Solved Accidently deleted/recreated HDD Volume, did NOT format, need recovery

[Nyarlathotep]

Ok I am going to create a new thread on this, as I had been posting on one dated from 2012 that was an identical issue, but I think starting a new thread would be better.

I have a 1TB Western Digital HDD.

It is not my OS.

It is my data storage drive, with over 850GB of data and applications installed on it; while my OS resides by itself on my SSD.

I also have a small 1GB usb drive.

I was attempting to set up the USB drive as a bootable and was about to wipe it clean.

I was in Disk Management in Windows 7.

The WD showed up as 932GB.
The USB showed up as 934GB

I got the two mixed up, and I accidently deleted the Volume on the WD.

I did nothing else at that point, other then have a complete and total panic attack, nearly lost my dinner into a toilet... then started Googling for a solution or fix.

Google brought me here, to this thread - http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/240221-undelete-hard-disk-volume-recover-data.html

The poster appears to have done the exact same thing I did, and even posted that they found their own solution.

Well the solution was very easy,just few clicks.

Iv downloaded and installed the Free Partition Magic alternative (no need to pay\buy anything).

I run the minitool partition wizard,even after the hard disk volume is deleted you can see all the hard disks physically installed in the list.

So i right click on the hard disk,i click create,apply,restart,and tadaaaa the hard disk is back to life and with everything inside unharmed,programs,data,files etc.

No any undelete program is needed.

I followed their solution precisely, step by step, even downloaded the exact same program that poster claims to have used.

After my reboot however, my HDD was still wiped clean... and I panicked even more.

I then started googling some more, and I found the following...

Active Partition Recovery
EaseUS Partition Recovery Software

I tried the EaseUS first, and it found all my lost data, and claims it can recover it all, but I'll have to "upgrade" their software first by purchasing a $70 version...

Can't afford that, so I then tried the Active Partition Recovery, and it too has found all my Data.

But now I get the following...

It is (34: ) and its files and data that I need recovered... so I am confused as to why it claims there are other partitions over lapping it?

Under "E: Local Disk (2: ) [Excellent]" .. I do not recognize anything. It reports as an active live partition so I am presuming it is the newly recreated volume from my attempt to repeat the solution found in the other thread. The software will delete it, as that picture shows "delete invalid volume" will allow me to recover volume 34...

But the software again, wants me to upgrade by paying $40 for an upgraded version...

SO.

Before I spend money...

Is there ANY other way I can accomplish this, cheaper (free) and quicker?

Once again, to recap, this is where I'm at...

1. Accidentally deleted HDD volume, then recreated new Volume - thinking I was doing so on a USB drive
2. Realized my mistake, realized it was my data storage HDD...
3. Did nothing else...
4. Did not Format.
5. Did not add ANY new data of any kind to drive...
6. Googled for solutions and downloaded programs for partition recovery onto seperate SSD.
7. Ran scans with said software on HDD...
8. Found Data, ready to recover, for a cost...

 

[Nyarlathotep]

So I could really use some help with this...

I'm not too familiar with this Active Partition Recovery program...

Should I just bite the bullet, spend the money to buy their full version that will allow me access to their "delete invalid volume" and "recovery in place" options...

Or is there some other way I can recover this lost volume for free?

 

[gregrocker]

Use Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help which always works if you didn't format.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I tried that, it asked me to pay $69 to recover more then 1GB of data.

So I instead went back to the Active Partition Recovery program, and paid $35 for their standard edition, deleted the "invalid volume" and then recovered the volume I wanted; and now I'm waiting for Windows chkdsk to finish going through 900,000+ files with "replacing invalid security id with default security id for file etc etc etc"

I suspect it will run throughout the night, so we'll see what happens when it finishes...

 

[gregrocker]

Sorry you don't pay attention to detail as we've helped users recover deleted partitions nearly weekly using Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help which has never charged a dime. You were given this much earlier in the crisis by AddRAM in your other thread. Yet somehow you skipped over this crucial step to data recovery which is another field entirely and rarely successful.

I would stop the data recovery scan immediately which will never recover all of your data intact even if "successful" and immediately run the simple partition undelete which works for everyone else. Hopefully this latest blunder will not compound the problem since partition undelete is usually quite simple if you follow the video steps and pay attention to detail.