Are there ways to recover my files from before a clean OS installation?

[NamelessAndrew]

Hi, so I just installed Windows 10 on my laptop after having traumatic experiences with my buggy windows 8 and unknown software taking up more than 9GB of my RAM... I decided I wanted a fresh start and the only things I wanted to back up was my Minecraft, Skyrim and Civ V saves. I put them on some old USB, and I realized my Skyrim saves were gone. Hundreds of hours D; ...
I just stopped using my PC for a while, maybe I'd think of a solution. I found one now, with a simple Google search. Looks like your stuff is saved for 28 days in your Windows.old folder before getting deleted (I, of course, had no idea) and I installed my Win 10 more than a month ago. So I tried using Recuva, which is a program that's supposed to recover any deleted files on your hard drive, unless it was written over again. I decided I'd give it a shot, even though I'm not sure if it would work on Windows.old. A regular scan didn't show anything, so I tried the "Deep scan" option. That takes more and right now it's exactly on 49%, I don't know if it's gonna work. If it doesn't, are there any other options (please, hundreds of hours...)?


Thanks in advance, and sorry for my bad English.

UPDATE: Wait, I just remembered I had to install windows 7 on my windows 8 before getting to 10 because I had an enterprise edition, so windows.old likely isn't gonna work. Any other options?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Only other option is to send the drive to a data recovery specialist, but be warned that kind of service is mostly used by the business sector so the cost is accordingly very high. But even they can't completely restore data that's been overwritten several times.

I feel your pain. I lost 3 years of family photos many years ago because I didn't bother to make backups as an everyday task.

 

[NamelessAndrew]

Only other option is to send the drive to a data recovery specialist, but be warned that kind of service is mostly used by the business sector so the cost is accordingly very high. But even they can't completely restore data that's been overwritten several times.

I feel your pain. I lost 3 years of family photos many years ago because I didn't bother to make backups as an everyday task.

Wow. Windows should make backups a regular thing. Oh well, at least I asked. Thanks for your response.

 

[NamelessAndrew]

Only other option is to send the drive to a data recovery specialist, but be warned that kind of service is mostly used by the business sector so the cost is accordingly very high. But even they can't completely restore data that's been overwritten several times.

I feel your pain. I lost 3 years of family photos many years ago because I didn't bother to make backups as an everyday task.

But wait a sec, if the data hasn't been overwritten, then it's likely still physically on my hdd. All I did was a clean install (well, two, actually), which only enables the data to be overwritten, but it's still there. Right? Also i remember having multiple bios backups. I really don't know much about bios and this probably sounds stupid, but I gotta ask: If I make a Windows 10 backup from now, could I load the win 8 backup, copy/paste the saves on my USB, and load the win 10 backup back again, and paste it where it's supposed to be?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"which only enables the data to be overwritten"

Wrong -- by installing Windows or any software you are actually overwriting existing data there & then.

BIOS backups: they won't help with data recovery.

"Wow. Windows should make backups a regular thing"

It does - - but you have to do your bit (set it up first) and supply the backup media. You're not capable of doing that?

 

[NamelessAndrew]

"which only enables the data to be overwritten"

Wrong -- by installing Windows or any software you are actually overwriting existing data there & then.

BIOS backups: they won't help with data recovery.

"Wow. Windows should make backups a regular thing"

It does - - but you have to do your bit (set it up first) and supply the backup media. You're not capable of doing that?

I know it was a long shot-but at least now I know for sure