Lost all data after converting to GPT while installing Windows 10

[Aleksandar_26]

While installing Windows 10, I wasn't able to install the OS on two of my 3 partitions as they had to be converted to GPT, from MBR. The third partition was logical and had all of my data on it. I tried to use diskpart in the setup command prompt, in order to convert one of the partitions to GPT, thinking any changes made wouldn't be applied on on the whole disk but only on that partition alone. When proceeding again to install Windows, all I got is now a fully clean disk with no partitions on it. Is there a way for me to recover my storage partition and the data on it? I'm a creative professional and even though all of my work is very important to me, I can live without it, the really important stuff are the photos I had there. Thanks in advance.

 

[Colif]

The latest version of win 10 has a tool called mbr2gpt that would have converted your drive without the need to delete partitions.... I am sad you didn't come here before you formatted drive.

You can try this, I don't know how much it will recover though: https://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-data-after-format.htm

 

[Aleksandar_26]

Thank you for your answer. So should I install Windows 10 over that drive and use a recovery data software, or should I use some bootable data recovery software that will do the job without me writing over the disk that contained partitions that I'd like to recover? I know that writing over the disk only makes the recovery worse.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

Try booting from a parted magic dvd or usb
You have tp pay for it but not very much
I think about 10 us $

the program to look for is testdisk and photorecovery suit
Photorecovery can scan the raw unformatted disk for pictures and most common files
Small files like pictures have a better chance than large files like videos

But you loose the file names
You need to have a spare usb hard drive to recover the files
If this works you can try testdisk which in the correct hands could re build the MBR partitions

You dont need gpt unless you want to boot from a disk larger than 2 TB
though it has advantages of spare hidden partition with a copy of the partitioning information at the end of the disk

If the information is realy critical and you must keep the original file names contact a data recovery expert


Best of luck
Mike Barnes