Windows 10: External Hard drive formatted / deleted while installing windows 10

Hello there,
I had windows 10 backup on my 1TB WD external hard drive. My 1TB external hard drive was also having all my important files along with pictures and videos. I was using following the step given in this video : How to Install Windows 10 from a USB Flash Drive - YouTube.
After reboot, all my data/files/pics/videos on 1TB got deleted/formatted. When I plug in this hard drive again, it is showing only FAT 32 GB storage instead of showing 1TB. I went to manage and disk management, it is showing below info, which is showing 899.48 GB unallocated.
Can someone please help me how to get back all my deleted/formatted data/files/ics/videos ???
Thanks

:)

 

Windows 10 - formatting external drives to FAT16/32

Hello Brian, try this:

Format USB flash drive or external hard drive into FAT32 using CMD command line

A simple and free way to format your flash drive or external hard drive to FAT32 in brand new Windows 10 is using CMD command line, a built-in FAT32 format tool which enables you to format/create/delete/extend/shrink partition without rebooting the system.
If you want to use this tool to format the flash drive or external hard drive to FAT32, please try the following steps:

1. Open a command window by directly typing CDM in Windows 10 "Search the web and Windows" box. Windows 10 will show you the best match Command Prompt.

2. Type the command "format /FS:FAT32 H:" at the prompt. H is the drive letter of your USB or external hard drive in Windows 10. If it's not for your case, replace the drive letter H with your own letter.

3. Hit Enter. Windows 10 will go ahead and begin formatting the USB flash drive or external hard drive into FAT32.

From:
https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/format-...

 

Windows 10 fails to copy files when copying folders to MyPassport drive

Is there backup or other software that came installed on the drive? This can interfere.

Try removing the files to another folder on the desktop, confirm they all copied, then delete the partition in Disk Management.

Then try creating a new clean partition to move the files back.
https://www.wikihow.com/Format-an-External-Hard...

 

Have you tried checking your primary drive for the windows.old folder? Assuming you chose either the "Keep my files" or the"Remove Everything" options instead of the "Restore Factory Settings" entry, then all of your old files should be stored there.

 

I did that once by mistake with Windows 7. Turns out when I chose to do a clean install I selected the wrong Disk/Partition and Windows erased the drive. Of course, it warned me first that the action would be one way.

I realized a few minutes later when the Partition size that was being used was the wrong size. Lesson learned. Of course, I had backups so no loss. Same for you right? You had backups?

 

Try Minitool Partition Wizard Free to recover the partition(s) on the ext drive
Tutorial: Partition Recovery

 

It appears that what happened was that when you ran the media creation tool to create the Windows 10 USB "flash drive" you selected the external hard drive and Media Creation Tool set up the install media on it - which means it gets reformatted to a 32 GB FAT32 partition. I just tried it, but did not click next. Here is my external USB hard drive connected as Disk 3:





Here is Media Creation Tool on the screen where I would click next to do what you apparently did to your external hard drive:





If I clicked next - I would expect that what the screen says would happen would be what would actually happen. H: drive - a partition on the external hard drive - "The files on your USB drive will be deleted. To keep these files, back them up now to another save location." Apparently the Media Creation Tool isn't smart enough to tell the difference between an external hard drive and a flash drive connected to the USB port.

You can try a partition recovery program, but if the files that were erased were that important you might want to take that drive to a professional company that recovers data.

 

I did selected remove everything and lost all data after restore factory setting.

 

You are right, program did not realize that it was my external hard drive and it did ask me to delete/format drive. It was my mistake I selected to delete/format and lost everything. But do you HAVE ANY IDEA by chance if I can get those files in unallocated space which is showing now ??

 

No backups, 1TB was my back ups and its all gone.

 

For future reference, backup drives usually aren't connected 24x7 and are most definitely not connected when doing any major to the system.

As for your data, you skipped the answer in post #4 on how to get it back.

 

What you say is for getting partition recovery for unallocated size of hard disk. But how it will work after partition ?
Because after partition, unallocated will become new volume and will I be able to get lost files from that new volume ??

 

Right, but I have two query,
1) Should I try to recover data/files,pics from unallocated size of HARD DISK which is showing now ???? OR
2) Create a partition from that unallocated size of HARD DISK and then recover data/files ?
3) Does it work after partition to recover data because new partition will be empty/formated ?

Thanks

 

You would want to do as little to the drive as possible. If you create a new partition on top of the data you want to recover, you make it much more difficult to get your files back. Leave the drive unplugged until you get the software installed and read through the instructions. Then, when you are ready, plug it in and start the steps. You may not be able to get anything back that was over-written by the 32 GB partition.

*Also, as another tip, always label your partitions and drives. If that drive had been labelled BACKUP, you would have noticed when the Media Creation Tool prompted you to format BACKUP.

 

You mean,
First do partition and then use recovery tool to recover data ?
OR
Recover data first using recovery tool and then do partition with simple volume ?