Can't recover PSD files correctly

[Leonski]

Hello,

By some stupid reason I accidental deleted a lot of files but a lot I have recovered.
But some of my PSD files are 'lost', well not completely the file name is there but when I want to open it it works just like a new file that you to open.
The contents is gone, all are 0kb.
I have tried different programs to recover those files.
the programs that I use are;
-Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery
-EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard 7.5
-Ontrack EasyRecovery Enterprise 11
Is there an other program that I can use? Because these file are important to my for making skins in DCS and these files were my templates!!
Please HELP!!

[Serval]

I think de major problem is dat those are usually large files. So, when they are deleted there is a bigger chance that the space they use is overwritten by something new, rendering the file corrupted.

I think that you now learned the hard way, as probably many of us will have. Best way to work is to allways make a backup. Be in on a NAS or on DVD or another harddisk (the least safe option). I also tend to have a seperate (large) harddisk where I keep my images. No other files there and also no swap files there. The latter because especially those tend to overwrite space after you deleted files.

And my experience isthat if you have multiple partitions on a disk, that the files on the second or latter partitions are more difficult to recover then on the first partition after you had problems with the harddisk. Since I know this I hardly use partitions and especially not for (important) data.

I saw some software claiming it can restore PSD files, but it is hard to tell how well it really works and which one is the best for the job.
There are some comparisation sites. But many depends on what happened afterward. Are the files damaged or not, is it HDD or SDD. Based on that you might be able to decide which software might work best. But with damaged files your chances are pretty small, so think how much you are prepared to invest in recovery when there is a good chance that it might not work after all.
If you are really desperate, then there are companies who are specialised in the job. But that will cost you a lot. If you think about going that way, I wouldn't tamper with the drive myself anymore, since that might only make things worse.

[Leonski]

Thanx for the replay Serval, but indeed this is the hard lesson and indeed there were large PSD's the small ones are working.
I have now tried 5 different recovery software's and non of them worked.

[Serval]

That is also something I do (but gives some extra work when installing and upgrading Windows):
I move the User directories (My Documents etc.) away from the C: drive to a larger data drive. And I make sure that my temporary files (C:\temp and the swap file) are not at that drive.
Here is described how you can do that: https://commaster.net/content/window...-another-drive but there are more tutorials for this, if this one is not clear enough. And I might be able to answer some questions as well.
Bad thing: Upgrading from Windows 7 to 8 won't work. I expect the same for the upgrade to Windows 10. The upgrade software wants those folders on the same drive as Windows itself. So, I have to do a fresh installation of Windows.

I hope these tips help to make the chance for future disaster a bit smaller. If someone has more/other tips, I'm curious to read them. Or maybe special tips for Mac OS...

[Leonski]

Again thanx Serval