How to recover lost data/files in your iPod

[charroch]

It seems that some of your links are dead.

[oeck]

If I reformatted my iPod with 2000 songs on it (because of a problem im experiencing connecting it) from FAT to FAT again to fix this, would I be able to use this method to recover my songs? if so how many or how reliable is this?

[fordoix]

Ok I tried to recover my deleted files again, this time using the latest version of Recover4AllPro ...same result. I'm able to recover the files to my hard drive but they wont open, media players say they are an invalid file format even though they are .mp3. I think they are lost forever, 20gigs, I'm not too happy, itunes sucks!

[honeybee1236]

Try another app and see if it will work with MMJB - they do have a free version you can download and also try

http://www.yamipod.com/yam_main.html it also recovers songs from the iPod and restores them.

[iTony-B]

I am a computer forensic examiner and have a lot of experience in data analysis and recovery. As the iPod is a hard drive and operates as such, it has the same structures as anything else. My advice for doing any data recovery from it is to first make a complete forensic image of the iPod (sector by sector copy including all allocated and unallocated clusters). Reason is a lot of the files may no longer have an entry in the FAT or directory and need to carve out of unallocated clusters. There are several tools out there to make such a copy, like Norton's Ghost or even a Linux DD command. Once that is done, a tool like Data Lifter can go through all the sectors and carve out all the files.

I imaged and looked at my iPod using EnCase, probably the best forensic tool out there. I saw many deleted and overwritten files from my use of the iPod. I also found some iPod configuration files.

Give me a day or two and I'll export out some MP3 and AAC files and see if they open. I don't see why they wouldn't. You may want to use a disk editing program to examine the file header of the files these other programs are exporting and see if they are actually MP3 files. Also look at the file size, if it is considerably smaller than an average MP3, it may not be a complete file. This may occur if the file was fragmented across the iPod.

[fordoix]

Thanks for the info guys.
The files do seem to be complete, they are all around 3/4/5mb's.
I tried the yamiPod software and that didn't work either. Pls let me know how you get on iTony-B and if it works for you I'll follow whatever you did.

[iTony-B]

Fordoix -

Good news - I was able to recover allocated and deleted files from the copy of my iPod drive and these files played in Windows Media Player and iTunes. All the info (Artist, Album, etc) was still present for each recovered file. For purchased music, iTunes prompted me for the password to authenticate the computer.

Bad news - The software and technology I'm using is the same stuff that corporate security and law enforcement use in computer investigations. The computer I'm using is designed for computer forensics and the software is expensive ($2500).

More bad news - It would be difficult for you to replicate what I am doing. However, if you want to give it a try, here's what I did. I connected my iPod to a write protected firewire port on my forensic computer. I then created a sector by sector copy of the iPod's drive to a separate hard drive in the forensic box. I examined that copy with a forensic analysis tool (EnCase www.encase.com) and carved out some MP3 and M4P files to the forensic computer's hard drive. Those files could then be burned to a disc, loaded into iTunes, or whatever as they are now just files. For you to do this, you would need software to make the copy of the iPod and software to examine the copy for the music files. It doesn't have to be what I used but it will probably be more than the software listed here since most/all of those examine the iPod live and unprotected. This is something we never do in computer forensics. Also, there's no guarantee that this will work for you. If the files on the iPod are corrupted for whatever reason, then its unlikely that anything will bring them back. But its always worth a try.

Maybe good news - Check your PM for my contact info. Maybe we can work this out to try to get some/all of your files back.

Tony

[jimmytsai]

Heyz..

This article realli helped me a lot.. Thanks everyone!

I duno why all d songs were gone suddenly.. but anyways, im tryin to recover em.

Btw.. I just wana ask you all.. cuz i just tried to recover a song with "Recover4All". however, after i recovered it, i found i couldnt add the file to the library.. wut shld i do to import this recovered song back to my iPod? (i also found that no players could play d files too.."

anyone can help me? cuz this iPod is my friend's actually.. and i accidentally made a big mistake.. i havent told my frien tho.. thanks

[iTony-B]

If the songs aren't playing on your computer then they are not recovering properly. Try another recovery program. Also, if you are using the free demo of the software, make sure that the demo is capable of making the recovery or if it only tels you what it can recover. To actually recover the files, you may need to purchase the software.

[almamatter]

this just happened to me this morning. I freaked out for a while until I found this topic, and downloaded Recover4all 2.26, I'm just wondering if anyone can help me with the fundamentals of it? Firstly since through itunes everything was deleted, am I meant to scan my pcs harddrive or my ipod?? and if i'm meant to scan my ipod, how do i get it to appear etc? i tried plugging it in to a usb port but don't know how to select it....please please please give me some tips, I would be very grateful. Thanks!

[almamatter]

Does anyone know?

[iTony-B]

Run the recovery software on the iPod drive.

The iPod should show in Windows Explorer (My Computer) as a removable drive. If Windows is not mounting the iPod when you plug it in, try a different USB port or a different computer. Since Recovery4all will run from a floppy disk, you should be able to do it from any computer.

[Temmy]

iTony-B what did you use to get a write protected firewire port ?

[iTony-B]

I use a couple of different methods to write protect the USB and Firewire ports. For the iPod tests, I used a software utility (not commercially available - sorry) that write protects everything except the operating system drive on start up. Then I go in and unprotect the drive that will receive the files. The iPod mounts through the protected port and my initial tests show that it remains unchanged.

If you need more specific information, PM or email me and I'll share what I can.

[darknik]

What if I don't even have an iPod. I was just using iTunes to listen to music on my computer, but my computer crashed. Can I still get back my purcashed music?