All Personal files deleted, need help recovering

[watley94]

Hello, i have a samsung qx411-w01 and i was having issues with it such as blue screen crashes, several program crashes etc. Unfortunately, my system restores got cleaned out and there was not a way to go back before the errors started. I decided to use Samsung Recovery Solutions to restore my windows files but instead of a quick restore i mistakenly did a complete restore which restored my entire windows drive (not just folder) and deleted ALL my personal files and reverted my computer to the state it was when i got it in 2012. Im currently trying to get my files back using recuva but everything is disorganized and i have no idea how to get it all back... I want to recover entire folders but the files are scattered. I mostly just want music, playlists, pictures, documents, videos, pdfs, etc. Im not worried about reinstalling the programs and settings. I havent been touching my computer much because i dont want deleted files to get overwritten. I really need help restoring my computer to what it was, what should i do? Please help

 

[fireberd]

The problem is, if the location where the data is you want to recover has been written over, during the restore, its not accessible.
With the restore to factory settings, many user data areas have already been overwritten.

I used Recuva one time to try and recover some user files after an OS corruption (caused by a motherboard failure) and my backup software failed me (Acronis at the time) would not restore. I did not do anything to the drive. Some of my user files were recoverable and some were not. I just counted myself lucky for the ones I did recover.

But, this is also a lesson on why backups are needed. Not for IF they will ever be needed, but for WHEN they are needed.

I have since dumped Acronis True Image and moved on to Macrium Reflect for backups and no more problems with restoring.

 

[watley94]

The problem is, if the location where the data is you want to recover has been written over, during the restore, its not accessible.
With the restore to factory settings, many user data areas have already been overwritten.

I used Recuva one time to try and recover some user files after an OS corruption (caused by a motherboard failure) and my backup software failed me (Acronis at the time) would not restore. I did not do anything to the drive. Some of my user files were recoverable and some were not. I just counted myself lucky for the ones I did recover.

But, this is also a lesson on why backups are needed. Not for IF they will ever be needed, but for WHEN they are needed.

I have since dumped Acronis True Image and moved on to Macrium Reflect for backups and no more problems with restoring.

I already feel bad for somehow losing my system restores, i know how bad of a situation im in to also not have back ups when something like this happens...

 

[Mark Phelps]

Personally, I would recommend using Active@File Recovery to see if you can get your files back. You can get it at Active@ File Recovery searches for lost & deleted files, recovers damaged volumes, disks & RAIDs The free version is file size limited, but the paid version does not cost much and it works great.

 

[watley94]

Personally, I would recommend using Active@File Recovery to see if you can get your files back. You can get it at Active@ File Recovery searches for lost & deleted files, recovers damaged volumes, disks & RAIDs The free version is file size limited, but the paid version does not cost much and it works great.

Thanks for your reply and recommendation. I checked active out and it actually does seem better than recuva. Im actually doing a superscan right now as we speak. I like how the quick scan allows you to see deleted files on the hard drive by navigating to the folder(s) they were suppose to be in. However, it seems like the superscan doesn't have the ability to show the original location of a file.. Thats gonna make it very difficult and time consuming to find and put 1000s of wanted files back in their place out of a huge group of unwanted files. Im going to wait until the scan finishes to see how much more organized active can make these files but if you know something, please give me more advice.. Is there a way to know the original file location of the files superscan finds? Will the files have their original file name? Can you get into more detail on why you prefer active over recuva and stuff?