My brother recorded wedding photos and videos on a DVD-RW camcorder disc, but the disc was later formatted when it was inserted into a computer. I'm hoping to recover the files and make backup copies, although I'm not sure whether the disc received a quick format or a full format. I'm not very experienced with computers and have never used Linux, so I'd appreciate straightforward recovery suggestions or advice on whether professional data recovery is the better option. Is there any realistic chance of getting the photos and videos back?
3 Answers
A Linux live USB can be used without installing Linux. You could boot from a blank USB drive, create an image of the DVD with a tool such as TestDisk, and then scan that image with PhotoRec for recognizable photos or video files. The process is fairly technical, though, and success is not guaranteed.
DVD-RW media is difficult to recover after formatting, and many recovery tools cannot restore a usable video-disc structure. If the files are especially important, stop using the disc and contact a reputable data-recovery service rather than experimenting with it.
Recovery may be possible if the disc only received a quick format, but a full format can make the original data effectively unrecoverable. Since you don’t know which type was used, avoid writing anything else to the disc and don’t try repeated formatting or recording attempts.
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