Windows 10: Recovering recently lost files

Please can somebody help.

I am a photographer, I'm trying to recover .CR2 images that I had created and saved from the past few months.

I had to reinstall Windows 10 the other day, after the laptop froze when using Spotify, and I turned off the laptop without Shutting Down, before waiting for it to unfreeze (as it usually does).


I then had the ‘inaccessible boot drive’ message when I booted up. I couldn’t repair Windows so unfortunately so I had to reinstall it.


After installation, I was hoping I’d be a able to access all my old files in Windows.old. However upon opening, the file there were no files to be seen, just Windows.old> users > default > pictures - and then nothing in there, or in any folder such as documents and My name seems to be missing from ‘users’ and there is just ‘Default’ instead.


So this my first issue, I was wondering if anyone had any advice or ideas please?

I have looked all through my PC and used Shadow Exlorer app and have found nothing.

Also, I have tried numerous recovery apps, they all seem to come back with this same issue. I have used undelete, recovery, and damaged partition options with many apps, all with the same result:

Every Canon CR2. image file that is being recovered, is onlyy from 2015, (plus there are no folders at all), and all files are renamed just as fnumbers such as :f219824496.cr2. Some are corrupted with block colours through half the image, some are pure fuzz, and there are thousands of duplicates!


However I just need about 30 files from the past couple of months,(these are the only ones I stupidly forgot to backup!) but nothing from at all from 2016 is showing up. Literally thousands of duplicated image files are being recovered that are only a selection from 2015 (not every image from 2015 either), but nothing from this year.


Does anyone have any ideas about why I cannot retrieve files from this year?

Thank you.

:)

 

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Can anyone help me with this ?

 

Hi, a bit puzzled, if you reinstalled Windows (i.e. a clean install of Win 10??) there wouldn't be a Windows.old unless you'd also done, say, the anniversary upgrade.

Or did you, say, go thru the unnecessary process of installing (say) Win 8.1 and then upgrading? The only way that would be of benefit would be if you'd restored an image of (e.g.) Win 8.1 and the upgraded to '10 to preserve the programs, settings and data in that image.

If you did a clean re-install, you wouldn't find any data, unless your data was on other partitions than C:.

Maybe you could clarify, as clearly you do have some data accessible. What you describe sounds like partially overwritten photos being recovered.

On which partition or disk do you hope to find the photos?

 

Gosh, I'm sorry for your trouble. If the disk recovery tools you've tried aren't finding those files, you may have to turn to a commercial disk recovery service instead. Check these tools from a 2014 Tom's Hardware story to make sure nothing works for you first and foremost. If you're still out of luck, run this Google search and pick a vendor. Of the page 1 results, KrollOntrack, Seagate, and Crown City all get good ratings. It will probably cost you $200 or more to get those files back but if it's your livelihood, it's probably worth it.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thanks for your reply.

It was a clean install, there was an option to keep files, but I couldn't use that because Windows 10 wouldn't accept my password. I could be wrong, but I think I remember a message saying files will be in Windows.old. As I said the folder is there, but with nothing in it.

I was hoping to find them on disk C; I just find it unusual that all these recovery tools found older files, but not the most recent.

 

Many thanks for this. I am based in the UK, so I will look up some data recovery companies here.

 

Lost Desktop Files - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums
- see post #30.

Still not sure if this is applicable to your scenario in terms of how you reinstalled, which sounds more like an in-place upgrade repair given the option to Keep files (which you said you couldn't use). So there's a very good chance your files have been overwritten.

Certainly some who did that have reported losing personal files - there are several threads on this topic.
E.g. search the forum for
Lost files after upgrade

 

You really need to be maintaining backups of your files. All files of any importance should have at least one backup copy, 2 or more backup copies if they are of particular importance. There are too many ways to loose data to be without backups and files on a laptop are subject to additional risks. Recovery methods after an incident cannot be relied on.