Overwritten Files

[Darius1968]

I know, this may be a bit off topic.  I have/had a video file, "fi friday 08.mp4".  It was originally created a week ago, and then, yesterday it was overwritten by another mp4 file of the same name.  I've given a chance to various other data recovery software, but these seem to only offer the slightest luck for recovery of deleted files, not overwritten.  Any ideas/suggestions here? 

[Jingo]

Although it is a bit clunky as a DOS program - I have had some luck with PhotoRec and Recuva ... both free options so might as well give it a shot.  The key in all this seems to be how quickly you get to the drive before anything else is added/removed from it... the longer you wait and the more activity that occurs - the slighter the chance of a clean recovery.  Good luck!

This article explains what to do for both of them - I keep if bookmarked... just in case!  https://www.wikihow.com/Recover-Overwritten-Files

[Darius1968]

Thanks, Jingo.  My Google research has led me to PhotoRec, and I may give it a try! 

[Mario]

Depending on how the file was overwritten, which media it was on (flash, SSD, spinning disk) and many other factors, some parts of the original file may have been overwritten by other data. And this means that the video is most likely gone for good. Unless the unrecoverable data was in segments not vital for the video stream and encoding...

In IT, we have a mantra: "No backup? No pity!".

It is so super-easy these days to create daily or even constant background backups. And keep these backups for several weeks. So you can undo damage even when you notice it after a couple of weeks.
If you have no proper backup strategy in place, you might now use this incident to establish one. Disks can die any minute. The user may accidentally delete or overwrite files. Happened to me, several times. What always saved me was my backup.

[Darius1968]

What would be the cheapest way to do a thorough backup of a 2 TB SSD drive? 

[Jingo]

What would be the cheapest way to do a thorough backup of a 2 TB SSD drive?

I employ a variety of backup strategies that have served me well in times of good (computer is working 100%) and bad (drive failure or malware attack). 

For mission critical documents and other important items - I use SyncbackPro to mirror certain folders to backup drive folders.  This is running all the time and the service will monitor date/time changes to files and automatically back them up.  I also use SyncbackPro to backup my IM DB each early morning to a backup internal drive.

For databases, photos, movies and other data, I use Acronis to perform Full and Differential backups automatically each early morning.  I have 2 data drives going to 1 backup drives (2 partitions) - 1 full backup and 10 differentials before the whole process starts again (full then differentials).  I also copy the backup files to an EHD on a monthly basis which is stored in a fire safe along with a USB recovery software and Win10 installation.

For the SSD OS drive, I perform a full system clone using Acronis which is stored on yet another internal backup drive.  I do this every few weeks as I install and uninstall software, scripts, etc.  I also backup all of the configuration and settings for these programs so if you need to start over - you can import the settings and don't have to remember how it all was setup to begin with!

Remember to test all of these backups every so often so when/if they are needed, you understand the process and know it works correctly.  Once all this is setup and running - you don't have to think about it again! 

[Darius1968]

Are any of these "in the cloud", yet encrypted for safety? 

[Mario]

I think this has been discussed to death, not only here in the community but also in other, more suitable boards.

I recall a recent thread about this. By typing the word backup in the community search engine I've found it in a sec:

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=9049.0