Can't recover any file after a Windows 10 reset

[Orestes]

Hi,

My Windows 10 broke after an upgrade. After exploring many options, I could only go on with the Windows Reset which offers Dell Support, where the disk is formatted.

Although I tried to back up my data, the Dell Recovery Tool sucks : it just saved 1% of it.

So I came straight away to testdisk / photorec, as it had saved my life once before. However, this time, it's not being able to find anything before the reset.

There were many pictures (JPG), and I'm enabling the "brute force", but just a few 'exe' and 'txt' files are found.

Could it be because of the BitLocker encryption used? Any other reason?

Many thanks for reading,

Kind Regards.

[recuperation]

Hi,

My Windows 10 broke after an upgrade. After exploring many options, I could only go on with the Windows Reset which offers Dell Support, where the disk is formatted.

Although I tried to back up my data, the Dell Recovery Tool sucks : it just saved 1% of it.

So I came straight away to testdisk / photorec, as it had saved my life once before. However, this time, it's not being able to find anything before the reset.

There were many pictures (JPG), and I'm enabling the "brute force", but just a few 'exe' and 'txt' files are found.

Could it be because of the BitLocker encryption used? Any other reason?

Yes. Testdisk only works on unencrypted data.

If your drive is booting Windows 10 that you have encrypted fails you have to run Testdisk from a different machine, unlock the failing partition and have Testdisk work on the partition with the unencrypted data that is provided by Bitlocker.
As I never used Bitlocker I can't tell you the exact procedure.

[Orestes]

Hi,

Many thanks for your response.

That had many sense, and it kind of worked : I disabled the BitLocker on my disk, then booted Linux Mint in a separate live disk, running 'photorec' from there with the 'brute force' enabled.

Then photorec was able to find some pictures... a 5% of them. So it kind of worked, as it indeed found some of the pics I had lost... But only a small percentage of them. Which is strange cause I've only reinstalled Windows 10, and nothing else. That should hardly occupy too much space.

So I don't know what else to try now. Any ideas are welcome

[recuperation]

Hi,

Many thanks for your response.

That had many sense, and it kind of worked : I disabled the BitLocker on my disk, then booted Linux Mint in a separate live disk, running 'photorec' from there with the 'brute force' enabled.

Then photorec was able to find some pictures... a 5% of them. So it kind of worked, as it indeed found some of the pics I had lost... But only a small percentage of them. Which is strange cause I've only reinstalled Windows 10, and nothing else. That should hardly occupy too much space.

Fragmentation is detrimental for the success of Photorec. "only reinstalled Windows 10" does not matter.

So I don't know what else to try now. Any ideas are welcome

Use a commercial recovery tool.

[recuperation]

I have no recommendation.

It seems that some Forum members who tested commercial solutions do not want to share their experience.
That is disappointing.

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