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Hi,
My laptop(Windows 11) was stuck on system updates. When my kid restarts my computer, it was mistakenly factory reset with removing everything. I tried to use 'R studio' to scan, but with no luck. Only scanned out some disk system files.
I understand it's hard to really cleaning a mechanical hard drive. Is there any opportunity I can restore my data?
Thank you and looking forward to your reply!
Ricky
2024-02-04
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hey there!
My name is Ravi, and I am an independent advisor. I am happy to help you. :)
When the data is removed during a factory reset, there's no way to get it back it gets deleted permanently. However, if you have enabled the backup option with your Microsoft account, you can restore it. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bac...
Feel free to get in touch again if you have any additional questions.
Cheers,
Ravi
Hi Ravi,
Thank you for your reply.
That's a sad story. I just want to double-confirm that it really can't be restored.
I'm a little odded if factory resetting deletes all pointers and disk related information, then the data blocks should still be there. Even if we cannot restore the logical directory, we should be able to restore the data according to the file type.
But nothing can be found now.
May I have any insight from you?
Thank you and looking forward to your reply.
Best Regards,
Ricky
2024-02-05
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My laptop has an HDD and another one SSD. I assume there is no way the SSD can be recovered.
But is there any opportunity I can get the HDD back? Thanks again! Currently my laptop has been powered off and archived by me.
The Windows reset should only have affected the drive that Windows was running from. The other drive should not have been touched at all. But you're saying both are empty?
Edit: With the possible exception being if you relocated your user folder to the secondary drive.
Hi LesFerch,
Thank you for your reply!
That's helpful! This's my point.
My laptop has an HDD and another one SSD. I assume there is no way the SSD can be recovered.
But is there any opportunity I can get the HDD back? Thanks again! Currently my laptop has been powered off and archived by me.
Looking forward to your reply!
Best Regards,
Ricky
2024-02-05
I'm a little odded if factory resetting deletes all pointers and disk related information, then the data blocks should still be there. Even if we cannot restore the logical directory, we should be able to restore the data according to the file type.
But nothing can be found now.
You are correct that a reset of Windows will not, on its own, overwrite all data blocks. The reset would take much longer if that were the case. However, if that's a modern computer with an SSD, TRIM has been busy erasing those deallocated blocks, so that may be why nothing was found.
