Help required - Photographs vanished - replaced by .CHK files ??

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I had a folder on my PC containing about 800 images from recent holiday which I've been going through over the last week or so.

Anyway - I went to open the folder tonight and it's no longer there.

What I do have though is the following folder (dated tonight) full of CHK files.

Any ideas ?????

View attachment 24339

View attachment 24340
 
Corrupted folder/files or maybe bad sector(s) on the drive? First thing I'd do is copy the folder elsewhere as it is, then try running a full Chkdsk on the drive, even though these files are created by chkdsk/scandisk anyway..... Or the free software below might rescue them for you....

www.diydatarecovery.nl/chkmate.htm
 
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THIS article may be of interest. I would also try running a file recover program such as Recuva on the folder the photos were in.
 
Cheers guys

Derek - when you say copy the folder - do you mean the 001 folder containing the CHK files as the original folder is nowhere to be seen.
 
PS

Just discovered I still have all the images (albeit the original unedited ones) on the camera so they're not lost.

It would be nice to know what's happened though as I obviously have lots of other folders on that drive.
 
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Yup, the folder they are in no matter what it's called.... original post now edited... worth trying the freeware recovery option. You could also try just copying one of the files elsewhere and changing the extension from chk to jpg to see if you can then view it....
 
If you still have them just run the full chkdsk..... Corrupt partition table, bad sectors etc...... sometimes you never find out what caused it and normal service is resumed!
 
Yeah, the Chk files are recovered file fragments, so probably some data missing... I'd try the software just out of curiosity...
 
Be very very careful. Do not write to the drive if you can. Use the above help but with an external HDD otherwise you could damage the remnants of the file.
I use Paragon backup & recovery. There is a better program from a Chinese company that I used one to recover a raid 0 array - I was amazed.
 
Struggling to understand all the technical advice if I'm honest

The folder that went missing (now appearing as 001 folder containing CHK files) is on an external 500GB drive (my F drive)

The reason my photographs are stored on the external hard drive is because there's about 160GB of images and my previous PC was only 40GB

I've just got a new PC which has 2TB so I suspect the first step would be to make a copy of my external F drive onto my computer's own C drive before I do anything else ????????
 
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I'd guess at a knocked drive causing a bad sector/cluster. This also happens if turned off or disconnected whilst still writing. Chk files are 'bits' (not as in bits & bytes) of files.Try Chkbak as offered above.
I'd recommend backup to optical media and treat them carefully as well as an external hdd ( use a nas for extra storage at home).
 
Peter69 said:
I'd guess at a knocked drive causing a bad sector/cluster. This also happens if turned off or disconnected whilst still writing. Chk files are 'bits' (not as in bits & bytes) of files.Try Chkbak as offered above.
I'd recommend backup to optical media and treat them carefully as well as an external hdd ( use a nas for extra storage at home).
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand that second sentence Peter

Should I copy my external drive to my internal C drive as a means to back up just now ?

All that appears to be missing from my F drive is that last folder of images which i still have on my camera.
 
If you don't already (sounds like you might not), always make sure you have at least 2 copies of your data. If the worst should happen and your drive failed you could be looking at several hundreds of pounds for recovery (with no 100% guarantee that all data will come back). Compared to the cost of an additional drive..

I'm always amazed at the amount of staff we get come in with failed personal drives (those "my passport" drives are most common recently) and no backup. When you tell them the drive isn't recoverable and it'll need to go to a specialist costing a fair whack of dosh their faces drop..
 
I do have a duplicate but it doesn't have the more recent folders on.
 
External HDDs are sometimes the bane of my existence.

I recently had an incident where a colleague brought their laptop in full of family photos. The machine needed a clean install. I backed up the photographs to an external hard disk drive. However, the cable became entangled with another piece of equipment and the drive got knocked onto the floor. I almost caught it, so it didn't fall with the full velocity it would have. That was enough to knacker the drive and the pictures were subsequently lost.

Fortunately the colleague had headed my advice and backed up her pictures so only the most recent were lost.

My other gripe with external hard disk drives are the crappy controllers that seem to be in them. I've got a disk in a machine that absolutely checks out, however in it's original external case it would cr*p out during large file transfers.

I only ever use external hard disks as a tertiary backup and handle them with kid gloves.
 
afasoas said:
External HDDs are sometimes the bane of my existence.

I recently had an incident where a colleague brought their laptop in full of family photos. The machine needed a clean install. I backed up the photographs to an external hard disk drive. However, the cable became entangled with another piece of equipment and the drive got knocked onto the floor. I almost caught it, so it didn't fall with the full velocity it would have. That was enough to knacker the drive and the pictures were subsequently lost.

Fortunately the colleague had headed my advice and backed up her pictures so only the most recent were lost.

My other gripe with external hard disk drives are the crappy controllers that seem to be in them. I've got a disk in a machine that absolutely checks out, however in it's original external case it would cr*p out during large file transfers.

I only ever use external hard disks as a tertiary backup and handle them with kid gloves.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you don't need this advice now...

But if you are deleting the primary source of important data always always take two copies.
 
I was already going above and beyond the call of duty - personal files on a work laptop. I was already going out on a limb taking the time to try and preserve the data.

I do live by the mantra that data doesn't exist until it's stored in three different places.
 
Everything seems fine on the external hard drive now apart from that missing folder.

Everything is copied back over to my PC hard drive including that folder which (fortunately) was still on the memory card.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the external hard drive - more a case of a poorly timed crash.

Anyway - to be on the safe side I'm going to get a new external and duplicate just in case.
 
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