Question Files totaly disappeared after copying them to external HDD

Grabps

Reputable
Jun 30, 2017
8
0
4,520
Greetings Everyone!

I have encountered a very inconvenient problem yesterday and I need your help.

Scenario:
  1. There is a Lenovo T420 laptop with Windows 7 operating system on it and I wanted to install a Windows 10 instead.
  2. On the laptop there was around 32GB personal data - all included in one folder on the desktop -, so I copied them to a 1TB Samsung Story Station external HDD (HX-DU010EBA62).
  3. After the copying process has finished, I removed the USB cable, restart the laptop, boot from a pendrive into the W10 installer, where I deleted the partitions, recreated the needed ones and installed the new operating system. (The laptop has a 160GB Intel SSD inside.)
  4. After I have finished every update and every settings, I wanted to copy back the files from the external HDD to the SSD, but there were none of them.
What I have tried so far:
  • Checking the external HDD with a Windows 7 system - NO SUCCESS
  • Run EaseUs Data Recovery Wizard on the external HDD - NO SUCCESS
  • Run EaseUs Data Recovery Wizard on the SSD - NO SUCCESS
  • Run Stellar Data Recovery on the SSD - NO SUCCESS
What I totally not understand is: If I fail the copy process and that is the reason why there is no data on the external HDD. On the SSD there must be some file fragments from that 32GB, that the recovery softwares could find, a photo, a pdf document or an excel, but there is not a single one of them in the scan results. The whole drive seems to be purified.

If Anybody has been in my shoe or just know something usefull in this topic please help!
Thank You in advance!
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Unfortunately the process missed the very necessary "Step 2.5":

Verify that all copied files are recoverable and readable. Make at least 2 sets of copies and verify all sets. Delete nothing before verifications are complete.

An all too often over-looked or ignored step.