I want to recover my data from a formatted hard disk partition

Question

So this is going to be a long story. And I will try explain this complex story as simple as I can.

At the beginning I have a single hard disk where I have all my data (1TB). I now make two new partitions of 100 gb. So all my data is on the 700 and something gb of partition(LET THIS BE MAINDRIVE PARTITION). Of these two new partitions from MAINDRIVE partition One is for my important data(let this be the important Data drive partition) and the other is for the Ubuntu installation(this is unallocated)(let this be ubuntu drive partition). Now I am trying to install and the tutorial asks me to make several partition along side it (swap area , efi(because Ubuntu says it needs EFI partition or something) etc.).NOTE these all partitions come from ubuntu drive partition . At this point I still have some unallocated space from ubuntu drive partition. I do every thing, the install is complete and the computer asks me reboot so I reboot it but it doesn't load anything not Ubuntu nor windows. Just a black screen and on top left a statement which says no boot device available. So I go into boot device options and select boot from efi file i select ubuntu, i select BOOT and then the second .efi file by mistake. And miraculously the os boots and i am using ubuntu. But the problem is that windows is not booting so I try to fix it.so I formatted the main drive partition(thinking i have a backup of all of my imp. Data on imp. Data drive partition) and created a Windows bootable drive.i load the bootable USB of Windows 10. after loading into the part where it asks you to select which disk partition you want to install your windows on it shows me an error(I'll add a photo of that error if that helps). Then I took a break and thought I'll try to fix it after the break . During the break I remember that I forgot to take an important backup from the maindrive partition which is already formatted so after the panic attack I try to look it up on the internet on how to recover lost data. And they tell me to STOP using my laptop so I shut it down and pray for an answer.

So now I can boot into ubuntu via efi file if that means anything and I have one drive partition with some imp. Files but not all, a formatted main drive partition(which I want to recover data from) and some unallocated space.

Also please try to make the explanations simple.i dont understand much computer.

As a side note this data loss has traumatised me so much that while writing this I was copying after writing each sentence lol.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V59NTQKLtPNTfr5waJzwiwaWb6EMlYlK/view?usp=drivesdk

Answer 1

Anytime I have needed to recover lost files I have always used Photorec. You can download it from https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

The best way to run it would be from another computer entirely with your hard drive placed inside of a drive reader, but if that is not an option then a Linux live USB like the one you used to install Ubuntu is the next best thing. Put the Photorec executables on the usb, boot from that USB, and run it from the terminal using the following instructions.

Step 1: Boot From USB Stick. Run the program by opening the terminal and running the program. sudo photorec - if that doesn't work you may have to navigate to correct directory the photorec executable is located and then do sudo ./photorec

Step 2: Use Up/Down arrow keys to choose the disk you wish to work with and then press Enter.

Step 3: Now there will be three options to choose from i.e. Search, Options, and File Opt. For data recovery, select Search to proceed.

Step 4: Next, you must select a Partition of the hard drive which you wish to scan for deleted files. The information of the file system will be required. Choose Other unless the file system is ext2, ext3, or ext4. in your case I am sure you will want to choose 'other'

Step 5: Once you have selected the partition, you have two options to choose from i.e. Free and Whole. Choose the Free option if you wish to recover your deleted files or Select the whole options if the file system is corrupted. You want to recover files so select Free

Step 6: The next step is to choose the folder/directory where your files were located before deletion. Use Up/Down arrow keys to navigate to the folder of your choice. I would recommend dumping the files in a completely seperate drive like an external hard drive. This is because we do not want to be writing to the old disk until we have recovered the files we were looking for.

Step 7: Once you have selected the folder, the restoring process will begin. Wait for it to complete.

Step 8: IMPORTANT NOTE from the folks at cgsecurity: You should also scan the recovered files with your antivirus/anti-malware program as PhotoRec might have restored some Trojans.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I recommend Sleuthkit https://github.com/sleuthkit/sleuthkit/releases

It the successor to The Coroner's Toolkit.