Data being recovered is unrealistically large. What am I doing wrong?

- I want to restore all the files I threw onto my external hdd before a format.

  • Recuva is saying it needs more space than I can currently provide it with.

  • I’m confused, because the amount of space Recuva says my files need, and the AMOUNT of files found, is not what I actually put on the drive. I copy and pasted 8.65 gb. Recuva claims I need 2900+ GB to restore.

  • What am I doing wrong?

  • Can I somehow adjust my search parameters to only look for what I put on there?

  • Why do I see multiple returns of the files I put on there?

EDITED for brevity.