Help recovering lost partition

[unknown100500]

I was getting BSOD so I contacted Microsoft. They gave me instructions on how to solve the issue and told me that my files wouldn't be deleted after I followed the instructions. However, something somehow went wrong and I did a clean install of Windows 10 on my computer through a USB, which resulted in deleting EVERYTHING that I had. I checked in the Windows.old folder that was created after the system installed windows, and it didn't have the files that I have lost. In fact everything in it seems useless and irrelevant with what I had before the clean installation. I've looked everywhere, tested a few programs and only EaseUS seems to find the files that I'm looking for. However, in order to recover the files, I have to buy it, and it's not really an option right now. Since from EaseUS I found that the files are there, I'm wondering what other alternatives there are? I'm aware that the software that I had before the clean installation is gone (I'll just redownload most of them) so my main concern is how to recover the documents (pictures,pdfs etc.) I had pre-clean installation. Lastly, if the only way for me to recover the lost docs is to pay, then what's the cheapest way possible. (I believe it can be done without paying though). Thanks in advance.

 

[cherry blossoms]

You can try Recuva:

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

 

[unknown100500]

You can try Recuva:

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

I tried it and after many hours it didn't have the files I was looking for.

 

[cherry blossoms]

I am unaware of a different decent free option, but perhaps others can chime in.

Please remember, the more you are using the drive, the more it is possibly overwriting the data you want to recover.

 

[wpgwpg]

I don't have the "pound of cure", but I always practice the "ounce of prevention" and make regular full system backups to external hard drives. I use the free versions of Macrium Reflect and/or Easeus Todo Backup.