Question Would anyone be able to confirm there's no easy way to recover data after intelligently converting USB storage to an ESD ? No action since.

Aug 19, 2019
16
0
10
Based on a few hours research it looks like purchasing some decent recovery software (e.g. Easus / TestDisk not working out to well so far) is the only way to resurrect all my photos etc from the last 20 years.

If anyone has a few seconds and could take pity on me or alternatively would like to rub it in ... I'd be thankful if the aforementioned could be confirmed.
Forget to think things through for 2 seconds and those goes your Monday.

cheers
Jacks
 
Aug 19, 2019
16
0
10
What started off as a simple Window's upgrade 8.1 - 10 has gone quite wrong.

1st'ly I got caught on the blue freeze screen when my SSD 120GB was able to cope with the 133 Windows updates that were directed my way. After several hours installing them my PC decided things wouldn't fit and began uninstall said updates. This was followed by some (in hindsight) compulsive behaviour which led me to go through the BIOS / recovery option fun-park, all to no avail.

Ended up doing a clean install of Windows 8.1 which lead to the loss off some not too important data.. II run the operating system on the SSD and all other data is kept on my permanently plugged in seagate 500GB external USB drive, despite having a NAS at my disposal ... another wise yet unmotivated series of relocation's due to work hasn't inspired me to set it back up ... again.

End result I lost Microsoft Office programs but did have the Reg.. key for Windows 8 on the side of my desktop Asus 8GB Ram built by a local company for me in 2015. Run Kaspersky Internet Security, which after speaking to them I was also unable to re-install even though I had proof of previous years purchases when the 12 month anniversary occurred. Obtained 30 day trial and only had about 6 weeks left anyway, so no drama there.

So far weren't really that bad, then I realised I had some data on the now overwritten SSD that was reasonably important. Cloned the driive annd gaave it to IT to perform deepscan and make everything ok, this was not possible, too much partition overlapping. Fair enough I thought, <mod edit> happens ... So after re=installing the SSD as core system drive and adding in another 1TB SATA drive to provide a little future proofing I managed to install the drives the wrong way around.

Spent few hours figuring out that I'd prefer Micro Office 19 instead of 365. So to purchase that I needed to upgrade to Windows 10, which given my challenges over the past 2 weeks wasn't going to be too difficult to sort out.

I downloaded the Windows 10 upgrade software and went about installing it, had to go out for a few hours but when I got back yesterday it was hanging on the checking for updates screen ... I thought this seems familiar, I'll just download the installation software too a flashdrive and load it from there, while I was selecting from a number of USB sticks I thought why not just save it to the external USB storage and then move it across to the chosen USB stick after that ... which proved to be a less than wise move, yes indeed!!!

Well long story a little shorter .... I realized the error of my ways instantly and began looking for a therapist to help me move past the last 3 weeks :(

I have run a few recovery programs on the drive and to my surprise (fingers crossed) it looks like around 70% of my data can be saved from the binary abyss!!

Do you know which of the dozen professional programs will retrieve thee most data, I'm reading Active Partition Recovery, Easus and Stellar are the front runners for purely savings the most of mine and my families (kids incl.) memories. I'm not sure about TestDisk it's probably me but the command prompt interface is starting to weigh on me a bit after a couple of long nights in the BIOS environment recently.

Appreciate and assistance you or any others could give.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Aug 19, 2019
16
0
10
as soon as I saved the 32MB boot drive software on the 500GB Seagate external drive I stopped doing anything that involved that drive in order to hopefully preserve any chance I had of getting some of the info back.

It;s worked but only about 70% I was hoping someone may be able to conclusively confirm that recovery software XYZ is best in my situation.

Most of the reviews which are meant to be unbiased seem to be far from that.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
TestDisk.
And don't rely on that "70%".
That number only counts if/when the data is actually retrieved. It may be just be seeing "70%" of the file names.



"all my photos etc from the last 20 years. "
OK, now it's time to rub it in.
Why, for the love of FSM, was this data not backed up in multiple places??
 
Aug 19, 2019
16
0
10
there is no excuse I feel that's worthy of being put forward.
Been a little distracted with my kind hearted ex-wife, 3 trouble mkers and the local family court magistrate ... that said I've been working on my flexibility all day so that I can kick myself in the head :)
 
Aug 19, 2019
16
0
10
in summary from what I've heard here it's just hit and hope for the best situation when it comes to actually retrieving the real files. smoke and mirrors I guess.
 
Adding to your software tools to recover files on hard drives:

Recuva:
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

If the file table was wiped by the format, you would probably have to run it in deepscan mode. This will scan the drive for sector links. You won't get filenames. You'll get linked sectors that may or may not be files. If you have storage to copy to, you can then copy those and sort though them once copied to see what are actual files and what is garbage.
This process takes a LONG time to scan. Depends on how important the data is.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
You do appear to note that you have monumentally goofed and are aware that you need to do a better job backing up in the future, so no need to rub salt into the wound. Usually the purpose is because there are a lot of people that simply won't understand that they need to do better backing up important data in the future.

Have you tried using Recuva? I've had good results with that software in the past.
 

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Along with all the other fine suggestions for your recovery effort, I would also send out emails/texts to all the friends/relatives to ask them for digital copies of all of their pictures that are of interest to you in an effort to re-create what you have lost. It will be a time consuming process, but you may be surprised what others have available.