This is totally my mistake - while trying to install along with Windows - I did something wrong and because of the same my Windows partition are gone - and am not able to log into windows anymore - lucky for me I didnt go for install and erase and hence when I run checkdisk testdisk photorec from terminal - I am able to ascertain that my windows data is there and has not been over written - can someone please help me with the following
I know I need to recover but should I use windows recovery tools or linux recovery tools
2 When I run photorec - it extracts all JPG files - even from cache and those present in software install packages and hence the number runs into few hundred thousands - is there a graphical tool that can show me the folder structure instead of just extracted files
3 Is there an easy way of doing this ? may be reinstalling windows - I am afraid of doing it till now as this may wipe the data - but is there an easy way of retrieving the old folder structure in windows?
Sadly, there is not. The way files are "lost" and in need of recovery is that the markers for the file structure are removed.
It is possible to recover the markers and piece together file paths- but that is High End recovery and that Costs.
It actually makes no difference as far as how the search is performed since the File System is no longer an issue. Recovery Tools look for Raw Data and that will remain the same across O.S.'s.
I recommend using Linux, however, because Windows filing works by the Next Open available space whereas Linux filing is done in assigned blocks. This means while performing recovery, Windows could write data onto areas you are hoping to recover whereas Linux would not.
Installing windows is Highly Likely to wipe out data, corrupt data and fragment date. If there is recovery needed- You must do all recovery you can prior to installing anything.
DiskDigger and other recovery software can be run as Stand-Alone apps without installing.
When I was using a bare-metal Windows (5-6 years ago), I used EaseUS for back up and partition management and got a good result.
I've never used their data recovery software, but they are claiming that you can also recover the folder structure.
Obviously you need to have a working Windows for this operation. One strategy I can think of is to boot Windows from an external disk. You can use Windows without activation for several days before the grace period expires. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO
I have tried EaseUS for data recovery some years back. This could be a good lead to try.
The way I remember it working, though, was that you tell it where to look and it makes a "guess" as to whether the found objects are also within that directory. If Low Fragmentation had occurred prior to data loss- this can help narrow the search. However, if there was high Fragmentation...
In the end, for Data Recovery - recovering some is better than recovering Zero.
The Free Trial offers that if you pay, you may have more luck. And that technique really bothered me.