What to do right now
- First check that you did not save to the same drive. If you did, scan again.
- A photo showing only half the picture was fragmented or partly overwritten.
- Documents can often be repaired to open, or at least have their content salvaged.
What to check and how to try again
Check where you saved
If you saved recovered files to the original drive, saving may have overwritten files not yet recovered. From now on save only to another disk, and scan the original drive again.
Read the result badges
FileFix Ultimate labels results validated, partial or extracted. Partial means only part is intact; extracted means the format cannot be checked automatically and you should open it yourself.
Prefer file record results
If the same file appears twice, once with its original name and once found by signature, use the named one first. File records know where the pieces are, so it is usually more complete.
Try repair
Add JPEG, PNG, PDF, ZIP, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX or HWPX files that will not open to damaged file repair. Photos can be fixed with the header of a normal photo from the same camera, and Excel and Word files can have their content salvaged.
Consider scanning again
From version 1.0.4, recovery of fragmented files is attempted on FAT32 and exFAT cards and USB sticks. Photos that broke in an earlier scan may be worth scanning again.
Four causes of broken results
First, overwriting. When new files take part of the space after deletion, that part becomes other data; a photo then turns gray or shows odd colour bands from that point on. Second, fragmentation. Signature search without file records assumes a file was stored in one piece, so a file with another file's piece in the middle breaks at that point.
Third, SSD TRIM. The file name may survive in the records while the content was zeroed, so it will not open. Fourth, a wrong type or truncation: the end of the file was not found, so it was cut too short or saved as the wrong format.
When trying again will not help
- Overwritten parts never return to their original content, in any program.
- SSD data zeroed by TRIM cannot be brought back.
- Repair makes what remains open; it cannot create the missing parts.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Every recovered file is independently checked and labelled validated, partial or extracted.
- Blocks saving to the same volume to prevent overwriting.
- Repairs damaged JPEG, PNG, PDF, ZIP, Office and HWPX files into new copies and salvages Excel and Word content.
- From version 1.0.4, attempts recovery of fragmented files on FAT32 and exFAT.
FileFix Ultimate is free, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
My recovered photo shows only the top half, the rest is gray.
From where the gray starts, the file was overwritten or fragmented. The visible part can be kept; the gray part usually cannot be restored.
The recovered file is 0 KB.
TRIM cleared the content on an SSD, or only the file record survived. Check whether the same file appears separately in the signature results.
A recovered Excel file says it is corrupt.
Rebuild the package with damaged file repair; if that fails, the cell values can still be saved into a new xlsx and CSV files.