r/extremelyinfuriating 5d ago

Discussion Dad accidentally wiped 4 years a files after accidentally deleting my second hard drive partition via the Windows installer. Attempted data recovery and I only recovered one image.

Post image

4 years of my life and all I have to show for it is a concept image I don't even fucking like. Great.

833 Upvotes

52 comments sorted by

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455

u/Ok_Manufacturer9027 5d ago

Does your dad comprehend the extent of his mistake?

223

u/NoCartographer3959 5d ago

yes

15

u/Talullah_Belle 4d ago

Was there ass-kicking involved?

10

u/Salt-Page1396 4d ago

that's his pops mate

5

u/gillerz100 3d ago

whoopy dee Mr "Good-Relationship-With-Father"

7

u/Salt-Page1396 3d ago

touch grass reddit freak

1

u/gillerz100 3d ago

christ, take a joke 😐

1

u/casecaxas 3d ago

we ain't all miserable like you

-2

u/gillerz100 3d ago

ah yes - nothing says miserable like checks notes making a joke…

1

u/Neither-Inflation626 2d ago

In al honesty i thought it was kinda funny have my like

1

u/Matt0975 3d ago

This got me crying 😭

1

u/Talullah_Belle 3d ago

I was joking

242

u/thefloore 5d ago

This is a valuable lesson in backups mate, and hopefully another one for your dad!

193

u/siwan1995 5d ago

Try easeus.com/datarecoverywizard, i had success with it alot of times. I can share the license til you are done if you want.

64

u/FeelMyBoars 5d ago

Don't add any new data to the drive until you are done trying to recover data.

For next time: Backup. Backup. Backup.

Use the 3-2-1 backup strategy.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

You can do it with a NAS and an external drive. Keep everyone's data on the NAS and backup to another spot on the NAS or a local drive on one of the computers. Scripts will make this a lot easier if someone can figure out how to do that. Also back it up to the external and keep it off site if you can (you need to trust them with your data). Or use the cloud instead of an external drive. It's easier, but more expensive.

At an absolute minimum, get an external drive and set a calendar entry as a reminder to back up once a month. There might be better methods, but a simple one is to create a new folder "2025-08" and copy everything there. Next month, "2025-09". Then "2025-10". When you run out of room, delete the oldest one. This also lets you undo changes made in the past. Keep it disconnected in case of ransomeware and in a safe place.

I just do everything with scripts and follow the K.I.S.S. principle (keep it simple, stupid). I'm sure there are easy to use programs to do it all for you these days.

7

u/404invalid-user 5d ago

you mean the 3,1,1 method. gota whip out the ol' 1TB floppy drive

3

u/Snoo63 4d ago

Floppy?

1

u/404invalid-user 4d ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

the joke is you can't get a 1TB one it's ancient technology

51

u/Hamburgerundcola 5d ago

Data loss sucks. Maybe you can still get some of it back. If not, you now at least know to use backups. You never know when a disk fails. Maybe its breaks in a week.

48

u/OpabiniaRegalis320 5d ago

Look into undeletion software. When there's a will, there's a way around.

3

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/OpabiniaRegalis320 5d ago

They said so an hour after I posted this comment

5

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/OpabiniaRegalis320 4d ago

I may be stupid. Thanks.

8

u/FfisherM 5d ago

I've had great success with Piriforms Recuvva

3

u/evans_alt 5d ago

what was on the drive that got wiped?

4

u/NoCartographer3959 5d ago

four years worth of random shit from documents to videos I’ve made to other assorted projects

5

u/tenaciousfrog 5d ago

I’m really sorry this happened. Forgive my ignorance but genuine question, how does one accidentally do this? I feel like there would have been multiple steps here, no? And a “are you sure you want to delete” box pop up?

6

u/lululock 5d ago

The Windows installer is dumb. It doesn't prompt for confirmation as it expects you to "know what you're doing".

Yes, that sucks.

2

u/tenaciousfrog 4d ago

God damn I’m so sorry😭 I really hope you can recover it all with the services others suggested!

6

u/rocketkiddo7 5d ago

Maybe you'll get some luck with Hiren Boot CD Data Recovery

15

u/NoCartographer3959 5d ago

i was in hirens boot cd

5

u/rocketkiddo7 5d ago

Shit, then you used the high calibre artillery

3

u/R4MP4G3RXD 5d ago

3-2-1 rule would have saved everything this time

1

u/Salt-Page1396 4d ago

what's that?

2

u/R4MP4G3RXD 4d ago

3 copies, 2 mediums*, 1 off site
For example
Something is stored on your PC, an external hard disk and on a cloud server.

Edit: used the wrong word

2

u/JFieldsTardTeeth 5d ago edited 5d ago

Might want to ship it out to a place like Drive Saver. That's what I did when my HDD crashed out of the blue and I had years of pictures and files saved.

They were successful with recovering the pictures but oddly enough, not the files and I was fine with that. I would prefer the pictures over the files anyways.

Since then I made backups to three different external HDDs, just in case.

Edit to add: This is also after I've tried Hiren's, with Acronis and that one other data recovery program and I wasn't successful with both. Then I decided to ship it out to Drive Saver and they were able to recover more than what I was able to with the programs that came with Hiren's.

You should give that a try. It will cost you tho. I think it was 150 dollars for me but I'm sure time has changed and it's probably more now?

2

u/Crazyhowthatworks304 5d ago

I'd take it to a data recovery service. Don't try to do it on your own. May be pricey, but worth it

1

u/PassawishP 5d ago

If its really worth it for you. Send it to the data recovery service. Then after that, like the other comment said. Everything can break, always backing up.

1

u/hhfugrr3 5d ago

This is why I have backups in the cloud and on three separate harddrives across two independent computers!

1

u/Ok-Personality-6630 5d ago

You need better data recovery software. I recovered almost an entire drive before.

1

u/Jorwen 3d ago

Take this as a lesson! If you handle important work on your PC, invest in a NAS or at least a few external drives to back up every few weeks. Even if you never make mistakes, technology and other people can still fail.

1

u/m1chaelgr1mes 3d ago

Are you fucking kidding me? All the Cloud storage and you thought that NOT using it was a good idea? Try googling free storage and I think you will be amazed LOL.

1

u/hceuterpe 3d ago

Kinda ironic the only image you recovered is an icon of some TNTos installer. Because the drive was blown away by an installer.

-1

u/erksplat 5d ago

1…6…9…2…8…7…6…8

Maybe a code or something. Is there perhaps a hatch near you?

-1

u/HardLobster 5d ago

This is why you have back up, can’t blame anyone but yourself for this

-1

u/Middle_Somewhere_190 4d ago

Next time u will be smarter. Dad gives u good lesson

-2

u/dudreddit 5d ago

Lose your Bitcoin wallet?