It could be barely overkill, however I presently have three totally different drives in my PC. At the moment, I’ve an SSD that homes my OS and some smaller video games, leaving sufficient room for Home windows to operate correctly. Alongside that, I’ve an NVMe drive that homes a massive collection of games that I’ve organized together from Epic, GOG, Steam, and other libraries. Lastly, I’ve a 2TB Seagate Firecuda that has all of my images, movies, and different information that I do not use as typically. Nicely, for about 20 panicked minutes on a Saturday afternoon, that HDD was fully cleared out, due to a whole mistake that I made.

I ran to Google, hoping to seek out out if my Disk Supervisor mistake may very well be remedied. That is the place I found TestDisk, and I must sing its praises, as a result of it saved every little thing I assumed I misplaced.

TestDisk appears like a miracle employee

I assumed I used to be up the creek with out a paddle

TestDisk Terminal Credit score: Shaun Cichacki/MUO

To place my embarrassment on the entrance line, I meant to pick out a flash drive that I had inserted to delete and format. However shortly after choosing Delete Quantity, I spotted that I had picked the flawed drive. An sincere mistake that had me reevaluating all the alternatives I made up so far. So, I jumped onto Google and began looking out to see if it was attainable to get well what I would just deleted, since I hadn’t formatted the drive.

Earlier than coming throughout TestDisk, I attempted a number of different beneficial packages, solely to seek out they could not do what I wanted. However TestDisk’s step-by-step guide was extremely helpful, and I used to be in a position to fully salvage every little thing that I assumed I misplaced. If you end up in an analogous state of affairs, learn via each step fastidiously and comply with it verbatim. Take your time, and hopefully you will be simply as fortunate as I used to be.

TestDisk-logo

OS

Home windows, MacOS, Linux

Model

7
.3

Plan Choices

Free

Providers

Information Restoration


Utilizing a terminal-based UI wasn’t as exhausting because it seemed

Do not let the interface scare you away from making an attempt this one out

Utilizing the terminal is one thing that a variety of Home windows customers seemingly do not do. It is fully comprehensible why they might not accomplish that, both. It is quite daunting, particularly for somebody who is not accustomed to it. Linux customers seemingly love terminals and command strains, and whereas I’m slowly learning more about the Linux world, making an attempt to navigate via a terminal whereas in panic mode was barely terrifying. What would occur if I enter one thing incorrectly?

After calming myself down a bit, I spotted that this was nowhere close to as terrifying because it seemed. There are a good variety of steps that customers might want to comply with, however so long as you learn fastidiously and comply with the entire prompts as proven, this ought to be attainable for customers of all ability ranges. In the event you’re a visible/audio learner, this tutorial by Freebooter on YouTube also can information you thru the required steps to get well your information.

Disk space stats visible on the WizTree app on Windows 11


I cleaned 200GB of hidden junk using a Windows tool no one talks about

A fast storage scan revealed 200GB of junk Home windows fully missed.

TestDisk saved my information and taught me a lesson

Typically, gradual and regular actually does win the race

Windows Disk Management showing two disks installed.
Screenshot by Yasir Mahmood

It appears like each day is shifting by sooner and sooner for some cause or one other. Or no less than, it does to me. But when this expertise has taught me something, it is that I must decelerate and ensure that I am making the fitting decisions earlier than committing to them. To be truthful, this was an extremely nice studying expertise — nevertheless it’s one which I do not wish to should revisit if I haven’t got to. By taking only a few further moments to overview the modifications that I used to be making, as an alternative of making an attempt to fly via Disk Administration as rapidly as attainable to get again to my present challenge, I’d by no means have needed to check this out.

However, in a approach, I am glad that I nearly misplaced all of my information. Does that make any sense? I realized a couple of implausible program, one which I could not have in any other case found. Greater than something, I realized that I must decelerate and take issues one step at a time, regardless that I have been utilizing these explicit packages for so long as I can bear in mind.

In the event you already formatted your drive, it might be too late

TestDisk looks as if a miracle employee, however even it has its limits

A SATA HDD connected to a HP Laptop via SATA to USB cable.

Information Restoration is horrifying, particularly if you happen to’ve carried out one thing you could not have the ability to come again from. Fortunately, I had solely deleted the partition and hadn’t formatted my drive after I spotted what I had carried out. Whereas I’ve not needed to check out this characteristic, TestDisk could solely give you the option to take action a lot if you happen to’ve absolutely formatted the drive that you just’re hoping to get well. There should be some hope if you happen to’ve gone a step additional than I did, nonetheless.

Some people on Reddit’s r/DataRecovery have talked about that different packages like R-Studio or GetDataBack may fit higher than TestDisk if the drive has been absolutely formatted. As I discussed earlier than, I’ve not needed to check this out myself, so I can’t converse to the outcomes that different customers have had. I’ll say that if these packages work half in addition to TestDisk does, then they need to be pre-installed on every PC like other open-source programs should be.

I am past grateful that TestDisk exists

However I am additionally going to begin backing my stuff up now, simply in case

I’ve spent an terrible lot of time constructing a correct offline library of my media, music, and movies. If I had been unable to get well this partition, I’d have misplaced a ton of images and movies that imply the world to me. Pets that I’ve liked and misplaced through the years, recollections of my youthful years, and a lot extra — gone within the click on of a button. I understand now that I should be good and begin making backups of all of this.

Now, I simply must resolve whether or not to again up every little thing within the Cloud or put money into an enormous exterior exhausting drive to begin backing up every little thing onto. Perhaps I will go along with the second choice, since TestDisk does work on exterior exhausting drives, too. Who is aware of — understanding me, I will find yourself doing this once more in some unspecified time in the future or one other.


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