Is it still possible to recover data?

Discussion & Solutions
6

You did the right thing by staying calm and going straight to recovery tools; now the main goal is to avoid further damage and give TestDisk (and anything else) the best chance to find data.​​

What you should do right now

  • Stop using that PC for anything except recovery work (no browsing, no installing big apps, no updates).​​

  • If possible, boot from a USB (Windows PE, Linux live USB, or a recovery disk) and run TestDisk from there so the internal drive is only read, not written.

  • When TestDisk shows recoverable files or partitions, always copy recovered data to a different physical drive (external HDD/SSD/USB), never back to the same disk.

  • extundelete only works on ext3/ext4 (Linux) partitions, so it will only help if that drive previously had a Linux filesystem or you’re recovering a Linux partition from that disk.

  • If you use extundelete, make sure the target partition is unmounted or mounted read‑only before running it, then restore either specific paths or use --restore-all and check the RECOVERED_FILES directory.

About “Reset this PC – Remove everything”

  • That option is designed to wipe personal files and user accounts from the Windows drive, not just reinstall Windows.​​

  • In practice, some or a lot of data can sometimes still be recoverable (it depends on how Windows reset did the cleanup and how much has been written since), which is why tools like TestDisk or commercial recovery tools can sometimes find files after a reset.​

If TestDisk and extundelete don’t find much

If these don’t give you what you need, you still have a few options:

  • Try a dedicated Windows file‑recovery program (EaseUS, Recoverit, etc.) and scan the entire disk deeply from another OS or another machine.​

  • If the data is very important (work, family photos, etc.), consider stopping DIY attempts and taking the drive to a professional data‑recovery service; every extra write or re‑partitioning step can reduce their chances.​

When you share the “news” (what TestDisk found or any screenshots/logs), mention: 1) is it an HDD or SSD, and 2) did you install anything or copy data after the reset,