Recovering Lost Data After an Accidental Windows Installation: A Cautionary Tale

Greetings, readers!

Today, I want to share a cautionary experience that many of us may find relatable: the challenges of data loss during a Windows installation.

Recently, I decided to perform a clean install of Windows 11, a task that, in theory, should be straightforward. However, in the midst of an unattended installation, I inadvertently selected one of my backup hard drives as the installation destination. It was a decision I caught early on, allowing me to abort the process before it could complete.

Despite my quick action, I now find myself facing a concerning situation. The partition on my 4TB SSD, which previously held around 3TB of important data, is now seemingly non-existent. When I checked the drive under “This PC,” it displayed a mere 800MB of content—likely remnants from the Windows setup process.

From what I gather, it appears that the installation procedure may have deleted my original partition, created a new one, and begun transferring files when I called it quits. This has led me to wonder about the possibility of recovering the lost data. After all, since the installation process only managed to copy a small fraction of the data before I interrupted it, could there be a chance that the majority of my files remain intact?

I am reaching out to the community for guidance. If you’ve ever faced a similar scenario, what strategies did you employ to recover your lost files? Are there specific tools or approaches that you found effective for data recovery in situations like this? Your insights would be immensely appreciated as I navigate this frustrating predicament.

Thank you for taking the time to read my experience. I hope sharing this will serve as a reminder to others about the importance of double-checking installation paths and creating backups before making significant system changes.

Looking forward to your suggestions!