HDD Files Lost after New Windows

Diesmile on 24/10/2022 - 23:56
Last edited 25/10/2022 - 09:36 by 1 other user

Dear OzBargain, I seem to have a tricky question here, hope someone can help me.

I have a HDD with work related sensitive information on it. Because my wife and my kids also access my computer for their work, I set a permission for me to access the HDD only.

A few days ago, I installed a new m2 SSD with fresh windows on it. As a result, I am unable to access my HDD. I added my user in the security/permission, but about 8tb of data seems missing.

I tried a few things, play around with permissions deleted the previous user permission and I even tried to boot in my old SATA HDD Windows, but not successful.

Can anyone give me some ideas or put me into the right direction?

Thanks.

Computing Computer Component Hard Drive

Comments

  • AustriaBargain on 25/10/2022 - 00:06
    +1

    Why wouldn't you be able to boot your old hdd, did you wipe it?

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:07

      the old windows was installed on a sata ssd, seems to unable to boot into, whenever i select the ssd, it says missing files and need repair/recovery mode.

      • AustriaBargain on 25/10/2022 - 11:07

        What happens when you put it in repair/recover mode.

        • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:13

          when i plug in the windows installation usb, it just try to reinstall windows.

          • AustriaBargain on 25/10/2022 - 11:24

            @Diesmile: How important are these files? Is it worth paying someone to try and recover them. Maybe your employer will pay for it.

  • avoidfullprice on 25/10/2022 - 00:09

    8tb of data seems missing.

    How big was your hdd again? Was that an NTFS volume comprising multiple hdd?

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:07

      it was a single ntfs volume of 14tb hdd

  • Empharand on 25/10/2022 - 00:18
    +2

    Depends if you asked Windows to format the HDD before install, if you did then you may be able to use a file recovery application to recovery some of the files as Windows only does a quick format when formatting prior to an OS install as it just resets it to 1's and 0's ready to be written over again and doesn't actually perform a low-level format; however my experience with File Recovery software (Both Free & Paid) have been hit and miss. You stand a better chance the less you write to the drive so it doesn't write over the data.

    You could try using a partition application like EaseUS, Paragon etc to see if the partition is inactive and if so then you can make the partition active and assign a drive letter to retrieve your files; but that's a long shot at best as this is assuming you made a new partition and installed Windows on that instead. I tend not to rule out every possibility hence why I mentioned it.

    I believe I have a Paragon Hard Drive Manager key from this deal that I may be able to dig up should you need it.

    Good luck

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:08

      i will try recovery software if nothing else solves my issue. thanks.

  • Hybroid on 25/10/2022 - 00:20
    +3

    When you say you "set a permission", may want to elaborate on that. Was it a special partition? Encrypted volume? Third-party folder password app? Bog standard Windows setting?

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:08

      it was simply windows setting. so other users of my computer will just unable to access the hdd. so i think i went to security and remove their access and put my user name there.

  • Porker on 25/10/2022 - 00:31
    +2

    When you say the 8tb data is missing, does the computer show the hdd or not show it?

    As in its there but empty or not there at all?

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:09

      it was a single hdd, the computer is able to see the hdd, and some files are there, but i am missing a period of files between 2015-2019, which is really strange.

  • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 00:36
    -4

    thanks everyone, i will reply tomorrow.

  • Muzeeb on 25/10/2022 - 01:23
    +2

    work related sensitive information

    8tb of data seems missing.

    I think we've found the Optus hacker

    If not the Optus hacker then just use your backup data until you get the primary drive issue sorted.

    • pharkurnell on 25/10/2022 - 10:16

      Medibank? or maybe one we havent been told of yet..

  • hasher22 on 25/10/2022 - 02:36
    +2

    Remove your M2, boot up your PC as per normal and see if your files are there.

    When installing win10, you have the option to format a partition and I hope to jebus you didn't format your 8TB HDD.

    When you install a fresh M2, you don't need to delete or format the partition, you can just freshly install it straight away and I hope you didn't format anything. If you did, you may have formatted the wrong partition

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:10

      no the work drive is a separate hdd. i simply installed windows on a fresh m2, since my sata ssd is getting full.

  • OMGJL on 25/10/2022 - 03:46
    +2

    i installed a new m2 ssd with fresh windows on it

    Depends on motherboard, certain SATA port will be disabled when m.2 drive is inserted,

    Read your manual before you install anything

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:14

      yes, i am aware, the hdd is able to be seen in computer, i remove it to the new port.

  • ihbh on 25/10/2022 - 06:14
    +5

    Just restore it from your backup.

  • FoxJump on 25/10/2022 - 07:07
    +3

    smells like he granted access to a certain windows user to a disk and then marked it as "encrypted". now that the particular windows user is gone …. he can't get to it

    • newjerseydamo on 25/10/2022 - 08:11
      +3

      This, basically.

      When you create a user account in windows, it creates a unique security ID for that account, specific to that installation of Windows.
      So when you create security permissions, it links to that security ID.

      If you delete that account and create a new one with the exact same name, it will be a different security ID, even on the same installation of Windows.
      If you install a new copy of Windows and create an account with the same name, it will be a different security ID.
      Result of this, is exactly what the OP is experiencing, you lose access to your folders.

      Depending entirely on if it was encrypted, or just separate accounts set up on the previous Windows installation and just set the security permissions using the administrator allocated account, will determine the pathway on how to recover/access the files.

      So best to either A) provide more information, or B) Google the recovery method depending on how you initially protected the files.

      • FoxJump on 25/10/2022 - 09:00
        +1

        i'd imagine that if it's not encrypted then he should be able to access it with a linux-on-usb that reads ntfs partitions ?
        i'd imagine that if it is encrypted then he's stuffed - but luckily he can "just restore from his backups"

        • newjerseydamo on 25/10/2022 - 09:12
          +1

          If it's not encrypted then you can take ownership of the folder/files by going through the security properties of said folder/files to assign them to the new user account/security ID within Windows. Probably the easiest option, but Linux on USB should be able to as well (but I'm not well versed in that).

          From a quick Google, it may be possible to recover the files if they are encrypted, but it's more involved and depends on what the OP did at the time of encryption, i.e. creating recovery options for just this type of incident.

    • Diesmile on 25/10/2022 - 11:13

      you are right, the data is not encrypted. i will try takeown and see if it works

  • 7ekn00 on 25/10/2022 - 09:20

    Whatever this "permission" thing was that was done to the drive for "security", you will need to repeat it with the new user account (Security IDs are not based on username and password, they are also unique to windows installation) :/

    If just after the files, and have learnt a thing or two about permissions, boot a Linux distro from USB and plug the drive into that to recover files / folders!

  • iDroid on 25/10/2022 - 09:22

    As others have said - boot of the original disk with the new one removed.

    • pharkurnell on 25/10/2022 - 10:18

      … I even tried to boot in my old SATA HDD Windows, but not successful.

      • iDroid on 25/10/2022 - 10:23

        Describe "not successful"

        Did the machine boot into the old OS?

        Is the bios correctly configured to boot the correct drive now?

        What steps did you take to boot into the old OS?

        • pharkurnell on 25/10/2022 - 12:49

          I'd say hes plugged it back in as it was before and turned it on and his files were not retrievable in windows.

          • iDroid on 25/10/2022 - 20:08

            @pharkurnell: Sure, but that's still leaving out a lot of details.

            I could make many assumptions but without knowing what was tried and what the outcome was there is no way to help in any meaningful way.

            A few possible outcomes:

            • machine could not find drive to boot from; or
            • machine found drive to boot from but could not locate a bootable partition; or
            • machine booted but failed to start (an error before the login screen); or
            • machine booted but was unable to log in as previous user (required to see the encrypted files); or
            • machine booted and was able to log in as previous user but encrypted folder access was denied; or
            • machine booted and was able to log in as previous user but encrypted folder is nowhere to be seen; or
            • some other outcome I missed…
  • pharkurnell on 25/10/2022 - 10:18
    +2

    Before you intercourse it further, take it to someone who knows what they are doing

    • Empharand on 25/10/2022 - 13:38
      +2

      Intercourse it further? Giggity

      • Muzeeb on 25/10/2022 - 20:02
        +2

        Yep. Penetration testing.

        • iDroid on 25/10/2022 - 20:10
          +2

          But the odd thing is, he was unable to penetrate the system yet STILL seems to be intercoursing it.

  • the Unforgiven on 26/10/2022 - 05:41

    It probably hasn't been assigned a drive letter, I hope
    Left click on the start button & choose 'administrative tools' or you can get to it through 'control panel'
    Select 'computer management', that will open another window, then select 'disk management'
    You will have 2 separate parts. I prefer to work off the bottom part. There you should see your HDD
    Right click on it & it should say 'add drive letter or path' (or something like that, I don't have a blank HDD to check it on)
    Just give it a drive letter you want, any drive letter at all. You can change any of the other drives letters there;
    except for the C:\ that one is fixed. If you still have a CD/DVD burner, you can change that too.

    I hope that was your problem & it is now fixed.
    If you want a program to get back your data, PM me. My DAS, 1 failing HDD & controlling software went funny last week &
    erased 64TB worth of data. I got back all the data except for 1 x 10TB HDD which for some reason was compleatly blank.
    There was nothing there at all. It all started with a sick 8TB HDD. I started removing data off it. I needed more data room in the DAS so I put in the new HDD. When I re-booted the comp, 1 x 10TB HDD showed empty & the software was reading real weird, so I decided to reset the software & restarted the comp. That was when 2 x 10TB & 6 x 8TB was wiped clean! WTF. It took a week to scan the drives & now my DAS is re-building.
    Luckily, I have that many HDD's because I choose to duplicate ALL my files. So even I lost a whole 10TB HDD, the other 7 HDD can re-build it
    as the scans of them found all the lost files; it is just moving & checking files ATM, all while I move files around as well. The software uses 1 folder,
    but the 'pool' uses many,many folders. So I copy folders from HDD's to the 'pool', then delete them to make way for the 'pool' to duplicate files/folders. Don't woory I know what I am doing. I have a good copy program, I don't use Windoze's one; it all just takes time

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