Question Wiped the same drive twice in 6 months by accident. - - - how is this possible ?

[SyCoREAPER]

How is my luck this <Mod Edit>. bad. Fat fingered in diskpart about 6 months ago and cleaned the wrong drive.

Just now, Disk Management, figured I can't fat finger a GUI, had a drive selected I wanted to format. Made sure it was the right one. Refreshed just to make sure.

Format, low and behold Windows.. screen flashes, format begins and it's not only the wrong drive but the same one as last time.

I'm about to just snap this stupid NVMe SSD in half with how unlucky it's been. NEVER in over 30 years of computing have I formatted the wrong storage device -- till now.

/rant
{
Going to Bed Depressed
}

 

[KingLoki]

If the drive has not been overwritten, you could try recovery software for a start. Cheers

 

[SyCoREAPER]

If the drive has not been overwritten, you could try recovery software for a start. Cheers

I did. Been up until now trying different methods making sure nothing like TRIM would interfere or write to it in the meantime. Can't take it out because of course it's in the slot under the 4090 so I can't get to it. So removing the drive letter was another precaution. Anyway. Nothing worked. It found some of the structure, none of the files. I think it was mostly games so now I'll let me ISP wonder why I downloaded 2TB in less than a day not accounting for the streaming.**

Ironically and in forgot to mention this, the drive that was supposed to be formatted was to back up the one that got erased.

**Angry rant because I'm tired and need to get to bed before getting up in 30 seconds for work. Crapcasts data cap is 1.2TB for the MONTH in some states. Glad i don't use them. That's BS and should be illegal.

 

[KingLoki]

So are you not getting any recovery of files at all?

 

[CountMike]

How is my luck this <Mod Edit> bad. Fat fingered in diskpart about 6 months and cleaned the wrong drive.

Just now, Disk Management, figured I can't fat finger a GUI, had a drive selected I wanted to format. Made sure it was the right one. Refreshed just to make sure.

Format, low and behold Windows.. screen flashes, format begins and it's not only the wrong drive but the same one as last time.

I'm about to just snap this stupid Nvme in half with how unlucky it's been. NEVER in over 30 years of computing have I deleted the wrong disk or drive.

/rant
{
Going to Bed Depressed
}

Been there, done that, now keeping full and regularly updated offline backup. Any problem and back in business in half an hour.
PS. not formatting after midnight.

 

[dwd999]

Why are you using diskpart or disk management and doing this the hard way. All you need to do is click on This PC and then right-click on the drive you want to format, select the format option from the context menu and all should be OK.

 

[USAFRet]

Why are you using diskpart or disk management and doing this the hard way. All you need to do is click on This PC and then right-click on the drive you want to format, select the format option from the context menu and all should be OK.

People make mistakes that way as well.

A good backup routine is your friend.

 

[mmp09]

Look for some third-party Windows PE/Live Windows bootable discs. Boot thru them and see if there are any partition recovery tools on it that might be able to recover.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

How is my luck this <Mod Edit> bad. Fat fingered in diskpart about 6 months ago and cleaned the wrong drive.

Just now, Disk Management, figured I can't fat finger a GUI, had a drive selected I wanted to format. Made sure it was the right one. Refreshed just to make sure.

Format, low and behold Windows.. screen flashes, format begins and it's not only the wrong drive but the same one as last time.

I'm about to just snap this stupid NVMe SSD in half with how unlucky it's been. NEVER in over 30 years of computing have I formatted the wrong storage device -- till now.

/rant
{
Going to Bed Depressed
}

This is why you physically remove all drives except the one you intend to manipulate. You do this no matter how annoying it may be.

 

[JeffreyP55]

How is my luck this <Mod Edit> bad. Fat fingered in diskpart about 6 months ago and cleaned the wrong drive.

Just now, Disk Management, figured I can't fat finger a GUI, had a drive selected I wanted to format. Made sure it was the right one. Refreshed just to make sure.

Format, low and behold Windows.. screen flashes, format begins and it's not only the wrong drive but the same one as last time.

I'm about to just snap this stupid NVMe SSD in half with how unlucky it's been. NEVER in over 30 years of computing have I formatted the wrong storage device -- till now.

/rant
{
Going to Bed Depressed
}

I see you didn't learn the first time to make backups. Depending on the amount of data transfer within a given time I decide how often to backup. Once a week has saved me a few times.
I recommend Acronis. Yes, you pay for it. Buy a backup drive, maybe external USB drive and get busy. Well, next time anyway...

 

[faalin]

Just a thought....... make the drive letter Z and the name of the drive DO NOT FORMAT ME, could help in the long run of not formatting the drive again.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Just a thought....... make the drive letter Z and the name of the drive DO NOT FORMAT ME, could help in the long run of not formatting the drive again.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

So are you not getting any recovery of files at all?

Outside of the structure, 1 .dat file lol. Needless to say that wasn't a success.

Been there, done that, now keeping full and regularly updated offline backup. Any problem and back in business in half an hour.
PS. not formatting after midnight.

That was the plan and usually I'm pretty alert at midnight but good advice. I still don't know what Windows did to change it.

Why are you using diskpart or disk management and doing this the hard way. All you need to do is click on This PC and then right-click on the drive you want to format, select the format option from the context menu and all should be OK.

As I said that was the first time. Second time I used Disk Manager but despite what I clicked, it formatted a different disk.

People make mistakes that way as well.

A good backup routine is your friend.

That was the plan and what I was going to do. Format the intended disk and clone the one that erroneously got erased.

Look for some third-party Windows PE/Live Windows bootable discs. Boot thru them and see if there are any partition recovery tools on it that might be able to recover.

Tried three of the major ones that people said had the highest success rate. Two did diddlysquat, third found one file and the structure.

This is why you physically remove all drives except the one you intend to manipulate. You do this no matter how annoying it may be.

My concern with that is the number of reports of cracked PCBs at the PCIe connector on GPUs as well as removing that stupid 12VHPWR connector that I know is properly seated on mine.
Didn't seem like it was worth the risk to take a drive offline fully that was already eased and low chance of recovery.

I see you didn't learn the first time to make backups. Depending on the amount of data transfer within a given time I decide how often to backup. Once a week has saved me a few times.
I recommend Acronis. Yes, you pay for it. Buy a backup drive, maybe external USB drive and get busy. Well, next time anyway...

I see you didn't read.
I was in the process of backing up. As I said I was prepping the drive that was to be backuup/clone for the one that got wiped from the first time.

 

[USAFRet]

As I said I was prepping the drive that was to be backuup/clone for the one that got wiped from the first time.

Thats why backups need to happen ALL the time, not just to prep before a major upgrade.

If any (or all) of my drives were to be accidentally formatted right now, at most I've lost a few hours work.

 

[CountMike]

One more thing I do with all formatted drives to avoid mishaps is to give them distinctive name beside letter. For instance, "Samsung960 games" or " HDD1 backups2". Letter may change but name stays unless disk is erased.
I have 5 NVMe SSDs in the case and almost dozen HDDs for backups (I put labels on them too) there's no other way I could remember what is where.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Outside of the structure, 1 .dat file lol. Needless to say that wasn't a success.

That was the plan and usually I'm pretty alert at midnight but good advice. I still don't know what Windows did to change it.

As I said that was the first time. Second time I used Disk Manager but despite what I clicked, it formatted a different disk.

That was the plan and what I was going to do. Format the intended disk and clone the one that erroneously got erased.

Tried three of the major ones that people said had the highest success rate. Two did diddlysquat, third found one file and the structure.

My concern with that is the number of reports of cracked PCBs at the PCIe connector on GPUs as well as removing that stupid 12VHPWR connector that I know is properly seated on mine.
Didn't seem like it was worth the risk to take a drive offline fully that was already eased and low chance of recovery.

I see you didn't read.
I was in the process of backing up. As I said I was prepping the drive that was to be backuup/clone for the one that got wiped from the first time.

Sounds like it was first attempt at backing up. If you worked this issue when it first arouse, you wouldn't need help now. Cloning takes extra steps. Which are you trying to accomplish, backing up or cloning? Back up first!

 

[js2]

Bad days happen. Even to the best. Just look at Crowdstrike, and everyday at X!

Always best to reserve such tasks for when you are in the middle of a good day.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Such a presumptuous group. I really don't understand what a few of you don't understand. Maybe If I break it up into smaller sections.

This was to be the beginning of a backup routine for the drive that got wiped erroneously. A simple copy and paste once the drive was prepped.

I was preparing the drive that was going to be used to do said backup because it had files from something else before and was not formatted correctly.

While in Disk Managemen I deleted the partitions until rhere was one partition.

I refreshed all disks to make sure what I saw was accurate. When I clicked reformat, the screen flashed, the disk order changed and it was suddenly formatting the wrong disk.

Something bugged out in Windows and was not displaying correctly and the mini stroke it had seems to have been the triggering point.



So, You cannot have a backup if you never had a backup routine in the first place. This WAS TO BE the beginning of said routine.

 

[Ralston18]

What happened is not Windows having a "mini stroke".

For future reference:

In Disk Management the active lettered drive or partition is indicated by hash marks.

You left click to select the applicable drive and then right click to select menu options - including Format.

For certain partitions (e.g. Recovery) there may not be any presented options other than "Help".

Any disk related actions, especially reformatting, require very careful checking, doublechecking, and then some as each step is taken.

And it is also good practice to disconnect other drives beforehand.

Plus you can have a backup without needing to reformat drives etc. as a prelude to a "backup routine".

 

[SyCoREAPER]

What happened is not Windows having a "mini stroke".

For future reference:

In Disk Management the active lettered drive or partition is indicated by hash marks.

You left click to select the applicable drive and then right click to select menu options - including Format.

For certain partitions (e.g. Recovery) there may not be any presented options other than "Help".

Any disk related actions, especially reformatting, require very careful checking, doublechecking, and then some as each step is taken.

And it is also good practice to disconnect other drives beforehand.

Plus you can have a backup without needing to reformat drives etc. as a prelude to a "backup routine".

🤦
This was going to be THAT backup. That was the day I decided I was going to back up moving forward. I have precisely one spare drive able to hold.
And to remove extra drives just to format one is silly, nobody removed drives from their computer before formatting an external drive.

Calling all members. Do you honestly remove everything from your PC before formatting a thumb drive for example?

And as mentioned, with PCBs supposedly cracking, my card is supported but who knows, that's over $1700 risk to remove drives. Per above and I looked since, one is pretty much under the GPU and since putting in the 4090, the other two are inaccessible without removal either.

My conclusion is my Windows install is borked. As in my previous thread, there are rouge registry keys that I can't remove as User, Admin, or "mock SYSTEM". Though not unusual for some, I find remnants of folders after uninstalling an app scattered in the 20 places Windows feels like it needs to have for 1 application (Local. Roaming, App Data, Program Files. etc.. far too frequently. Devices fail to come online without saying toggling in Display Settings. Folder say they are in use and aren't. Windows occasionally opens phantom Explorer Windows.

My PC is Virus, Malware, Adware, Ransomware and any other kind of infection free you can think of. I think ive just made too many changes both software and hardware over the course of this installs lifetime. Not to mention the half baked H-build updates Windows puts out.

So I'm chalking it up to bad luck and a FUBAR Windows Install. Sometime next month I'm wiping all the drives and starting over. Fresh Windows, Fresh program installs and configurations, no importing anything (except where required ).


Welp I think this rant thread has run its course. Feel free to lock.

 

[CountMike]

🤦
This was going to be THAT backup. That was the day I decided I was going to back up moving forward. I have precisely one spare drive able to hold.
And to remove extra drives just to format one is silly, nobody removed drives from their computer before formatting an external drive.

Calling all members. Do you honestly remove everything from your PC before formatting a thumb drive for example?

And as mentioned, with PCBs supposedly cracking, my card is supported but who knows, that's over $1700 risk to remove drives. Per above and I looked since, one is pretty much under the GPU and since putting in the 4090, the other two are inaccessible without removal either.

My conclusion is my Windows install is borked. As in my previous thread, there are rouge registry keys that I can't remove as User, Admin, or "mock SYSTEM". Though not unusual for some, I find remnants of folders after uninstalling an app scattered in the 20 places Windows feels like it needs to have for 1 application (Local. Roaming, App Data, Program Files. etc.. far too frequently. Devices fail to come online without saying toggling in Display Settings. Folder say they are in use and aren't. Windows occasionally opens phantom Explorer Windows.

My PC is Virus, Malware, Adware, Ransomware and any other kind of infection free you can think of. I think ive just made too many changes both software and hardware over the course of this installs lifetime. Not to mention the half baked H-build updates Windows puts out.

So I'm chalking it up to bad luck and a FUBAR Windows Install. Sometime next month I'm wiping all the drives and starting over. Fresh Windows, Fresh program installs and configurations, no importing anything (except where required ).


Welp I think this rant thread has run its course. Feel free to lock.

Keep in mind that any infected files will still be infected in the backup too. As for Windows, you could try first with "In place upgrade, keeping files and settings" which replaces all system files and even damaged ones. After full and thorough malware scan, just download last Windows version, mount ISO as virtual disk and start SETUP.EXE.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Keep in mind that any infected files will still be infected in the backup too. As for Windows, you could try first with "In place upgrade, keeping files and settings" which replaces all system files and even damaged ones. After full and thorough malware scan, just download last Windows version, mount ISO as virtual disk and start SETUP.EXE.

As I said,100% no infected files so not worried about that. The clean install and no import is to make sure that if there was anything causing corruption in a certain app doesn't do it again. I'll screenshot my configs and painstakingly set them up one by one and then once it's 100% set up, clone the drive. I have fresh installs cloned for every computer but this one. Been a bit lazy with the gaming desktop since by the time I turn it onz all I want to do is game and nothing else with a computer.

As for in place, two reasons I don't want to do that. 1) One of the Mayo changes made to this install was upgrading the key to Pro because I made too many HW changes and MS killed my original key. So it's a mudblood system.
2) I don't like dirty updates. Dirty referring to my Android side. You've got your clean flashes (starting from scratch) and dirty where you flash overtop your existing ROM. To me this is nothing more than a dirty flash in that Windows is repairing and replacing files rather than truly reinstalling itself. I want 0 chance of remnants of this install.

 

[Ralston18]

Agree with @CountMike regarding the risks of infected files.

Even if there are no worries (on your part) about potentially infected files a file does not need to be "infected" to cause problems.

A buggy or corrupted file of any sort can wreak havoc.

As can a perfectly "good" file that encounters some unexpected user tweak or anomaly when trying to install, update, or run.

For this:

"I want 0 chance of remnants of this install."

You need:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-11-clean-install-tutorial.3831442/

Thereafter as soon as you install any apps, games, gaming tweaks/tools, allow updates, edit the registry, and/or reload files from backup sources etc. then you are restarting the cycle of events that likely caused the problems to begin with.

However, you will have your backups and clones and will thus be able to recover when recovery is needed.

 

[COLGeek]

As mentioned by the OP earlier, this thread has run its course. I'll close for you guys now.