't have viewed your data, but I would have had to go out of my way. And going out of my way would have left (at the very least) a login trail.

Your feelings on Geek Squad can be whatever. There are other recovery services out there that I'm sure are just as good, and just as concerned with the privacy of client data. But I didn't work for any of them, so ... that.
posted by Zudz at 2:08 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

I would get in touch with Gillware and see what they can do. They specialize in data recovery, including reformatted SSDs, and they'll both give you an initial quote and send you a list of recovered files free of charge. You only have to pay if they are able to recover the data you want. They're not cheap -- IIRC it's in the hundreds of dollars for a failed hard drive, though your case may be easier/harder -- but they're cheap-er than most competitors, and given the lack of up-front financial risk they're definitely worth a look.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:42 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

It might be worth sending both devices out (the drive and the SD card for the DSLR)

Since the missing photos were never on the DSLR, having been taken on a subsequently-reimaged phone, it's unlikely that the DSLR's SD card will be of any use.
posted by flabdablet at 11:43 PM on June 25, 2019 [1 favorite]