System update wiped all my work files from my external

About two weeks ago, a system update on my Windows 7 Enterprise work PC wiped a specific folder (one of three on the drive), containing all of my work files, from an external hard drive.

Prior to leaving for the night, I saved my work to the external and rebooted the system, as required my the system admins, so updates can load. When I came in the next morning, the folder containing my working files was missing - the only one of the three folders on the drive. My supervisor confirmed an update was pushed, as he had to reboot immediately upon logging in that morning. Normally, I eject the external before leaving for the day, but I simply forgot to do so that night.

I hooked the drive to a stand-alone system where I have a different data recovery software installed (to restore camera cards, etc.for the office) and was able to recover the missing files, but there's no file structure. The files are broken into type-based folders and all like files are listed numerically therein; e.g. a folder named "PDF" has 690 PDFs named numerically..."1, 2, 3...690.pdf". There's no sign of the e-mail PST files at all because everything is broken down to basic files.

I spoke to a system technician who reocmmended Recuva. I've not yet used it, but I'm hoping and wondering if it will do a better job than the other program used, in restoring the file structure in addition to the files.

Any help offered is greatly appreciated.

Try this . . . RLeqXhH.png

Kroozer - Thanks; I'll give that a try when I get to my office.