I wiped a portable HDD using the standard Windows 11 format prompt (not Quick Format). I ran Recuva afterwards to ensure nothing was left. In Recuva settings, I had enabled everything in Scanning except non-deleted files. During the scan, it said it found at least 24 files. After the scan completed, the results at the status bar at the bottom said “Found 0 file(s) (25 ignored)”. Presumably the 25 ignored files include the found files mentioned while it was scanning? Are these ignored files all non-deleted files since that was the only thing I didn’t enable? When I open the drive in explorer and view properties it only counts 1 file over 3 folders (2 folders in the root: $RECYCLE.BIN [containing Recycle Bin], and an inaccessible System Volume Information). Recuva v1.54.120 64-bit.
Possibly/probably hidden files relating to the formating?
Drive type, partion sizes, cluster sizes, drive letter, drive name, etc. etc.
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I guess. I did a scan on another formatted portable HDD, this time including non-deleted files, and there were also 25 files, most with filenames starting with $, and others like WPSettings.dat, IndexerVolumeGuid, desktop.ini. Nothing recognizable as being user data.
Yes the $ at the start usually indicates system files.