Recovering Possibly Deleted Files/Pictures/Link from Old Windows 7 Desktop?

I have a dell xps 8100 desktop windows 7 home premium 64 bit bought back in 2010. I used it for a while but stopped using it years ago. I did the clean reinstall 2 times but did it incorrectly because it had to do with partition where i did not delete everything. It has 4gb ram and 500gb hard drive that is 7200 rpm i believe.


Years ago when i did the clean reinstall, i recalled i was able to view old photos deleted and even links from it. Does anyone know how i did that? Also because i did clean reinstall twice, does that mean i cannot do it anymore? The thing though is it shows 413gb free of 465gb total on my hard drive. And since windows 7 uses only 20gb, that means the rest is my data that i saved right? Can someone tell me where i can find all this information?


Could i still view files deleted from recycle bin or websites i visted back in say 2013 or thats not possible now? I ask this because im going to do a clean reinstall of windows 7 on this desktop and want to be able to view any old files i possibly might still have or able to view old photos or links etc since if i do the clean reinstall of windows 7 correctly, that means i no longer would be 413gb free of 465gb hard drive but more like 440gb free of 465gb hard drive right?


I checked online and there is program called recuva. Is that what i want to download?


Thanks.

 

Try booting using Linux LiveCD. I think some files are hidden.

 

Since you did 2 clean installs this might not help but did you check " windows old " folder ?

https://www-howtogeek-com.cdn.amppr...-windows.old-folder-and-how-do-you-delete-it/

 

Thanks. I did that check that folder and it seem to have old files but not the ones im looking at.

 

Yes, In fact I was going to post that you try using Recuva.
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

There is also a linux program Testdisk, that works really well, but is command line so more difficult to work with, but works really well.

Spoiler: link

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15761/recover-data-like-a-forensics-expert-using-an-ubuntu-live-cd/

 

You could look into booting into a live CD which has foremost installed, and using it to extract (possibly incomplete if partially overwritten) files which have been deleted. Assuming we are talking about spinning metal here, you have a pretty decent chance of recovering the data as long as it hasn't actually been overwritten by something else. Here's an article pertaining to using foremost to recover the data: https://www.howtoforge.com/recover-deleted-files-with-foremost

 

Testdisk runs on Windows as well, but indeed has not the most straightforward interface. @Drew1 you obviously don't want to be using the machine until the files are recovered - it will increase the damage.

 

Maybe try this,
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/
(you may be surprised whats still on there -esp, if you had a partition you didnt reformat.