Data Recovery Case File · Trust, Practice & Honest Limits · The Copy That Copied Nothing
A Folder of Pointers Occupies Almost No Space
Her enquiry reports a symptom with two very different explanations behind it. Wedding footage across drives: "all of my files have corrupted. I backed it up, but when I came back to start editing they were showing up as alias files." Either the records describing real files have been damaged, and the system is misreading them as pointers — or they genuinely are pointers, and what was copied contained no footage at all. One check separates them and it takes seconds.
| Media | External hard drives holding wedding video content — items presenting as reference files rather than as media; backup copy reported as taken |
| Reported situation | Wedding footage held across external drives · backup copy reported as having been made · items presenting as alias or reference files on return · content not accessible for editing · footage required |
| Fault class | To be distinguished by occupied capacity — directory type corruption with content present, or genuine reference files containing no media |
| Equipment used | Occupied capacity reconciled against item count before any conclusion · reference targets read where items proved genuine aliases · directory type fields assessed where capacity indicated content present · imaged write-blocked before any reconstruction · media validated by rendering |
The decode: the check that decides it
What an alias is: a very small file containing a path. It points at something stored elsewhere, and it holds no content of its own — a few kilobytes regardless of what it refers to, whether that is a document or an hour of video.
So the check, and it costs nothing: look at how much space the folder occupies. A folder of wedding footage occupies tens or hundreds of gigabytes; a folder of aliases pointing at wedding footage occupies almost nothing. The number settles which situation this is before anybody touches anything.
The first possibility — the records are damaged. Every directory entry carries flags describing what kind of item it is, and if those fields are corrupted, the system can read a perfectly ordinary file as a reference. In that case the content is entirely present, the capacity is consumed as expected, and the fault is a bounded structural one that reconstructs normally.
The second possibility, and it is the one worth being direct about: the items were always aliases. This happens when somebody selects and copies things that were themselves references — the copy dutifully duplicates the pointers, and the result is a folder that looks complete, lists every filename, and contains no footage whatsoever.
Why that is such a painful failure: it produces a backup that passes every casual inspection. The names are right, the folder structure is right, and the count is right — and nothing is discovered until somebody tries to open something, which may be months later. The word "backup" was used in good faith throughout.
What to do if the sizes say they are genuine aliases: the footage is wherever the originals were. Each alias records the path it points at, and those paths are readable — which identifies the volume and location the material actually lived on. That becomes the thing to go looking for, and it is a far more promising line than the drives in front of her.
What to do if the sizes say the content is present: stop using the drives and have the structures reconstructed. No repair utility — a consistency check meeting entries whose type flags disagree with their contents will resolve the disagreement, and not in the useful direction.
The habit that prevents it: verify a backup by opening something from it, and check that the destination occupies roughly the space the source did.
On the bench
Occupied capacity was reconciled against item count before any conclusion — a reference file containing only a path and occupying a few kilobytes regardless of its target, so a folder of media occupying negligible space contains pointers rather than content, while consumed capacity indicates present content with corrupted type fields. Reference targets were read where items proved genuine aliases, each recording the path and volume the material occupied. Directory type fields were assessed where capacity indicated content present.
The outcome
Capacity reconciled against item count first, reference targets read where the items proved genuine, and structures reconstructed where content was present. 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: check how much space the folder occupies. An alias holds a path and nothing else, a few kilobytes whatever it points at — so a folder of wedding footage taking up almost no room is a folder of pointers.
Files showing as aliases or shortcuts
Check how much space the folder occupies — that single number decides everything and takes seconds. An alias contains a path and nothing else, a few kilobytes regardless of whether it points at a document or an hour of video. So a folder of footage occupying almost no space contains pointers rather than content, which means the copy duplicated references rather than files, and the material is still wherever the originals were. Each alias records the path it points at, so those are readable and will tell you which volume to look for. If the capacity is consumed as expected, the content is present and the type fields are corrupted — don't run a repair.
Check the folder size first — then call Oxford Data Recovery on 01865 593000; capacity reconciled against item count, reference targets read where items are genuine, structures reconstructed where content is present.
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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.