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Need help! How to recover formatted SSD data on Windows 11
Quote from dori_kim on March 31, 2026, 9:31 pmokay so I messed up bad and I'm literally shaking rn
I've got a Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD in my Windows 11 desktop as a secondary drive. had everything on it – three full semesters of uni project files, like 60GB of Lightroom edits and raw shots from my photography elective, personal stuff going back two years. was doing a routine clean reinstall of a game, opened Disk Management, right-clicked what I thought was the game partition, hit “Format...” in the context menu, left allocation unit size at default, kept “Quick Format” ticked, clicked OK. watched it run to 100%. then looked at the drive label.
wrong one.
closed everything the second I realized. didn't open it in File Explorer, didn't let Windows reassign a letter, removed the existing one immediately. the SSD is just sitting here right now, powered on, not touched.
I’ve been googling how to recover data from formatted SSD and how to recover files from formatted SSD for like an hour and keep getting completely opposite answers – half say TRIM makes it impossible, the other half say just use software. I genuinely don’t know which is true. is it possible to recover data from formatted SSD on Windows 11 or did I just nuke two years of work in four seconds??
edit: Quick Format, checkbox was already ticked, took like 4 seconds. not a full format if that matters
okay so I messed up bad and I'm literally shaking rn
I've got a Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD in my Windows 11 desktop as a secondary drive. had everything on it – three full semesters of uni project files, like 60GB of Lightroom edits and raw shots from my photography elective, personal stuff going back two years. was doing a routine clean reinstall of a game, opened Disk Management, right-clicked what I thought was the game partition, hit “Format...” in the context menu, left allocation unit size at default, kept “Quick Format” ticked, clicked OK. watched it run to 100%. then looked at the drive label.
wrong one.
closed everything the second I realized. didn't open it in File Explorer, didn't let Windows reassign a letter, removed the existing one immediately. the SSD is just sitting here right now, powered on, not touched.
I’ve been googling how to recover data from formatted SSD and how to recover files from formatted SSD for like an hour and keep getting completely opposite answers – half say TRIM makes it impossible, the other half say just use software. I genuinely don’t know which is true. is it possible to recover data from formatted SSD on Windows 11 or did I just nuke two years of work in four seconds??
edit: Quick Format, checkbox was already ticked, took like 4 seconds. not a full format if that matters
Quote from AlexR on March 31, 2026, 9:33 pmQuote from dori_kim on March 31, 2026, 9:31 pmokay so I messed up bad and I'm literally shaking rn
I've got a Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD in my Windows 11 desktop as a secondary drive. had everything on it – three full semesters of uni project files, like 60GB of Lightroom edits and raw shots from my photography elective, personal stuff going back two years. was doing a routine clean reinstall of a game, opened Disk Management, right-clicked what I thought was the game partition, hit “Format...” in the context menu, left allocation unit size at default, kept “Quick Format” ticked, clicked OK. watched it run to 100%. then looked at the drive label.
wrong one.
closed everything the second I realized. didn't open it in File Explorer, didn't let Windows reassign a letter, removed the existing one immediately. the SSD is just sitting here right now, powered on, not touched.
I’ve been googling how to recover data from formatted SSD and how to recover files from formatted SSD for like an hour and keep getting completely opposite answers – half say TRIM makes it impossible, the other half say just use software. I genuinely don’t know which is true. is it possible to recover data from formatted SSD on Windows 11 or did I just nuke two years of work in four seconds??
edit: Quick Format, checkbox was already ticked, took like 4 seconds. not a full format if that matters
Stop. Don't open that drive in File Explorer. Don't let Windows reassign a letter to it. Don't run any repair tools. Read this first.
Quick Format is not a secure erase. What it does: overwrites the Volume Boot Record and zeros out the Master File Table – the index NTFS uses to find every file on the disk. Zero that out and Windows goes blind, reports an empty drive. The actual data in the NAND flash cells? Not touched. The files are physically there. Windows just lost the map.
Quote from dori_kim on March 31, 2026, 9:31 pmokay so I messed up bad and I'm literally shaking rn
I've got a Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD in my Windows 11 desktop as a secondary drive. had everything on it – three full semesters of uni project files, like 60GB of Lightroom edits and raw shots from my photography elective, personal stuff going back two years. was doing a routine clean reinstall of a game, opened Disk Management, right-clicked what I thought was the game partition, hit “Format...” in the context menu, left allocation unit size at default, kept “Quick Format” ticked, clicked OK. watched it run to 100%. then looked at the drive label.
wrong one.
closed everything the second I realized. didn't open it in File Explorer, didn't let Windows reassign a letter, removed the existing one immediately. the SSD is just sitting here right now, powered on, not touched.
I’ve been googling how to recover data from formatted SSD and how to recover files from formatted SSD for like an hour and keep getting completely opposite answers – half say TRIM makes it impossible, the other half say just use software. I genuinely don’t know which is true. is it possible to recover data from formatted SSD on Windows 11 or did I just nuke two years of work in four seconds??
edit: Quick Format, checkbox was already ticked, took like 4 seconds. not a full format if that matters
Stop. Don't open that drive in File Explorer. Don't let Windows reassign a letter to it. Don't run any repair tools. Read this first.
Quick Format is not a secure erase. What it does: overwrites the Volume Boot Record and zeros out the Master File Table – the index NTFS uses to find every file on the disk. Zero that out and Windows goes blind, reports an empty drive. The actual data in the NAND flash cells? Not touched. The files are physically there. Windows just lost the map.
Quote from dori_kim on March 31, 2026, 9:35 pm@AlexR ok. ok... still a total mess but I can function now, thank you. so if I'm getting this right – Quick Format deleted the index but the actual data is still in the NAND cells exactly where it was, and a recovery tool bypasses the MFT entirely, reads raw sectors, reconstructs files from their header signatures. is that right?
@AlexR ok. ok... still a total mess but I can function now, thank you. so if I'm getting this right – Quick Format deleted the index but the actual data is still in the NAND cells exactly where it was, and a recovery tool bypasses the MFT entirely, reads raw sectors, reconstructs files from their header signatures. is that right?
Quote from Ryan404 on March 31, 2026, 9:37 pmWent through almost this exact thing six months ago. 480GB SSD, formatted by accident in Disk Management, two years of freelance work on it. Got back 91% – that data recovery success rate came down entirely to one decision: cloning drive before scanning instead of running recovery software directly on the original. the rest I lost was temp files and browser cache I didn’t care about. The one thing to do before anything else: disk image cloning – sector-by-sector copy of the whole drive to a separate healthy drive, then run all recovery work against the image. Why it matters: some recovery apps write cache or session logs during scanning even in “read-only” mode. If the scan crashes partway through, you restart against the image – not the original, where every extra read cycle is another chance for GC to reclaim a block.
I used a sector-by-sector disk imaging tool – raw byte-level copy of every block. Select the physical disk, point the destination to a separate HDD with enough free space, and let it run. For 465GB over SATA, budget 35–45 minutes. After that the original SSD never needs to be touched again.
Went through almost this exact thing six months ago. 480GB SSD, formatted by accident in Disk Management, two years of freelance work on it. Got back 91% – that data recovery success rate came down entirely to one decision: cloning drive before scanning instead of running recovery software directly on the original. the rest I lost was temp files and browser cache I didn’t care about. The one thing to do before anything else: disk image cloning – sector-by-sector copy of the whole drive to a separate healthy drive, then run all recovery work against the image. Why it matters: some recovery apps write cache or session logs during scanning even in “read-only” mode. If the scan crashes partway through, you restart against the image – not the original, where every extra read cycle is another chance for GC to reclaim a block.
I used a sector-by-sector disk imaging tool – raw byte-level copy of every block. Select the physical disk, point the destination to a separate HDD with enough free space, and let it run. For 465GB over SATA, budget 35–45 minutes. After that the original SSD never needs to be touched again.
Quote from DataNerd on April 1, 2026, 2:00 pmto answer your question – yeah, that’s basically the mechanism. but there’s a piece before the carving step that matters more: TRIM. the idea that TRIM prevents data recovery is exactly that – a myth, unless GC has already run. when you format, Windows sends a DATA SET MANAGEMENT command with the Trim bit set to the controller. the controller logs those LBAs in the Flash Translation Layer mapping table as available. but actually erasing the NAND cells – that’s garbage collection SSD-side, and it does NOT happen at the same time. the controller queues those blocks and processes them during idle time, factoring in wear leveling and write amplification. SSD TRIM data loss only becomes real once that GC cycle runs – and on a drive sitting untouched since the format, GC hasn’t run on the vast majority of it.
this gets posted on r/datarecovery every single day. “accidentally quick formatted the wrong SSD, is it gone?” – answer is almost always no, as long as nothing new was written. data recovery after formatting is absolutely possible when you stop immediately. sounds like you held that line.
quick format vs full format is the key variable. full format does a zero-fill write pass across every sector – that kills recovery odds. quick format only wipes the MFT and leaves every data cluster untouched. you accidentally did the recoverable version.
to answer your question – yeah, that’s basically the mechanism. but there’s a piece before the carving step that matters more: TRIM. the idea that TRIM prevents data recovery is exactly that – a myth, unless GC has already run. when you format, Windows sends a DATA SET MANAGEMENT command with the Trim bit set to the controller. the controller logs those LBAs in the Flash Translation Layer mapping table as available. but actually erasing the NAND cells – that’s garbage collection SSD-side, and it does NOT happen at the same time. the controller queues those blocks and processes them during idle time, factoring in wear leveling and write amplification. SSD TRIM data loss only becomes real once that GC cycle runs – and on a drive sitting untouched since the format, GC hasn’t run on the vast majority of it.
this gets posted on r/datarecovery every single day. “accidentally quick formatted the wrong SSD, is it gone?” – answer is almost always no, as long as nothing new was written. data recovery after formatting is absolutely possible when you stop immediately. sounds like you held that line.
quick format vs full format is the key variable. full format does a zero-fill write pass across every sector – that kills recovery odds. quick format only wipes the MFT and leaves every data cluster untouched. you accidentally did the recoverable version.
Quote from miconos on April 1, 2026, 2:02 pmWorth adding some hardware-level context – the specific drive matters, and yours works in your favor.
Samsung 870 EVO is a SATA III SSD using TLC V-NAND. Two things about this model: TLC cells retain charge well in the short term, and the 870 EVO's controller uses a conservative GC policy compared to NVMe drives. PCIe drives can start reclaiming TRIM'd blocks almost immediately. The 870 EVO doesn't – it prioritizes wear leveling. That works heavily in your favor right now.
Two things worth checking now if you haven’t already:
- Capacity in Disk Management. Right-click Start → Disk Management. A 500GB 870 EVO shows as ~465.76 GB. If it matches, the NAND is physically intact – purely a logical issue.
- Remove it from the optimization schedule. Search “Defragment and Optimize Drives,” select the SSD, click “Change settings,” and exclude it. Windows 11 runs scheduled TRIM passes automatically – you don't want one firing mid-recovery.
Worth adding some hardware-level context – the specific drive matters, and yours works in your favor.
Samsung 870 EVO is a SATA III SSD using TLC V-NAND. Two things about this model: TLC cells retain charge well in the short term, and the 870 EVO's controller uses a conservative GC policy compared to NVMe drives. PCIe drives can start reclaiming TRIM'd blocks almost immediately. The 870 EVO doesn't – it prioritizes wear leveling. That works heavily in your favor right now.
Two things worth checking now if you haven’t already:
- Capacity in Disk Management. Right-click Start → Disk Management. A 500GB 870 EVO shows as ~465.76 GB. If it matches, the NAND is physically intact – purely a logical issue.
- Remove it from the optimization schedule. Search “Defragment and Optimize Drives,” select the SSD, click “Change settings,” and exclude it. Windows 11 runs scheduled TRIM passes automatically – you don't want one firing mid-recovery.
Quote from zensoul on April 1, 2026, 2:04 pmto add to what DataNerd said on the carving side of it: the textbook analogy helps. quick format tore out the index at the back – the index NTFS uses to locate every file. the chapters are all still there. what recovery software does is called file carving – reads every sector sequentially, looks for known file header signatures. JPEGs open with FFD8FF, PDFs with 25 50 44 46 (%PDF in ASCII), ZIP archives with PK. the carver finds those byte patterns, figures out where the file ends from a footer or size field in the header, and reconstructs it. no MFT needed. this is how tools restore formatted drive data entirely bypassing the file system.
best case – the $MFT and $MFTMirr survived partially, so you get original folder structure and filenames back, not just raw content. worst case you get files with generic names. either way the data is there if GC hasn't run on those blocks. and yeah – stay far away from chkdsk. on a freshly formatted partition it writes to the drive trying to “fix” things. exact opposite of what you need.
to add to what DataNerd said on the carving side of it: the textbook analogy helps. quick format tore out the index at the back – the index NTFS uses to locate every file. the chapters are all still there. what recovery software does is called file carving – reads every sector sequentially, looks for known file header signatures. JPEGs open with FFD8FF, PDFs with 25 50 44 46 (%PDF in ASCII), ZIP archives with PK. the carver finds those byte patterns, figures out where the file ends from a footer or size field in the header, and reconstructs it. no MFT needed. this is how tools restore formatted drive data entirely bypassing the file system.
best case – the $MFT and $MFTMirr survived partially, so you get original folder structure and filenames back, not just raw content. worst case you get files with generic names. either way the data is there if GC hasn't run on those blocks. and yeah – stay far away from chkdsk. on a freshly formatted partition it writes to the drive trying to “fix” things. exact opposite of what you need.
Quote from DataRecoverExpert on April 1, 2026, 2:06 pmLet me put the full technical picture together because the sequence matters.
What Quick Format did: overwrote the Volume Boot Record, zeroed the $MFT and $MFTMirr, and sent a TRIM command set covering the full LBA range to the 870 EVO's controller. Every file lost its MFT metadata entry – name, parent directory reference, timestamps, and data run list. From Windows' perspective, the volume is empty. From the NAND's perspective, nothing has been modified. GC has not run. The bytes are still there.
The correct sequence:
- Clone the drive to a disk image. Open Disk Drill, select the physical disk entry in the Storage Devices panel (not a partition row below it), and click “Create Backup” to produce a sector-by-sector disk image. Set the destination to your 2TB HDD and let it run to completion. This produces a byte-for-byte copy of the drive. Do all recovery work against the image from here.
- Attach the image in Disk Drill and run a full scan. Install Disk Drill to your system drive (C:). Open it, click “Attach disk image...” at the bottom of the Storage Devices panel, and browse to the disk image file. The image mounts as a virtual disk – select it and click “Search for lost data.” When prompted, choose “All recovery methods” – not “Quick Scan,” which relies on file system structures that no longer exist. For 465GB, expect 2–4 hours. Let it reach 100%.
- Preview before recovering. Click “Review found items.” Browse by category in the left panel: Pictures, Documents, Video, etc. Click any file to preview it in the right-hand pane – a file that opens correctly means its data sectors are intact. Search specifically for .lrcat – the Lightroom catalog is a separate file from your raws and holds all your editing data. Don't assume finding the raws means you have the edits.
- Recover to a separate destination. Right-click any folder and choose “Select files” to cascade the selection through the full subtree. Before clicking “Recover,” go to File › Save Session – this saves the scan state so you can restart without re-scanning if anything fails. Click “Recover” and choose a drive that is neither the original SSD nor the 2TB HDD holding the image. Third, clean destination only. Scanning and previewing are free; the Pro license unlocks export – the comparison there is worth a look if you want to weigh alternatives.
Let me put the full technical picture together because the sequence matters.
What Quick Format did: overwrote the Volume Boot Record, zeroed the $MFT and $MFTMirr, and sent a TRIM command set covering the full LBA range to the 870 EVO's controller. Every file lost its MFT metadata entry – name, parent directory reference, timestamps, and data run list. From Windows' perspective, the volume is empty. From the NAND's perspective, nothing has been modified. GC has not run. The bytes are still there.
The correct sequence:
- Clone the drive to a disk image. Open Disk Drill, select the physical disk entry in the Storage Devices panel (not a partition row below it), and click “Create Backup” to produce a sector-by-sector disk image. Set the destination to your 2TB HDD and let it run to completion. This produces a byte-for-byte copy of the drive. Do all recovery work against the image from here.
- Attach the image in Disk Drill and run a full scan. Install Disk Drill to your system drive (C:). Open it, click “Attach disk image...” at the bottom of the Storage Devices panel, and browse to the disk image file. The image mounts as a virtual disk – select it and click “Search for lost data.” When prompted, choose “All recovery methods” – not “Quick Scan,” which relies on file system structures that no longer exist. For 465GB, expect 2–4 hours. Let it reach 100%.
- Preview before recovering. Click “Review found items.” Browse by category in the left panel: Pictures, Documents, Video, etc. Click any file to preview it in the right-hand pane – a file that opens correctly means its data sectors are intact. Search specifically for .lrcat – the Lightroom catalog is a separate file from your raws and holds all your editing data. Don't assume finding the raws means you have the edits.
- Recover to a separate destination. Right-click any folder and choose “Select files” to cascade the selection through the full subtree. Before clicking “Recover,” go to File › Save Session – this saves the scan state so you can restart without re-scanning if anything fails. Click “Recover” and choose a drive that is neither the original SSD nor the 2TB HDD holding the image. Third, clean destination only. Scanning and previewing are free; the Pro license unlocks export – the comparison there is worth a look if you want to weigh alternatives.
Quote from JohnMiller on April 1, 2026, 2:08 pmThe .lrcat thing is worth flagging separately because people miss it every time. Lightroom stores all develop settings, history states, keywords, and presets inside the catalog file – none of it is embedded in the raws. ARW and DNG files are pure sensor data. Find your raws but miss the .lrcat and you get the photos back with every edit gone. Both files need to be on your recovery checklist.
One question before you start – any backup at all, even an old one? Cloud, university network share, old external? Not twisting the knife, just asking because if there's anything it changes how careful you need to be.
The .lrcat thing is worth flagging separately because people miss it every time. Lightroom stores all develop settings, history states, keywords, and presets inside the catalog file – none of it is embedded in the raws. ARW and DNG files are pure sensor data. Find your raws but miss the .lrcat and you get the photos back with every edit gone. Both files need to be on your recovery checklist.
One question before you start – any backup at all, even an old one? Cloud, university network share, old external? Not twisting the knife, just asking because if there's anything it changes how careful you need to be.
Quote from dori_kim on April 1, 2026, 2:09 pm@JohnMiller ...no. nothing. I've been telling myself I'd set something up for like a year. this is that moment I guess lol
@miconos checked – 465.76 GB, one unallocated block, letter already gone. and omg I had zero idea Windows was running those optimization passes automatically – went into Optimize Drives and excluded it right away. that was close.
@Ryan404 I've got a 2TB HDD with ~600GB free – that covers the 465GB image yeah? and I've got an old 1TB external for the recovery destination.
downloading a disk imaging tool rn. SSD is still unplugged, hasn’t been touched since I posted.
@JohnMiller ...no. nothing. I've been telling myself I'd set something up for like a year. this is that moment I guess lol
@miconos checked – 465.76 GB, one unallocated block, letter already gone. and omg I had zero idea Windows was running those optimization passes automatically – went into Optimize Drives and excluded it right away. that was close.
@Ryan404 I've got a 2TB HDD with ~600GB free – that covers the 465GB image yeah? and I've got an old 1TB external for the recovery destination.
downloading a disk imaging tool rn. SSD is still unplugged, hasn’t been touched since I posted.
Quote from lalisa_nn7 on April 1, 2026, 2:12 pm600GB free is more than enough – a 500GB 870 EVO images to around 465–466GB, sometimes a bit under because disk imaging tools can lightly compress zero-filled regions.
one thing to watch: when running a sector-by-sector backup, make sure to select the physical disk entry – the top-level row showing disk number and total size – not one of the partition rows under it. imaging only a partition can leave out the MBR and partition table data some recovery tools rely on. also set compression to “None” if you have the space. uncompressed image files give recovery tools cleaner sector access.
600GB free is more than enough – a 500GB 870 EVO images to around 465–466GB, sometimes a bit under because disk imaging tools can lightly compress zero-filled regions.
one thing to watch: when running a sector-by-sector backup, make sure to select the physical disk entry – the top-level row showing disk number and total size – not one of the partition rows under it. imaging only a partition can leave out the MBR and partition table data some recovery tools rely on. also set compression to “None” if you have the space. uncompressed image files give recovery tools cleaner sector access.
Quote from likejennie on April 1, 2026, 2:13 pmwent thru almost the same thing a year ago. quick formatted a 256GB SSD on Windows 11, full year of content work on it. got back 88% – the 12% I lost were chunks already partially overwritten by GC cycles during normal everyday use, nothing to do with the format itself. one thing worth knowing before you go thru the results: Disk Drill is one of the better free data recovery software options out there – scanning and previewing don’t cost anything. as one of the leading deep scan recovery tools it handles full file system reconstruction, splitting finds into two sections. the folder tree shows files reconstructed from surviving $MFT or directory structure – original names and paths. “Lost & Found” below it shows files found by signature carving – same content, generic names like FILE0001.jpg. check both, don't assume the folder tree is complete. there's a walkthrough that shows exactly what the interface looks like after a format scan – helpful to watch before you start. and this discussion on Tom’s Hardware covers the TRIM timing question in depth if you want the detail.
went thru almost the same thing a year ago. quick formatted a 256GB SSD on Windows 11, full year of content work on it. got back 88% – the 12% I lost were chunks already partially overwritten by GC cycles during normal everyday use, nothing to do with the format itself. one thing worth knowing before you go thru the results: Disk Drill is one of the better free data recovery software options out there – scanning and previewing don’t cost anything. as one of the leading deep scan recovery tools it handles full file system reconstruction, splitting finds into two sections. the folder tree shows files reconstructed from surviving $MFT or directory structure – original names and paths. “Lost & Found” below it shows files found by signature carving – same content, generic names like FILE0001.jpg. check both, don't assume the folder tree is complete. there's a walkthrough that shows exactly what the interface looks like after a format scan – helpful to watch before you start. and this discussion on Tom’s Hardware covers the TRIM timing question in depth if you want the detail.
Quote from chris_89 on April 1, 2026, 2:14 pmOne thing that catches people off guard in “Review found items”: the checkboxes don't cascade automatically to all nested contents. Right-click a folder and choose “Select files” to force it through the full subtree – just ticking the top-level folder can select only the folder metadata entry, leaving you with empty folders at the destination.
Also: File › Save Session before you do anything in the results view. If the recovery job fails, you reload the session instead of re-running a three-hour scan.
One thing that catches people off guard in “Review found items”: the checkboxes don't cascade automatically to all nested contents. Right-click a folder and choose “Select files” to force it through the full subtree – just ticking the top-level folder can select only the folder metadata entry, leaving you with empty folders at the destination.
Also: File › Save Session before you do anything in the results view. If the recovery job fails, you reload the session instead of re-running a three-hour scan.
Quote from dori_kim on April 3, 2026, 1:38 pmUPDATE: clone done. imaging took 40 mins, zero read errors. disk image is on the 2TB HDD. original SSD is off, I’m not touching it again.
attached the image in Disk Drill, hit “All recovery methods,” clicked “Search for lost data.” 90 mins in, files are already populating in the results tree in real time. I can see folder names I recognize. “Semester 3 Projects” appeared about ten mins ago. there's something labeled “Lightroom Catalog” in the tree and I'm trying so hard not to click it before the scan finishes. saved the session. disabled sleep. sitting here watching the progress bar like it personally wronged me.
UPDATE: clone done. imaging took 40 mins, zero read errors. disk image is on the 2TB HDD. original SSD is off, I’m not touching it again.
attached the image in Disk Drill, hit “All recovery methods,” clicked “Search for lost data.” 90 mins in, files are already populating in the results tree in real time. I can see folder names I recognize. “Semester 3 Projects” appeared about ten mins ago. there's something labeled “Lightroom Catalog” in the tree and I'm trying so hard not to click it before the scan finishes. saved the session. disabled sleep. sitting here watching the progress bar like it personally wronged me.
Quote from OhioTom on April 3, 2026, 1:40 pmFolder names reconstructing correctly in the tree – that's the best early sign you can get. Disk Drill is reading intact $MFT remnants or directory entry records, not just doing blind carving. If the original folder hierarchy is showing up, you're almost certainly getting back original filenames and full directory layout. The hard part is already behind you.
Folder names reconstructing correctly in the tree – that's the best early sign you can get. Disk Drill is reading intact $MFT remnants or directory entry records, not just doing blind carving. If the original folder hierarchy is showing up, you're almost certainly getting back original filenames and full directory layout. The hard part is already behind you.
Quote from phillyjohn on April 3, 2026, 1:42 pmyeah seeing folder names populate while the scan's still running is exactly what you want. when I went thru this the whole directory structure came back intact – 94% recovery rate, original names and paths all there. the other 6% was browser cache and temp files already partially overwritten before the format. when it finishes, check “Lost & Found” before you decide you're done. that's where Disk Drill puts anything found through carving that couldn't be matched to a directory entry. your .lrcat is worth looking for there specifically – size-match it against what you know. a 2.1GB catalog file shows as 2.1GB no matter what generic name it got.
yeah seeing folder names populate while the scan's still running is exactly what you want. when I went thru this the whole directory structure came back intact – 94% recovery rate, original names and paths all there. the other 6% was browser cache and temp files already partially overwritten before the format. when it finishes, check “Lost & Found” before you decide you're done. that's where Disk Drill puts anything found through carving that couldn't be matched to a directory entry. your .lrcat is worth looking for there specifically – size-match it against what you know. a 2.1GB catalog file shows as 2.1GB no matter what generic name it got.
Quote from dori_kim on April 3, 2026, 1:44 pmFINAL UPDATE GUYS!!!!!
scan finished at 2 hrs 48 mins. 471.3GB found. previewed 40+ files across every category – raw shots, exported JPEGs, PDFs, Word docs from Semester 2. every single one opened in the preview pane. then I searched .lrcat. found it – 2.1GB, correct size, previewed clean, develop module data right there in the thumbnail.
I just... sat there. stared at it for a full minute. I think I made some kind of noise. it was not a cool noise.
bought the license. recovery is running to the 1TB external rn. 471GB, ETA 3 hrs 10 mins. I am not leaving this chair for anything.
@DataRecoverExpert @AlexR @Ryan404 @miconos – the clone step especially. I was literally about to skip it. full panic mode, just wanted to scan the drive immediately. this thread is the only reason I didn't. knowing the original SSD was never touched once – not once – the whole time kept me sane enough to finish this. two backup drives ordered. Backblaze sub active. three-copy rule starting today. never. again.
FINAL UPDATE GUYS!!!!!
scan finished at 2 hrs 48 mins. 471.3GB found. previewed 40+ files across every category – raw shots, exported JPEGs, PDFs, Word docs from Semester 2. every single one opened in the preview pane. then I searched .lrcat. found it – 2.1GB, correct size, previewed clean, develop module data right there in the thumbnail.
I just... sat there. stared at it for a full minute. I think I made some kind of noise. it was not a cool noise.
bought the license. recovery is running to the 1TB external rn. 471GB, ETA 3 hrs 10 mins. I am not leaving this chair for anything.
@DataRecoverExpert @AlexR @Ryan404 @miconos – the clone step especially. I was literally about to skip it. full panic mode, just wanted to scan the drive immediately. this thread is the only reason I didn't. knowing the original SSD was never touched once – not once – the whole time kept me sane enough to finish this. two backup drives ordered. Backblaze sub active. three-copy rule starting today. never. again.
Quote from JustMike on April 3, 2026, 1:45 pmReally glad it came back. That backup lesson only truly lands after you've lived through something like this. Sounds like it landed.
Really glad it came back. That backup lesson only truly lands after you've lived through something like this. Sounds like it landed.
Quote from em_on_pc on April 3, 2026, 1:46 pmfound this thread like 30 mins ago bc the exact same thing just happened to me. quick formatted the wrong volume in Disk Management on Windows 11. stopped immediately, removed the drive letter, downloading a disk imaging tool rn and following every step word for word. please let it go the same way lol... I’m freaking out
found this thread like 30 mins ago bc the exact same thing just happened to me. quick formatted the wrong volume in Disk Management on Windows 11. stopped immediately, removed the drive letter, downloading a disk imaging tool rn and following every step word for word. please let it go the same way lol... I’m freaking out
Quote from DataNerd on April 3, 2026, 1:48 pmgood ending. and for em_on_pc and everyone else who finds this at 2am in a panic: can you recover data from a formatted SSD? yes – after a quick format, TRIM is not an instant wipe. GC is deferred. if you stopped writing to the drive immediately, the data is almost certainly still there. clone it, scan the clone, don’t touch the original. that’s the whole thing.
good ending. and for em_on_pc and everyone else who finds this at 2am in a panic: can you recover data from a formatted SSD? yes – after a quick format, TRIM is not an instant wipe. GC is deferred. if you stopped writing to the drive immediately, the data is almost certainly still there. clone it, scan the clone, don’t touch the original. that’s the whole thing.