Accidentally formatted hard drive

[Japsert]

Hi there.

 

About an hour ago, I started installing Elementary OS (don't ask about it, I like it). I emptied up a drive and backed it all up. However, when I went to select the drive in the installation, I picked the 500GB one (which is now gone) instead of the 1TB one, which I should've picked. This was entirely by error. So, installation done, I go and try boot from the correct (1TB) drive and it sends me back to Windows. I open Explorer, and, a heart attack ensues.

 

Is there any non-sending off your hard drive way to regain all my files? I'm currently running EaseUS disk recovery, but I don't know how well/much that'll recover.

[Hairless Monkey]

5 minutes ago, Japsert said:

I'm currently running EaseUS disk recovery

Was what I was going to suggest.

 

Any files that the new OS over-wrote will be gone.

 

Edit: for this reason and others, it's always a good idea to only have one drive plugged into the system when installing Operating Systems. Unfortunately you had to learn the hard way. 

[Japsert]

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Was what I was going to suggest.

 

Any files that the new OS over-wrote will be gone.

The drive contained primarily Steam games, some other software and images. Can I expect to get most of that back?

[Kilrah]

Probably not, at least not in a usable state. 

[Eigenvektor]

Since the drive was not just formatted but a new OS was installed on it, there’s a fairly high chance the files were overwritten and can’t be recovered

[Japsert]

I'm getting previews of recovered files from EaseUS, and as far as I can see it's going a good job. I'm getting textures from at least some games I had installed on it.

[Eigenvektor]

3 minutes ago, Japsert said:

I'm getting previews of recovered files from EaseUS, and as far as I can see it's going a good job. I'm getting textures from at least some games I had installed on it.

I’d worry more about personal files. Games and software can always be re-downloaded and installed, personal files cannot.

 

It will only be able to recover files that were not overwritten by the new OS

[nick name]

If you want another program to try then give Recuva a try.  It will tell you if any of the sectors for a file were overridden.  I'm not sure if EaseUS does that so I am making mention.  

[SpookyCitrus]

Recuva and Get Data Back are alright too, however since a new OS was installed over the files it's likely they were overwritten, while it will get some files back they will most likely be corrupted. Don't worry about games, you can just reinstall them, worry about personal files you need like documents and pictures. Again you may not get much back due to corruption but there is a chance you'll get some things back.

[Japsert]

Well, I've lost everything.

Good thing is, I'm not missing a lot right now, so most doesn't seem to be important.

Thank you for your help.

[GoodBytes]

4 hours ago, Japsert said:

Well, I've lost everything.

Good thing is, I'm not missing a lot right now, so most doesn't seem to be important.

Thank you for your help.

For your important stuff, you should have a backup.

Windows has everything you need to set this up. My recommendation is to use Windows File History feature.