Recovering Data in portable USB

To the OP: This may not seem helpful at this stage, but if your external drive was a backup, can you not simply re-create it from the 'master' copy of the data?

@ mngerhold.

It's all my portable apps, exes and unduplicated files/folders I need. Some are unique to various clients. They haven't got copies either. I have to recover this stuff if possible. It's my fault, I was an Idiot in a rush.

@jumanji

I'll wait for your advice. Thanks in advance.

Update:

I've scanned the disk D:ESD-USB and the lost partition using EaseUS Data Recovery. The files and folders are present and recoverable. It is a 1Tb disk but the scans have found 5.25 TBs of data. I presume most of this are obsolete, out date, superceded folders, files and data that I have deleted in the past and no longer need and was not present in the Folders structure when I accidently refomatted. Is there a way I can Isolate/Filter just the stuff that that was present at the time of the mishap. I haven't got a disk big enough to recover 5.25 TBs and will almost certainly have to purchase the Pro version of Ease DR unless somebody knows another way.

I have not attempted recovery and will wait for advice.

Perhaps EaseUS support can help you.
EaseUS Data Recovery Support
Download user manual


Denis

@Critical Mass

Try GetDataBack. GetDataBack — Data Recovery Software For Crashed Hard Drives . Read through the whole page, read the documentation on how to use it. It is a"Try before you buy" software. Select your faulty disk, do a Level 1 scan. If it does not show your folders and files , do a Level 2 scan then Level 3 and Level 4 Scan. If it shows your files and folders , you can open those and check the file integrity. If you see your desired folders and files and satisfied, you can buy a license (USD 79) and copy the desired folders and files to another disk.

( I have just started work on replicating your HD condition and experimenting. I may take another 10 to 15 days or even longer to analyse and find out whether it is possible to recover data using free software . May succeed, May not succeed, I cannot tell. That is the case with any data recovery project. )

Thank you Jumanji I appreciate your time and effort. I was worried initially because I thought I'd lost everything. I'm less worried now as I know it's still on the disk and recoverable depending on time and probably money. Thanks again I await your reply in the future.

Critical Mass said:

Thank you Jumanji I appreciate your time and effort. I was worried initially because I thought I'd lost everything. I'm less worried now as I know it's still on the disk and recoverable depending on time and probably money. Thanks again I await your reply in the future.

Click to expand...

you can try a live Linux USB distro such as Ubuntu
which will boot from the USB stick and will not install anything to your computer.

you can then check if the data is seen then you can transfer the required data to another drive.
i have used this method several times even on drives that Windows and other software cant recovery data.

you just use Rufus to burn Ubuntu to a USB stick and then boot from the USB stick.

Ubuntu download

Rufus from the Microsoft store

best of luck Steve ..

Thanks XxXxX. I've never used Ubuntu. I'll treat this method as last resort. At the moment I'm in the process of contacting EaseUS and GetDataBack.

@ Jumanji

Hi, any news about your research into my problem?

Critical Mass said:

@ Jumanji

Hi, any news about your research into my problem?

Click to expand...

The long story
I loaded my 500GB Trial HDD with about 100GB data and then created the ESD USB on it.

Disk2 in Windows Disk Management


ESD USB in Partition Wizard



Partition Wizard showed the ESD disk as MBR. TestDisk which I normally use in Data Recovery would identify the ESD disk as GPT. Moreover it would show only the 32GB ESD partition but the Unallocated volume behind was a no-show. So no recovery action could be performed. TestDisk abandoned.

I checked the sectors in the USB ESD Disk using Bootice. While Sector 0 was indeed a normal MBR with the 32GB partition Table in it (not the Protective MBR in a GPT disk which will be the same in all GPT Disks with a 2TB partition table ), the FAT32 ESD USB volume was indeed a GPT with GPT Header in sector 1 and the partition table in Sector 2 with the Volume/Partition Boot Record (VBR/PBR) in sector 2048. Their backups were in the last sector n and n-32 of the disk respectively which in this case are 976773166 and 976773134 . ( By comparison the 500GB MBR disk we started with had its partition table in Sector 0 . the VBR/PBR in sector 2048 and its backup in the last sector of the partition (not the disk) which in the case of 500GB MBR disk is Sector 976169023) ( The partition start sector and the partition end sector of any partition can be ascertained with Parttition Wizard by right clicking on the Partition >Properties> Partition info)

Bootice backed up sectors and sector maps:

I had saved all the relevant sectors and sector maps of the 500GB disk as well as the 500GB ESD USB disk and tried various forensic recovery ideas by manipulatig the various sectors but nothing worked. There is something more to it than what I know .

Thank you for your reply Jumanji. I appreciate your time and effort. What do you recommend me to do?

You have to try some commercial software only. I have not used or bought any commercial data recovery program since I am not a data recovery professional but from a liitle experiment I did with the freeware TestDisk, Disk Drill and EasUS Data Recovery Wizard sometime in the past, I was impressed with EaseUS Data Recovery Wzard for only it could recover a deleted Macrium Image.


But you know in data recovery one size does not fit all. You have to experiment and find it.