PLEASE HELP ME! I've lost my files!

[JaredB]

Here's the situation.

 

I had Windows 7 installed on a 1.5 TB WD Caviar Green

 

I just installed Windows 8 on a new SSD.

 

I had a secondary WD Caviar Green 3TB HDD for storage.

 

I moved all of my data I wanted to keep from my old 1.5TB HDD to my new 3TB HDD.

 

Then I formated the 1.5TB so that I could use it as back up for my files, but I didn't do that right away.

 

After an update that prompted a re-boot, I re-started my PC, and when I did Windows 8 did some automatic file repair thing as I booted up, and now ALL of the OLD files on the 3TB are gone, and only the new stuff I kept from my old HDD are there.

 

I tried error checking, but it said that the drive was fine.

 

When I look at the drive properties, it says that only 612 GB of data is used, but there was over 1TB of data on the drive before I started.

 

I dont need all of that back because it was mostly movies and TV which I can re-download, but there is some other stuff that I really need and want to get back.

 

I am currently in the process of using a data recovery tool called Recuva to look for the data, ann it says this:

 

It says that it found over 100,000 files, but when I look at the properties of all the stuff that's left on the drive I get this:

 

That says about 98,000 files. Could that be some of the missing files or is that something else.

 

Either way in the case that this doesn't help I would like some thoughts and suggestion on what the problem could be and/or how I could fix this.

 

ANY help would be greatly apreciated.

 

Thank you.

[Helltech]

Yeuck, you got a mess. Word of advice, and i know it sounds like hindsight, whenever you start installing OS and reformatting drives you should always unplug any drive you don't want touched.

I'm sorry I have no ways to fix your problem.

 

Did you happen to have Windows 7 and Windows 8 installed at the same at any point? I had a HECK of a time with Windows 8 screwing up because I had a HDD plugged in that had Windows Vista on it. 

[snkmoorthy]

Download and run http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk in diagnostic mode.

[JaredB]

Download and run http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk in diagnostic mode.

If Recova doesn't work, I'll try that. Thanks.

[godlikegohan]

been there.. I learned the hard way. 10 years ago. ( unplug all drives). only have the drive the os is going on plugged in . when installing a os

i use

http://www.easeus-backup.com/data-backup-and-recovery-freeware.htm

or

http://store.krollontrack.com/index.html?Cur=840&Langue=en_US

 

just make sure any data you recover .goes to a different drive. , don't write any data to your drive that your trying to recover data from

and if you can not get your data back

think about , pulling the drive and bring to a (  good ) computer store. they will have much better recovery software

[fracking4oil]

Look to see if there's a Windows.old folder or other .old folder, I believe when Windows make a .old folder it compresses the data which would explain why you're showing less than you started with.

[AndrewReaganM]

Yes, look for a Windows.old. You may have to turn off hidden files to see it though. What was on the drive?

[ionbasa]

I second the suggestion for TestDisk, it has (almost) never failed me.