Hi all,

I need your help.
A few days ago I went on a trip the US and shot some very nice footage with my Mavic 2 Zoom.
When I came home and hooked up the drone to my Mac, looking for the footage, I saw the footage and viewed a bit of the video's.
After looking into it, I selected everything and saved it into a new folder. When I looked into the folder i didn't saw anything. I thought all my video's are gone. I was very rude but I did a bit of research and found out taht with recovery tools like Stellar Data Recovery or DrillMyMac you can get your footage back. So i installed the programs and ran a scan.
Yes, the footage was still on the disk but if i want to recover it i have to pay more than 90 bucks. For a commercial program. So my question is: Are there any cheaper options to get my footage back.

Please help me.

Thanks a lot.

I work in IT.  Pay the money.

Mr Sepo Posted at 8-22 14:14
I work in IT.  Pay the money.

Hi
But do you think that it works, and that the footage is still in 4k? What program would you recommend?
Thanks

When you write you saved the footage into a new folder -- are you saying you copied the footage off the Mavic 2's internal memory and onto your Mac across a USB connection in a new folder, and during the copying process the videos disappeared??

Ex Machina Posted at 8-22 14:38
When you write you saved the footage into a new folder -- are you saying you copied the footage off the Mavic 2's internal memory and onto your Mac across a USB connection in a new folder, and during the copying process the videos disappeared??

Hi,
No, I always select the video's and put it into a new folder that I created earlier. The footage then just disappeared but when I scanned the drive with the recovery tool, the footage is in the 100MEDIA folder.

LG-Mavic Posted at 8-22 14:48
Hi,
No, I always select the video's and put it into a new folder that I created earlier. The footage then just disappeared but when I scanned the drive with the recovery tool, the footage is in the 100MEDIA folder.

It's on the drone drive itself.

LG-Mavic Posted at 8-22 14:27
Hi
But do you think that it works, and that the footage is still in 4k? What program would you recommend?
Thanks

There are no guarantees that any program will work.  Sometimes recovered files are corrupted.  I would stick with a reputable program or forward to a forensic recovery service.  In my experience it boils down to how valuable the data is worth to you to attempt recovery of lost data.

Have you reconnected the drone and checked if they are still on the drone?

LG-Mavic Posted at 8-22 14:48
Hi,
No, I always select the video's and put it into a new folder that I created earlier. The footage then just disappeared but when I scanned the drive with the recovery tool, the footage is in the 100MEDIA folder.

You mean a new folder on the internal drone drive? Yeah, that's probably a bad idea -- instead, always transfer to your Mac and leave the file structure on the drone's internal drive alone -- I doubt a whole lot of testing has been allocated to unexpected folder structures.

Have you tried copying the folder over to your Mac and seeing if the files magically show up on that platform after transfer?

If you have access to a Windows PC you can try Recuva the cost is only around $20 but I think it works for free https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva(they just make it looks like your need to purchase it (i might be wrong though) and has saved me a few times but this has been on memory cards. but as others have suggested its up to you how much you value the footage.

You might be able to find a prebuilt Windows 10 desktop virtual machine you can run on your MAC to run the free software try reading this http://osxdaily.com/2015/03/25/install-run-windows-10-mac-virtualbox-os-x/ is handy and then you have the best of both worlds when you are not using the WIndow VM just turn it off on your MAC (obviusoly your should purchase a Windows Licence for this VM to be fully legal!)

Next time I suggest using an actual memory card https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/prod ... 6_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this means you can pop it out whilst you are on holiday and transfer the data or just swap for another one.
Doesnt have to be this big I normally take a few 32 and 64gb ones and swpa them out after each flight (dont want to lose footage from any of the ealrier flights on the holiday if the drone takes a nose dive in the sea or she goes awol!)

For the small cost fr the mem cards its worth it in my opinion just make sure the cards a U3 and at least A1 compatible for the speed to write 4k too.

Also be careful when copying always makes ure you copy and paste as opposed to drag and drop or cut and paste!

Any of the revovery tools should work as the drive is just see to a pc or make as a USB storage drive so to speak

Here are a few others ive tried in the past but not sure what they are like now but they are still free I think!

http://www.macdatarecoveryfreeware.com/ this is a free mac one too not sure on its limits but might be worth a try.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec this is a command line style peice of software so might not be the simplest to use!

Unfortunatley you have chosend that Apple Mac route so there are far less freeware options for you as the market is still pretty small, there are far less viruses and malware for mac's too but for the same reason.

Hope you get your data back chap.