Not detecting files from External Hard Drive used for windows 10 install

[Steve111222]

Hey, I accidently formatted my drive by installing the windows 10 stuff onto it, when i try to use Recuva to restore these files, it doesn't find most of them - the whole 1.5TB of them
Can anyone help me with how to restore them all? Other programs can detect them but i dont want to spend 70$ just for that. THanks     Looks like this ^ 

[Andavari]

It needs to have a file system, such as NTFS which the drive would've had by default.

Of course there are other recovery tools if you search the Internet which can read and restore from an unformatted or RAW drive without a file system however those are often not freeware.

[Steve111222]

3 hours ago, Andavari said:

It needs to have a file system, such as NTFS which the drive would've had by default.

Of course there are other recovery tools if you search the Internet which can read and restore from an unformatted or RAW drive without a file system however those are often not freeware.

So there's nothing Recuva can do? 
If i were to format the drive would that make it recoverable or just (as i would suspect) delete all of the info on it?
Thanks alot

[Guest johnccleaner]

Formatting the drive (such as to NTFS) definitely runs the risk of damaging the data further; if you do a Quick Format, it's unlikely to 'delete all of the info', but it will almost certainly do some damage to the data in the space being formatted.

Like Andavari said, Recuva will require that a valid partition be in place, so to use Recuva on this drive, you'd need to format it. More information on what's required is listed here: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045243332

If you do decide to go ahead with the format, please look here: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048890271 for info on configuring Recuva to be able to scan the newly formatted drive.

Otherwise, if you don't want to risk losing any more data, it might be better to use a program that can work with unpartitioned space, or turn the drive over to a full-service data recovery service so they can work on it further. 

[Dean Stewart]

I just did the same 1.8TB reformatted default (quick) and Recuva deep scan has found 430679 files with a day to go (est. time) [7% progress], but none of the files have a directory tree after a quick scan and cancel. 

 

I do hope there is a better solution.  I also wonder if the MFT was wiped doing this format.  argh MS win10 I eat your liver.

 

[Augeas]

Of course the MFT was recreated during the format, that's what a format does. The MFT should contain about 20 or so system files and nothing else.

A deep scan will not return any directory information, as this is held in the MFT. You would be better off running a normal scan with Scan for Non-Deleted Files checked. This is fast and, if successful, will return much of what you want.