recovering data from memory.dmp?

I suffered a crash due to a corrupt driver for a USB2 external drive. I did not realise it at first but I lost 11 months of E-mail from a eudora business mail box file(.mbx). This is extremely damging to me and I checked the actual content of the data file with notepad all mail is gone from 6/22/02 to 6/3/03 (about 3000 e-mails). A huge memory.dmp file is dated 15 minutes before the next mail appears (about 250MB). This is probably 5 times the size of the missing data. I was wandering if anyone knows if my data might somehow be recovered from that file.

 

Windows Memory Dump File Options will give you a good idea of the contents of the memory.dmp file and what you can/cannot do with it.

Since the contents of this file is only some or all (depending on configuration) of what was loaded in memory at the time the file was built, I'd say the chances are around zero that the data you want will be there.

However if the data is critical and you haven't done anything to write over it since the problem, it is possible that a data recover program (or a company that specializes in recovery) can get some or all of it back for you.

But it will not be cheap to do. Do a google search for hard drive data recovery to get an idea of the options you have and their cost.

 

My system was configured as a full memory dump and the size of the memory.dmp confirms that. I renamed it to prevent overwrite. Now are you sugesting that there might be a way to recover from that file or that there might be some tmp file with the piece missing. What is disturbing is that only part of the file was dumped. evrything before and after those dates in the data file is intact. Any suggestion on recovery software?

 

The memory dump will only contain data that was loaded in RAM at the time. Highly doubtful any of the data you are interested in was there. Why would you think it might be?

And I haven't used any recovery software in so many years I can't help with a specific recommendation. But it is possible the data you need is still on the hard drive - just not showing up - so it may be worth the effort to try to recover it.

That's why I recommended the google search so you could see for yourself what apps and what recovery service companies are out there and how much the various options would cost.

Even trickier for you to decide since there is no assurance the data you need is still in existance. But if it is, the longer you wait (and continue to use the PC) the less chance of recovery.