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That’s interesting. I didn’t know header damage could cause that. I do have other photos from the same camera, so I can probably use one as a reference.
Also, about the “white rectangle” icons — that usually means the file headers are damaged. If you manage to recover them but they still won’t open, try a photo repair tool that can rebuild headers using a sample photo from the same camera. I’ve seen that fix images that were completely unreadable before.
Yeah, good call. Once you’ve got that image, use a recovery program that reads the raw data rather than relying on file system info. Sometimes, even when the file structure’s broken, you can still carve out photos from the remaining data blocks.
Got it. I didn’t make a clone earlier, just ran the scan directly. I’ll try imaging the drive first this time.
It might. But make sure the recovery tool you’re using doesn’t try to “fix” the files automatically — that can make things worse. First priority is to clone the drive or create an image of it before doing anything else. That way, even if the recovery attempt fails, you’ve still got a snapshot to go back to.
I stopped as soon as I realized. Haven’t touched it since. You think a deep recovery scan could still pull something usable?
Once new data starts writing to the same sectors, things get tricky. But since it’s an HDD, there’s still some hope. The key is to stop using it right now. Every new file you add overwrites parts of the deleted data.
I accidentally deleted a big chunk of my photo archive..a few months’ worth — from my 16TB Seagate external hard drive. Emptied the trash without realizing, and even copied new files after that. I tried recovering them to another drive, but the images show up as blank white icons and won’t open.
This isn’t an SSD, just a regular HDD, so I’m wondering if there’s still a shot at getting those files back somehow?
And worst case — if none of this stabilizes it long enough, you might need professional help to pull the files before doing firmware reflash. Because once that storage goes, whatever hasn’t been copied becomes unrecoverable permanently.
If you can’t keep it stable enough for long..try booting it into safe mode and see if it stays running longer there. Sometimes safe mode puts less stress on system resources.
Agree. Priority order should be: recover data first → then fix phone. Don’t jump to firmware flashing until you at least try to extract.
If you care about those videos, stop rebooting repeatedly. Every single boot cycle stresses the storage even more and increases chance of those blocks failing or being overwritten. Try to access internal storage from a PC while it’s still able to stay on for a few minutes. If it doesn’t mount, use a data recovery software on PC and scan it while you still have partial access.
I don’t want to flash and lose everything. I actually have a lot of personal videos still inside that I didn’t move.
Before flashing anything — backup whatever you can. Try turning it on for 15-20 minutes without touching it. Sometimes it settles long enough for a quick data copy. Once you flash a ROM, if anything gets wiped or corrupted further, you can’t easily pull it back.
Yep, that’s exactly what you want. Just make sure the sample is from the same camera model and taken with the same settings if possible. I’ve used that method once on a drive recovery job — it doesn’t work every time, but it’s worth trying.