cleaning up tons of (mostly junk) footage… any tips?

[Stephen Crye]

@ Igor:

First, and very important – try to not use the computer where the accidental delete happened, until you are ready to try to recover the files. The less you use it, the better the chances are that the sectors with the data will not be overwritten. Shut it off, use another computer to access the internet.

Second, try to get a full disk image snapshot/clone of the computer. Do that BEFORE you run any kind of undelete software, or even just messing with the recycle bin. I happen to have access to Symantec GHOST Enterprise, but there are plenty of other full image clone packages out there. Having a clone will give you a change to go back to where you were if the undelete efforts fail. You will need a cheap USB drive to hold the clone image, often it does not have to be as big as the source drive because compression will save space on the target.

For example, you might try the free open source https://clonezilla.org, but be aware that it is a Linux app and you will need to build a live, bootable Linux CD and be versed in Linux.

if you are not a Linux geek, have a look here:
https://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

And yes, start a new thread, we will watch for it and try to help.

Don’t give up!

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V