How To Restore Formatted Data & Reinstate External Drive

HateIT

Honorable
Oct 22, 2013
3
0
10,510
How do I recover the lost data and revert my Clickfree external drive back to how it was?

500GB total capacity (450GB data & apx 49GB free space) Clickfree external hard-drive.
Now has 31.1GB total capacity (15.1GB data & 16.1GB free space).
There is no reference to the missing 470GB nor the files/data on the Clickfree external drive.

I think what has happened is the Clickfree external drive has been formatted whilst copying/backing-up a new Samsung Win8 laptop's factory recovery partition. It was done by using the Backup tab/Menu via the Restart, F4 Recovery option. (Samsung Support told me to do it that way as they guided me on the phone).

Can anyone
1) Give advice what software and my options for recovering my data (450GB) from the Clickfree external drive, with the folder structure intact and both the folder names and files names being intact.
and
2) Give advice how and what recovery software would best achieve a successful reinstatement of all the 500GB storage capacity on the Clickfree External Drive?

Can anyone help me Please!?
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
Go into win8's disk management via the windows key + x key shortcut.
Perhaps windows is not showing you all the partitions on the drive or perhaps the large one doesnt have a drive letter assigned. How big and how many partitions is showing in disk management?
 

HateIT

Honorable
Oct 22, 2013
3
0
10,510
Hi Good morning.
Thanks for your comments. I will check it out and let you know.



 

HateIT

Honorable
Oct 22, 2013
3
0
10,510
Hi.
I've looked at the external drive via disk mgt.
The drive is visible to the computer.
The missing space appears to be there as an Unallocated partition.
I have two Jpeg files to show you, but cannot figure out how to attach them to this thread!

How do I access my data on the Unallocated partition (I have my fingers crossed that my data is still on it)
1) If I have to extend it to the allocated partition, that would mean formatting it.
2) If I keep the unallocated partition as it is, but I'd still need to format it to access the space.
Is there another way?
If not, which is the best option and WILL I still be able to retrieve my data, in its original folder/file structure?

Can You Help or Advise Me In Any Way Please!