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[myDonu7]

There is a topic that's not often talked about in the Xbox/360 world: Data recovery. Most people deem it impossible, and yes, M$ hasn't given any care on the topic. This infuriates me. Why? I'm a victim. Of my own carelessness and deleting all my game-saves off my HDD.

Soez! I've been researching any and all ways to recover data. Sadly, I'm a scrub when it comes to this high level  of work. So I've been lurking around here more than ever in the past weeks, I've even made an account to discuss many things. This is why I'm making this topic. In the research I've done, there's one thing that I haven't been able to answer at all so far. My question is: Does photorec actually work?

Firstly, what the hell is it? Photorec is a recovery program that claims to be able to recover files from the xbox file system. This has been around since the xbox1, and from what I can tell, that's what it's supposed to be used in. The homepage is here and it's made in a GNU FDL wiki format, so I don't see any issues in posting this here. If I'm mistaken, mods lemme know where to post this and please be gentle! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

So I took my HDD, which hasn't been touched since I erased all my data and I tried the program. The program put out a lot of data. The question I have is if the data is the data that's been erased, if the data I'm looking for is even in the drive, and if the program worked in the manner I want it to. I'll be posting some screenies tomorrow morning of what's up.

My question is, does anybody here have experience with the program? Also, the "recovered data" is in windows format (my drive's in NTFS) so my 360 can't use it. I know more or less of most programs that are used to mod/access the 360 but I'm not experienced in actually using the programs so I'm not sure how to get these files back into the XFAT file-system.

So my questions in this thread are the following:

1. (nub q): Ways to get the files that are in my PC into the XFAT format and into my 360 (there's text files that are in plain-text)
2. Anybody here have any experience, any idea of how to help me proceed? I'm being very cautious in using my HDD because I don't want the erased data to be over-written. Also, imaging software I've tried do use have not been successful in making a true image so I don't have any form of backup. This is especially hard since I'm trying to backup information that's supposed to be deleted in the first place. I'm debating in buying winhex (legitimately buying it) to make a binary clone of the drive. Would this be a wise move?
3. Besides photorec, anybody know of any software that can help restore XFAT drive info?
4. Discuss??


My specs:
1. Original "Halo 3" 360, totally virgin/unmodded. (I bought this cuz it was the only type of 360 around for some 40 miles that I could afford)
2. Orignal HDD from the xbox in #1.
3. external USB 250GB drive used as a memory unit in my xbox (only memory device for xbox I have available currently)
4. 2 GB U3 thumb-drive (lost at a friend's in another region of the state)

As soon as I'm done with my current salvo of classes, I'll also have an actual HD but it's not compatible with the 360 D:

Lastly: I enjoy lurking around here. There's always interesting threads. I hope I don't sound idiotic and too nubish since this is my first time actually showing my face 'round these parts. Any advice, welcome, etc is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Just remembered I already have some pics up for sharing:
Notice how on this one there are plenty of text files. They're all in plain text, some have actual text, others have things I can't sort out. This one is the description for the map Blackout on Halo 3. Why that was recovered, I have no idea. I did delete all of my downloaded map packs due to my having the "ODST" disc which comes with all the Halo 3 maps.
(IMG:http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad196/donu7/th_datapic2.jpg)

(IMG:http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad196/donu7/th_datapic1.jpg)

This post has been edited by myDonu7: May 25 2010, 07:02 AM

[icepir8icepir8]

First make a copy of your HDD with Winhex or anyone of the programs out there that does a raw copy of the HDD to a file on your computer!

There are several prgrams that will let you transfer your files back to the HDD.

There is a good chance that the xbox has just marked the files as deleted and can be restored easily.

[myDonu7]

That's what I'm totally hoping for, that my files are just marked as deleted. I'm absolutely desperate to recover my save-games and stuff. I'm going to buy winhex some time this week and do a copy of the drive. Is winhex the best to make the image? I tried Acronis, R-Drive, and something else but they all failed at making an actual image of my drive. Not only that but winhex can't even open or access my drive. I get a "permission denied" error whenever I try to open my drive win winhex.

Actually, I just realized... One possible reason the drive imaging failed is because I have an extra drive showing up in the programs that isn't a drive at all... Blast!!! I'll need to experiment some more and see if I can actually get a drive image. Oh goodness I feel foolish now.

Anyways, back to winhex, is there a reason I get a permission denied error with it? photorec was able to open it just fine..

This post has been edited by myDonu7: May 25 2010, 07:15 AM

[icepir8icepir8]

QUOTE(myDonu7 @ May 25 2010, 02:14 AM)

That's what I'm totally hoping for, that my files are just marked as deleted. I'm absolutely desperate to recover my save-games and stuff. I'm going to buy winhex some time this week and do a copy of the drive. Is winhex the best to make the image? I tried Acronis, R-Drive, and something else but they all failed at making an actual image of my drive. Not only that but winhex can't even open or access my drive. I get a "permission denied" error whenever I try to open my drive win winhex.

Actually, I just realized... One possible reason the drive imaging failed is because I have an extra drive showing up in the programs that isn't a drive at all... Blast!!! I'll need to experiment some more and see if I can actually get a drive image. Oh goodness I feel foolish now.

Anyways, back to winhex, is there a reason I get a permission denied error with it? photorec was able to open it just fine..

If some other program has the hard drive locked winhex can't open it. I would make sure that nothing is running in the background that is trying to use the drive. also beware that windows will want to reformat the drive if you are not careful.

[myDonu7]

Thanks for the heads up! Damn it I hate M$ more and more as time goes by... So there's a good chance I can get my friend to let me borrow his HDD so I can use something while I get this stuff workin'.  On the flip, I'd like to find a tried and true method to recover data since I don't think there's anything like that in the 360 communities.

[myDonu7]

I'm running on ~3 hours of sleep and I can't find the edit button so please forgive my bump.

So I haven't had a chance to do much on the HDD for the past day or two. I'll post some updates later tonight when I home in another hour and get to work some more on the HD.

[smokie2069]

love to see how successful you are, i'm sure there are lots of ppl like me and you who need this recovery data. i reformatted my hdd xbox360 and now in need to somehow get the optional media update that i had on there before so i can playback my movies from 360 . also now i am banned from live so cant get update from anywhere ,,,,,, sucks.

[myDonu7]

You can use any removable media (USB drive, memory unity, etc) to move the update from an unbanned box to another. Thanks for the support, I'm sure there's plenty of people that want a set answer and a reliable way to recover data. I hope I can find it..

[mineeme10101]

Bump. Any News?

[myDonu7]

Yeah actually, I've been rather busy dealing with some really stupid stuff IRL... school, work, and the police all find ways to keep me too busy..

Anyways, winhex still can't access the HDD, I've tried everything including running the PC in safe-mode. Nothing is accessing the HDD and still winhex gets an "access-denied" error whenever I try to access the HDD. I want to try to take an image of the disc and the winhex that.

I've also tried running software for the HDD in a VM since I have Linux on a VM,  but I don't have all the necessary files or a good running config. The VM also doesn't see the HDD. I'll be working on that.

Lastly, software that's actually able to pick up files off the HDD. Maybe some of you more knowledgeable folk can help me here.

 » Photorec (best IMO)
 » Salvage Recovery (Works pretty well. Also has a "raw recovery" option that I'm testing out)

More as I find them. So far I still need to make a disc image. I'm dying to make one to keep my work safe but I can't find anything that works.

PS: On the winhex problem: The salvage software can use the drive no problem. So can Xplorer360 Xtreme. I have the latest Beta and it works just fine.

PPS: Question: On a non-official memory device (such as a USB stick), once you plug it into the PC it'll show the 360's data as a bunch of data files named data1 to ~ data18. There is a folder in Partition 3 of the official HDD that has data1 to ~data30 or so. The data in the thumb-drive can hold any info such as downloaded items, cache, profiles, saved games, etc. The files at around #7 and up are all exactly the same. Anybody know more about that? How to manipulate that etc?

In closing, I'm supposed to be going to my buddy's house halfway down the state and I'll be spending two days there. He has a wider range of PC's and a more versatile set-up so I can run more tests there. I'll also have an extra HDD to run tests on to see if I can/have recovered my data. I'll post an update once I return on Thursday night.

Wish me luck!!! >: D

[mineeme10101]

try this tool to access the usb files, http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=710775

also, i imaged my hdd quite easily with xport 360. you can see deleted files with this tool, but it's not very good at recovering them. you can then image the image with winhex (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[myDonu7]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I got a rundown on how friends can be such dicks.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Anyways, now I don't have another HDD to use a test guinea-pig to see if I'm recovering the right data. That means I have to be careful and find some other place to test my data. With that aside, I only have the slight problem of finding the right data to recover. I've gone through most of the files and I don't think I've found any of my game-saves. Albeit it's hard to find with MS's cryptic as hell way of naming files.

Example:
(IMG:http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad196/donu7/th_Files.jpg)


I also have a large pile of files that recovery software has "found". I can also (finally) winhex into the image that xplorer360 made for me. However, there is a peculiar issue I've found. I made a successful disc-image through xplorer. If I have that specific HDD out of the PC, the image will only display a few files from partition 2 and nothing from the other partitions. If the HDD is in the PC, it will show everything as if the disc-image just has a lot of empty space with links saying "look in the HDD for xx file that should go here". This has me puzzled and slightly concerned. Anybody know why it's doing that?

Lastly, any tips on how to find specific types of files in the heaps of data I have? IE: what sets apart a save-file from the other file types? Any ideas?

[myDonu7]

Some more updates:

The easy way out for some:

Xport 360's latest version has a data recovery tool. So far this is the only specific tool designed to recover deleted files from HDD's and Memory Cards. It's not the most powerful and guaranteed method but this is likely to be the best path to take for most.

Winhex, etc:

My slow progress is hampered even more by the loss of my spare HDD that I borrowed. I'll have to attempt a fix next week, or later because of big IRL issues and really ridiculously stupid financial officers at college...

I'll re-state the main lessons I've learned on getting this done:

1. Once data is deleted, remove drive ASAP. Don't be afraid to turn off the xbox in the middle of the deletion process, you may lose one or a few files, but that's better than losing all your files.

2. Dump the HDD asap before doing -anything- else. Using something like Xport's "dock" or a USB-sata solution is preferred (to me at least, any differing opinions, experience, etc is welcome).

3. Get a copy of all the deleted save-games/files you want to recover and get that into your PC for comparison. You can find and rebuild files that way.

That's it for now, I'll be giving what's likely to be the final hopefully by next weekend. As far as my situation is concerned, the actual save-games that I wanted to recover seem to be gone.

Question:

I'm trying to use Xport360 to look into my HDD, whenever I expand partition 2 and try to look into the content folder, the program crashed. I can look into it if I'm in Normal mode but once I go into "undelete" mode it crashed.. D: Any suggestions help etc?

[bamarquez226]

Try using xplorer360:

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/Xplorer360.php

[myDonu7]

Let me rephrase the issues from the last update.

I can see partition 3, and all of the folders. When I use Xport 360's new "undelete" mode, it crashes when I open Partition 3's "content" folder. This is an issue because I can't verify if Xport can see my deleted save data, which would be really nice to know for some sort of affirmation. I'll post screenies tomorrow after work if possible.