Repair restored Video files (avi, wmv)

[chromx]

Hey guys, i hope i finally found the right forum.

I have 3 corrupted video files and i want to repair them to get ANY data out of them in any format, even a single picture would be enought.


The files got corrupted by restoring a formated hard drive. 2 of them are .wmv (34,3 mb and 1,33 gb) and one is .avi 2,53 gb.


I tried very much allready:
-converting into any other format by using Format Factory -> Error 0x1: invalid function
-repair try with some avi repair tools, allways got an error like the file couldnt get loaded.
-tried to play all files with VLC player, windows media player, Itunes, nothin worked.
-searched the web for hours but didnt found somethin similar.


The video files are very important for me so i would agree to go deep even inside hex-code tools. But since the videos are very privat i cant copy all information out of it in here, so maybe only pieces.
I do have some computer knowledge so if u got any idea just post it here and ill try to realize it, using google or askin friends.


Thank you very much in advance for any tries to help me.
Greetings

[Baldrick]

Try asfbin for the wmv files. You basicly just add the wmv and try make a new one.

[chromx]

I navigated to the folder, clicked it and than on the <--- button to add the file to the input list and got the error:

Header is missing critical data

[Baldrick]

Try open the video in a hex editor and see so it actually contains something instead of just zeros.

[DB83]

The least information you are prepared to provide, the least help you can expect.

'avi' means little since that is just a container for a multitude of different video and audio codecs. And each codec will have its peculiarites of how the video is stored in the file. You might not have restored anything more than the file listing and the actual file is empty.

What software did you use to recover ? Have you re-written anything on to the same disk ?

[chromx]

I opened all 3 files with hex editor and got following result:both .wmv files are OK, there are no zero lines.


Just in the AVI there is about 0,1% filled with zeroes, its about 10 lines in the start, than 50 lines filled with somethin else than zeroes, and than again 10 lines of zeroes, all that about 20 times but everythin under that start fragment seems ok, no zero lines anymore.


Its been long time ago when i restored the data and i cant remember what program i used. I did fast formate and after that i installed a fresh windows xp version on that harddrive. Also i installed the restore tool, but that all are about 20gb rewritten on an 180 gb HD, so i cant imagine how it got somehow overwritten.


Another thing is that i had about 30gb of music and about 20000 different songs. everyone of those songs where corrupted / damaged since they were mixed with other titles.


What kind of information may i give u about the AVI file and how can i get any more informations?


Thank you all for that fast and helpfull answers allready !

[davexnet]

Just because an undelete program "restores" your file, doesn't mean the file is any good.
You need to check it and confirm, before you write any data to the drive with the deleted file((s).

Perhaps give the Puran undelete tool a try and see if can find your files. It's my understanding,
that if the NTFS file is heavily fragmented, it's almost impossible to get it all back.

[DB83]

As above, the mere writing of ANYTHING to the same HDD reduces your chances of recovery. You probably confounded the issue by 'restoring' those files to the same HDD.

Personally, I think in that scenario, the files are irrevertriable. Gone !!

[davexnet]

I read somewhere, for NTFS files, that if the file is fragmented but in less than 20 extents
file recovery chances are very good/excellent if the clusters have not been overwritten.

I played around a little bit in the last hour or so. I copied a 600MB avi file, checked the amount of extents (only 6),
deleted and then emptied the recycle bin. Successfully recovered this file using Puran in deep scan mode.

However, an earlier attempt with a file that was in 100 extents (500 MB file) only recovered some of the file
(the first 18 minutes out of a 50 minute video). The file played, but seeking impossible
due to missing index.

[jagabo]

AVI files have a very distinctive AVI header structure at the start. Take a look at a hex dump of a known good AVI file and you'll see what it normally looks like. If your restored files don't have that structure the easy fixes won't work.