My OSMC is set to share the storage volume via Samba. The storage volume itself is NTFS. I accidentally deleted some files using an iOS app called File Explorer.
I hooked up the hard drive via an external USB adapter to my windows 10 machine and I tried several file recovery programs and they literally return zero results as far as files that can be recovered.
I haven’t completed any writes on the volume since I deleted the files.
Any ideas? I’m trying to understand, is there something special about deleting files via samba share? Does it nuke them in an unrecoverable way somehow?
On Windows, unless you have some sort of 3rd-party addon, deleting via a share bypasses the Recycle Bin, but otherwise deletes just like a local delete (remove the directory entry and mark the area used by the data as free).
Recovery utilities typically rely on the directory entry not being completely cleared…just the name and “in use” being removed. If the whole entry gets wiped, then some recovery programs will try to guess by looking at “holes” in the disk use map. If the files were large and the disk fragmented, this won’t work very well.
On Linux, there is no Recycle Bin, even on NTFS, so a delete is the same regardless of where it happens. Again, it comes down to how complete the “delete” was as far a recovery is concerned.
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