The Perils of Inadvertent Data Loss: My Experience with GParted

Recently, I found myself in quite a predicament while experimenting with Ubuntu in a live session. In a moment of impatience, I unintentionally formatted the wrong drive using GParted. I still can’t quite understand how things spiraled out of control so quickly.

My intention was simply to create a partition to test Ubuntu, but after several unsuccessful attempts, my frustration grew. When I finally clicked on “create partition table,” a warning appeared, informing me that this action would delete all data on the selected drive. Unfortunately, I misjudged the situation and clicked what I believed to be the cancel button, inadvertently granting permission to proceed with the formatting. Within moments, my drive was reformatted, leaving no time for me to rectify my mistake, and frustratingly, there was no option to undo the action.

The unfortunate outcome? The drive, previously formatted with NTFS, now showed as unallocated space in GParted. This involved my 2 TB Samsung SSD 870 QVO, which held valuable data, particularly my partner’s beloved Minecraft server that they had dedicated months to developing.

Recovery Attempts

In my quest to recover the lost data, I tried several recovery methods:

• GParted’s Data Rescue Function: I ran this for nearly 72 hours, only to be met with the disappointing news that no recognizable file systems could be found.

• Testdisk: I turned to Testdisk for both quick and deeper searches, yet it yielded no results regarding my missing data.

• Photorec: This program did find thousands of files, but sorting through the extensive data feels like searching for a needle in a haystack. Although it indicated some data still exists, I feel overwhelmed and unable to make significant progress.

As I sit here reflecting on the situation, I can’t help but feel hopeless. While most of my data is replaceable, my partner’s Minecraft world is irreplaceable, and the thought of it being lost forever is heartbreaking.

I know I must keep trying despite my feelings of despair. If anyone has advice or can offer assistance, I would greatly appreciate it.

Update: Following some guidance, I have included a screenshot of the drive using DMDE [Link to screenshot].

Have you ever faced a similar situation? I would love to hear any tips or experiences you might have that could help me in this challenging time.