Question Want to recover files from old windows installation

[Aprillion]

Hello everyone,

Some time ago I had a problem with my PC and had to reinstall windows 10.
I forgot to backup some important files that I really want recovered.

Some information:
It’s a m.2 drive, before it had two partitions and after reinstalling windows, no partitions.

the files were on the old secondary partition and inside the old appdata folder on the main partition.

I’ve tried scanning with Easeus software but could not find the old partition or any of my old files.

Any tips?

 

[rgd1101]

sometime ago? like months? and you were using the system since?

if you overwrote the drive with a new install. unlikely anything is left

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I had a problem with my PC and had to reinstall windows 10.
I forgot to backup some important files that I really want recovered.

since you reinstalled the OS the drive has been wiped & formatted for the new install.

unless you have old backups stored in another location more than likely your old data has become unrecoverable.
always keep separate backups of any important data. most learn this for the first time the hard way.

what types of files were you hoping to restore?

 

[USAFRet]

Being an SSD, and with the passage of time, the TRIM function has almost certainly killed off any hope of full recovery of this data.

 

[Aprillion]

sometime ago? like months? and you were using the system since?

if you overwrote the drive with a new install. unlikely anything is left

It’s like a month ago, had one partition for windows installation and one partition for software related stuff.
After reinstalling windows due to windows not booting anymore I formatted the drive without partitions, only the Local Disk C:.

 

[Aprillion]

since you reinstalled the OS the drive has been wiped & formatted for the new install.

unless you have old backups stored in another location more than likely your old data has become unrecoverable.
always keep separate backups of any important data. most learn this for the first time the hard way.

what types of files were you hoping to restore?

I thought I backed up all the important data, sadly not.
Some of the data are Minecraft worlds and servers that took me years to create, which is sad and painful to lose but not the end of the world.

I always thought that hard drives stored almost all files that were ever on there, therefor hackers in movies always burn or destroy their drives, didn’t know a simple reinstall or overwriting did the trick too!

 

[USAFRet]

I thought I backed up all the important data, sadly not.
Some of the data are Minecraft worlds and servers that took me years to create, which is sad and painful to lose but not the end of the world.

I always thought that hard drives stored almost all files that were ever on there, therefor hackers in movies always burn or destroy their drives, didn’t know a simple reinstall or overwriting did the trick too!

The movies are not real life.

SSDs are not HDDs.

Full drive backups are your friend. You can't "forget" some things.

 

[Aprillion]

The movies are not real life.

SSDs are not HDDs.

Full drive backups are your friend. You can't "forget" some things.

Normally I would do a full backup in such case, but didn’t have a big enough external drive to back it up to, as I had to start my pc with a linux OS on a usb, with a crappy green/purple screen.
Backed up the appdata folder that I already backed up 6 months before, so overlooked the real appdata folder that way.

How does that work with for example an iPhone drive? Could I restore all files that were ever on there or could I disable that the same way?
For when I want to sell my old phone.

 

[USAFRet]

Normally I would do a full backup in such case, but didn’t have a big enough external drive to back it up to, as I had to start my pc with a linux OS on a usb, with a crappy green/purple screen.
Backed up the appdata folder that I already backed up 6 months before, so overlooked the real appdata folder that way.

How does that work with for example an iPhone drive? Could I restore all files that were ever on there or could I disable that the same way?
For when I want to sell my old phone.

"all files that were ever on there"?
No.
Well...if you or the new owner were the NSA/FBI/KGB, maybe, but not really.

There is only X amount of actual space on a drive.
New data overwrites old data. The old no longer exists. At al.
Or if it does, fragments.