restore How to restore lost data after reinstalling Windows

[DogLight]

Hi dear forum, my name is Narek.
Recently I reinstalled the Windows and after discovered that I lost all my family photos(almost 600gb).

I tried to install it using my flash drive and went into Bios then I did reinstallation process.

Pc has only one HDD(2 partitions) and both OS and images/videos were on that. 
Now I'm trying to use different apps, but not sure that they can help me.

What do I need to do to get all those data back?
I know that you can help me that's why I'm begging you for help.

[PDifolco]

Did you wipe out your drive ?

If you didn't opt to keep your apps and files when reinstalling windows it's mostly lost forever, unless you got connections in NSA or FBI  

You should have made backups ..

[TrigrH]

2 hours ago, DogLight said:

Hi dear forum, my name is Narek.
Recently I reinstalled the Windows and after discovered that I lost all my family photos(almost 600gb).

I tried to install it using my flash drive and went into Bios then I did reinstallation process.

Pc has only one HDD(2 partitions) and both OS and images/videos were on that. 
Now I'm trying to use different apps, but not sure that they can help me.

What do I need to do to get all those data back?
I know that you can help me that's why I'm begging you for help.

As @PDifolco mentioned your data is pretty much gone IF you deleted your partitions before installing windows, if you DIDNT do that:

 

Your data will be in the windows.old folder on the C drive.

If you only see 1 of the 2 partitions you mentioned you might need to go to disk management and assign a drive letter to the second partition.

 

If all else fails a professional recovery service may help you.

[Dillpickle23422]

57 minutes ago, DogLight said:

Hi dear forum, my name is Narek.
Recently I reinstalled the Windows and after discovered that I lost all my family photos(almost 600gb).

I tried to install it using my flash drive and went into Bios then I did reinstallation process.

Pc has only one HDD(2 partitions) and both OS and images/videos were on that. 
Now I'm trying to use different apps, but not sure that they can help me.

What do I need to do to get all those data back?
I know that you can help me that's why I'm begging you for help.

They're gone. As mentioned by the folks before, they COULD be on another partition, but since you say that they were on the same partition as the OS, and you wiped that partition, to my knowledge you won't get those back. I recommend checking dropbox, if you're signed in, as windows is able to auto-backup there, and there might be some of your photos there. Otherwise, check with other family members to see if they have anything. It really sucks to lose all this stuff, but for the future, I recommend backing these sorts of things up, cloud storage plans are MUCH cheaper and bearable than losing photos and stuff you can't lose.

[FrowningHippo]

5 minutes ago, Dillpickle23422 said:

They're gone. As mentioned by the folks before, they COULD be on another partition, but since you say that they were on the same partition as the OS, and you wiped that partition, to my knowledge you won't get those back. I recommend checking dropbox, if you're signed in, as windows is able to auto-backup there, and there might be some of your photos there. Otherwise, check with other family members to see if they have anything. It really sucks to lose all this stuff, but for the future, I recommend backing these sorts of things up, cloud storage plans are MUCH cheaper and bearable than losing photos and stuff you can't lose.

Why specifically recommend checking DropBox? Why not OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud or hell even Windows back-up. Genuinely curious what makes you call out DropBox specifically. Did OP post something about that?

 

Also. Windows.old is not on a different partition. 

 

Solid advice on the family members and back-ups. I agree.

[GoodBytes]

People never backup until it is too late. Get yourself a NAS or use OneDrive to back up your stuff. You have 1TB if you have Office subscription. You can get Office subscription for free if you are a student.

 

The perhaps better news is that you check your and other members phones and/or camera and hope the images taken where backup there or never deleted.

 

If you are on a HDD instead of an SSD, you might try your luck with data recovery applications. Keep in mind that the more data you write on your system, the less likely you'll be able to recover any of the lost pictures.

 

Sucks happened to me in past. Before we had smart phones. HDD failed in my case. Now I have a NAS solution and offsite backup.

[DogLight]

10 hours ago, PDifolco said:

Did you wipe out your drive ?

If you didn't opt to keep your apps and files when reinstalling windows it's mostly lost forever, unless you got connections in NSA or FBI  

You should have made backups ..

Storage is HDD

I used to have 2 partitions(C, F) OS on C, images on F.

When from BIOS I tried to keep the data on F and wipe data on C, something happened and now all is gone though.

Then during the installation I discovered that now I have 1 partition and(C) and there is no data within.

I haven't done a backup and haven't use a cloud server to keep my data within the cloud(I don't know why).

[DogLight]

10 hours ago, TrigrH said:

As @PDifolco mentioned your data is pretty much gone IF you deleted your partitions before installing windows, if you DIDNT do that:

 

Your data will be in the windows.old folder on the C drive.

If you only see 1 of the 2 partitions you mentioned you might need to go to disk management and assign a drive letter to the second partition.

 

If all else fails a professional recovery service may help you.

Storage is HDD

 

I used to have 2 partitions(C, F) OS on C, images on F.

 

When from BIOS I tried to keep the data on F and wipe data on C, something happened and now all is gone though.

 

Then during the installation I discovered that now I have 1 partition and(C) and there is no data within.

 

I haven't done a backup and haven't use a cloud server to keep my data within the cloud(I don't know why).

[DogLight]

11 hours ago, DogLight said:

Hi dear forum, my name is Narek.
Recently I reinstalled the Windows and after discovered that I lost all my family photos(almost 600gb).

I tried to install it using my flash drive and went into Bios then I did reinstallation process.

Pc has only one HDD(2 partitions) and both OS and images/videos were on that. 
Now I'm trying to use different apps, but not sure that they can help me.

What do I need to do to get all those data back?
I know that you can help me that's why I'm begging you for help.

Sorry guys I'm using the app for the first time.

Storage is HDD

I used to have 2 partitions(C, F) OS on C, images on F.

When from BIOS I tried to keep the data on F and wipe data on C, something happened and now all is gone though.

Then during the installation I discovered that now I have 1 partition and(C) and there is no data within.

I haven't done a backup and haven't use a cloud server to keep my data within the cloud(I don't know why).

[DogLight]

10 hours ago, Dillpickle23422 said:

They're gone. As mentioned by the folks before, they COULD be on another partition, but since you say that they were on the same partition as the OS, and you wiped that partition, to my knowledge you won't get those back. I recommend checking dropbox, if you're signed in, as windows is able to auto-backup there, and there might be some of your photos there. Otherwise, check with other family members to see if they have anything. It really sucks to lose all this stuff, but for the future, I recommend backing these sorts of things up, cloud storage plans are MUCH cheaper and bearable than losing photos and stuff you can't lose.

Is there way somehow to rollback the windows to the prior state?

Really I don't know what app do I need to use to recover. If you guys have any suggestions related to apps could you please provide me the names of those apps so I can simply try.

[PDifolco]

31 minutes ago, DogLight said:

Is there way somehow to rollback the windows to the prior state?

Really I don't know what app do I need to use to recover. If you guys have any suggestions related to apps could you please provide me the names of those apps so I can simply try.

You cannot rollback data wipe ...

Seems you've lost your partitioning in the process, but still you can check with diskpart to confirm

[GoodBytes]

Being an HDD and a separate drive, you can try your luck with https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

 

Do NOT install or put any new data on that HDD, else you will really lose the data.

Recovered data should also be recovered on a separate drive.

 

[Dillpickle23422]

16 hours ago, FrowningHippo said:

Why specifically recommend checking DropBox? Why not OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud or hell even Windows back-up. Genuinely curious what makes you call out DropBox specifically. Did OP post something about that?

 

Also. Windows.old is not on a different partition. 

 

Solid advice on the family members and back-ups. I agree.

I don't specifically recommend this.I  meant to say OneDrive, as It comes pre-installed on windows, and might have been set up by default to back up. I was just mentioning where some photos could have been backed up. I don't like dropbox lmao

[DogLight]

16 minutes ago, Dillpickle23422 said:

I don't specifically recommend this.I  meant to say OneDrive, as It comes pre-installed on windows, and might have been set up by default to back up. I was just mentioning where some photos could have been backed up. I don't like dropbox lmao

Oooh, now I got it. I have seen OneDrive but never used it before.

[DogLight]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Being an HDD and a separate drive, you can try your luck with https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

 

Do NOT install or put any new data on that HDD, else you will really lose the data.

Recovered data should also be recovered on a separate drive.

 

You're saying that I should use a different storage? At the moment I don't have one:(

Now I'm trying to use Recuve. It literally showing 3mln files, but as I see most of them are garbage. Is there a way to somehow reduce the result so I can only get files jpg,png and mov for instance?

 

[DogLight]

1 hour ago, DogLight said:

You're saying that I should use a different storage? At the moment I don't have one:(

Now I'm trying to use Recuve. It literally showing 3mln files, but as I see most of them are garbage. Is there a way to somehow reduce the result so I can only get files jpg,png and mov for instance?

 

I'm using the app and it shows a ton of files. I recover them with chunks but I can see bunch of duplicates of videos and images with different names.
The only thing that's remaining is how to remove those duplicates?

[FrowningHippo]

5 hours ago, Dillpickle23422 said:

I don't specifically recommend this.I  meant to say OneDrive, as It comes pre-installed on windows, and might have been set up by default to back up. I was just mentioning where some photos could have been backed up. I don't like dropbox lmao

Oh, that does make more sense. I understand.