I've lost all of my steam game data

[Joe_106]

Hello, I wanted to do a clean install of windows 10 on my system and before doing so I had thoroughly looked through all of my docs to keep. I had copied the whole steam folder onto an external hard drive to then put back onto this hdd once I had reinstalled windows. Once I had put everything back into place I launched a game to find out that none of my games save data is on it anymore and it's the same for every game..
Why haven't I got any of my games save data? and is there a way to get it back?
(I also just tried deleting steam/uninstalling and reinstalling but nothing has changed)

 

[getochkn]

Because the stream folder, usually under your program files, contains just the programs. The actual saves for games are stored a lot of time under your documents, or other areas.

 

[little_me]

As getochkn said, a lot of times (nearly 99% of time, rare exceptions exist) steam games store their saves under your profile not the steam/game folders.
Following is a list of possible places: (other places are also possible but more rare)
C:\Users\<profilename>\Documents\My Games
C:\Users\<profilename>\Documents\<game studio name>
C:\Users\<profilename>\AppData\Local\<game name or game maker studio name>
C:\Users\<profilename>\AppData\LocalLow\<game name or game maker studio name>
C:\Users\<profilename>\AppData\Roaming\<game name or game maker studio name>

If you didn't make a backup copy of your whole profile folder before wiping the disk, said save games are more or less likely gone.
In theory, undeleting software might find bits of them but after wipe, windows reinstall, reinstall of all programs and other things, likelihood that said space has not been reused and remaining bits overwritten is nearly none.

 

[Joe_106]

okay thanks, I have actually found a few under \Users\profile\docs\my games and one other loose in my docs.. unfortunately there are still some missing.. i'll just have to watch out for next time