I'm editing a client project with the Premiere project files and cache on my internal SSD, while the original Sony A7 IV footage is stored on a SanDisk Extreme Pro 2TB external SSD. I accidentally deleted the folder containing the shoot's 4K .MP4 clips and .ARW photos while cleaning up old folders. The Premiere timeline and proxies still work, but many of the original clips now appear offline. There is no other copy of the original media, and I stopped using the external SSD immediately after noticing the deletion. Is a video preview a reliable sign that a recovered file is intact, or what should I check before trusting the recovery?
3 Answers
Stopping use of the external SSD was the right first step. Don’t recover anything back onto that same drive; save recovered files to a separate disk. A preview by itself isn’t enough, so verify the recovered file’s size and open or play it from beginning to end. For photos, open the full-resolution files rather than relying on thumbnails.
The fact that a clip appears in a preview doesn’t prove the original file is fully recoverable. The preview may come from Premiere’s cache or may only represent a readable portion of the media. Check the recovered file size against what you would expect, confirm that it has the correct extension and metadata, and test it in an editor or player all the way through for glitches, missing sections, or corruption.
You can try a reputable recovery utility such as Recuva or Disk Drill, ideally after making a sector-by-sector image of the SSD if the data is especially important. Scan the image or the original drive read-only, and direct all recovered files to another drive. SSD recovery can be less predictable than hard-drive recovery because of TRIM and internal garbage collection, so professional recovery may be worth considering if the footage is irreplaceable.
That makes sense. I’ll avoid writing anything to the source drive and check the recovered files individually instead of trusting the previews.