Data Recovery Case File · Portable Drives · Two Drives, One Question
Check the Source Before Worrying About the Destination
His enquiry describes an interruption with an unusually precise boundary. Moving a music collection between external drives: "about 250GB, got half way and then catastrophic failure, laptop reset. The drive showed an empty music folder." He knows exactly how far it reached, because the transfer ran alphabetically. But a transfer involves two drives, and the enquiry does not say which one is the problem — and if the source is intact, none of this is a recovery at all.
| Media | Two external hard drives engaged in a bulk transfer — host failure at approximately the midpoint; destination presenting an empty directory; source status not established |
| Reported situation | Bulk transfer of approximately 250GB between external drives · host failing at approximately the halfway point · transfer proceeding in alphabetical order · destination drive presenting an empty directory afterwards · source drive status not stated |
| Fault class | Destination filesystem inconsistency from an interrupted write — source drive status determinative of whether recovery is required at all |
| Equipment used | Source drive status established before any work on the destination · transfer boundary determined from alphabetical ordering · destination imaged write-blocked before any reconstruction · structures rebuilt from surviving copies · results reconciled against the source inventory |
The decode: the question that comes first
Why the source matters more than the destination: he was copying, not moving. If nothing was deleted as it went — and he does not say it was — the original collection is still on the source drive, complete and untouched. In that case the destination's empty folder costs nothing but a re-run, and there is no recovery to commission.
Why that has to be established before anything else: because the answer determines whether this is a technical problem or an afternoon's inconvenience. Nobody should be paying for a recovery of material that exists a metre away. Checking takes minutes and it is the first thing to do.
What happened to the destination: a host that fails mid-write leaves the receiving volume's structures half-updated — directory entries partly written, allocation records inconsistent, the volume never marked as cleanly closed. The transferred files are physically present and unnamed, which is why the folder appears empty rather than partly full.
Why the alphabetical ordering is genuinely valuable: it makes the boundary knowable, which almost never happens. He can say precisely which files had been written and which had not, so the destination's contents can be verified against a list rather than guessed at. Most interrupted transfers leave nobody able to say what arrived, and that uncertainty is usually the expensive part.
What to do if the source turns out to be damaged too: that changes the picture entirely and the source becomes the priority. A drive that was being read from at high sustained load when a host crashed is worth checking on its own account — sustained reading is how marginal drives reveal themselves.
Why the crash is worth a thought: a machine that resets during a heavy transfer between two external drives may have failed on its own, or may have been brought down by one of them not responding. Which of those happened bears on whether either drive is in trouble, and the answer usually emerges from whether both still behave normally now.
What must not happen to the destination meanwhile: no repair, and no re-running the transfer onto it. A repair discards entries it cannot reconcile, and writing more data over a volume whose structures are damaged makes reconstruction harder.
On the bench
The source drive's status was established before any work on the destination — a copy rather than a move leaving the original collection intact, in which case the destination's empty directory costs a re-run and no recovery is required at all. The transfer boundary was determined from alphabetical ordering, making the arrived set verifiable against a list rather than estimated. The destination was imaged write-blocked before any reconstruction, structures rebuilt from surviving copies, and results reconciled against the source inventory.
The outcome
The source established first, the boundary determined from the ordering, and the destination imaged and rebuilt with results reconciled. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a drive has to be opened, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode: you were copying rather than moving, so check the source before commissioning anything — if the collection is still there, this is a re-run rather than a recovery. And the alphabetical ordering is worth a great deal, because it makes the boundary knowable.
Transfer between two drives interrupted partway
Check the source drive before doing anything about the destination. If you were copying rather than moving — and nothing was deleted as it went — the original collection is still there, complete, and the destination's empty folder costs you a re-run rather than a recovery. Nobody should pay to recover material sitting a metre away. Your alphabetical ordering is genuinely valuable too, because it means you can say precisely which files had been written and which hadn't; most interrupted transfers leave nobody able to establish that, and the uncertainty is usually the expensive part. Don't run a repair on the destination or copy over it again while you work this out.
Check the source first — then call Guildford Data Recovery on 01483 901310; boundary determined from your ordering, destination imaged before any reconstruction, results reconciled against the source.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.