Wish I hadn't missed that post, SIW2. I would have finished this problem yesterday. Thank you both for the help.
So here is the breakdown:
Active@File Recovery scan takes all of 5 minutes and it found every file on the entire drive. All file names were intact and in the original folders.
Getdataback 3 star scan takes about 20 minutes keeps the files intact in their folders, HOWEVER, it listed many file folders as empty when they were not. Deeper scan?
GDB 4 star scan takes about 7 hours, I did not wait for the results. I was interupted by rereading your suggetion about Active@File Recovery.
GDB costs $80. Active@File Recovery with the discount code costs $25.
Active@File Recovery listed the files out as though they were in Windows explorer, with a simple "recover" button that would copy them to the drive and file of my choice. I was able to choose a single file, a n entire folder or shift select a hole line of items. Copy was fast.
This software also allowed a search of files by type, as many types in one search as you needed. *.jpg;*.pfd;*mp4... and so on. All these functions were fairly self explanatory for a non superstar guru like the 2 of you. I found GDB software to be quite a bit more difficult to navigate and to figure out.
Since I have an older backup of the drive (6 months old, I know... stupid) I didn't want to have to sift through an entire copy and remove duplicate files. Active@File Recovery made that easy.
Active@File Recovery also gives a free version that you can run to see what it finds for you, so if it didn't work, you are not out anything but a few minutes. Having ran many scans with different software that took hours on end to run, I truly wish I had ran this program FIRST.
I hope this helps anyone in this situation or one similar.
Thank you Jumanji and SIW2 for sticking with me while trying the different programs. You two really are good people. Thanks for taking the time for a stranger.
