I'm working on a client video project. The Premiere project files and cache are on my internal SSD, while the original Sony A7 IV footage is stored on a 2TB external SSD. While cleaning up old folders, I accidentally deleted the folder containing the shoot's original 4K .ARW photos and .MP4 video clips. The project and proxies still work, but many of the original clips now appear offline. There is no other copy of the footage, and I stopped using the external SSD immediately after noticing the mistake. If recovery software can display a preview, does that reliably mean the full file is recoverable, or what should I check before assuming the footage is intact?
4 Answers
A preview or thumbnail is only a partial indication. Recovery tools may show a cached preview, or they may be able to read the beginning of a damaged video while the rest is incomplete. Compare the recovered file size with the expected size, open the entire clip, scrub through it, and verify that it imports and plays all the way through. For ARW files, open several in a raw-photo editor and check that they contain complete image data.
You can try reputable recovery software such as Recuva or Disk Drill, but install it somewhere other than the affected SSD and write all recovered files to another drive. If the footage is especially valuable, making a full image of the SSD first and working from the image is safer than repeatedly scanning the original.
Stopping use of the SSD was exactly the right first step. A deleted folder usually removes the filesystem references first, while some of the underlying data may remain recoverable. Don’t save anything back to that drive, and recover files to a different physical drive. Also remember that SSD garbage collection and TRIM can make deleted data disappear more quickly than it would on a traditional hard drive.
So the folder entry may be gone even though the file contents haven’t been overwritten yet? That makes acting quickly pretty important.
If the SSD is still connected, disconnect it and avoid running repair utilities, defragmentation, or editing software against it. If the footage is irreplaceable, a professional recovery service may be worth considering, especially because external SSDs can use TRIM or internal cleanup that makes deleted files unrecoverable even when no new files were copied.
Whatever tool you use, don’t treat a successful scan as proof that everything is fine. Check the recovered file sizes and test the files from beginning to end in Premiere, VLC, or another player.