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Recently I have used my 5TB external HDD to re-install Windows on a laptop I am selling. I created a separate partition to boot the windows installation on the laptop, well I screwed up by ignoring the warnings thinking it will only "wipe" the boot partition and now my data from partitions I was using is "unallocated".

This disk had 2 partitions (except the boot one), main one with most of the disk size and a BitLocker password encrypted one of about a 100GB. Main partition was filled with ~2.5TB of data and a BitLocker partition was filled up with ~50GB of data. I have the recovery key for the BitLocker drive.

Now when I open the disk management tool in Windows it shows it like this, "New volume" is completely empty and I assume the "Unallocated" space is where my data is, and I need to recover it, also when I right click on the unallocated space the options to create a new simple volume are greyed out.

How would I be able to recover the data and especially how can I recover the encrypted BitLocker partition properly? What software could I use (highly preferably free, or max up to 50€) that would be able to recover the data and divide it into its original partition properly?

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If you have "wipe" the whole HDD it's gone, you will not have it back.

If you want to try to do some data recovery you can use CAINE but being you a person that wiped out his own HDD you might not have the knowledge to do so. (sorry).

Keep the 50€ for you or invest that money to ask to a computer repair store on your town to do the job. (Search "data recovery" on Google and find somethign in your area).

But even a data recovery expert will only be able to partially recover the data; maybe some image, maybe some video but forget about complex stuff or software installed.

I'm sure next time you will remember to do a backup before you run into a Windows installation.

EDIT: or maybe try Windows File Recovery, but not sure if it could help

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  • Thanks, I already know my options. I have not wiped the HDD, the data is still there and I know that because I ran a scan. I need a software that can identify the BitLocker encrypted partition from my disk and recover it, the other 2.5TB of data is not that important but would be nice not loosing it.
    – aveik
    Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 23:28
  • In this case the OS is inside that Unknown partition. You need to edit the boot partition with a Boot Manager
    – Francesco Mantovani
    Commented Jan 6, 2022 at 7:04
  • howtogeek.com/214477/…
    – Francesco Mantovani
    Commented Jan 6, 2022 at 7:13
  • Should have been more specific, thouhght it was obvious. There is no more OS, the boot partition has shrinked and merged with the free space. U really don't need to send me articles of things I can find by myself or already know, I am not an amateur in IT. I thought I was clear enough in terms of what I need.
    – aveik
    Commented Jan 6, 2022 at 11:38
  • Yes @aveik you are an amateur indeed. If you have deleted or shrink the boot the OS is still there and you can still save EVERYTHING. If you have deleted or shrink the partition dedicated to the OS you can save NOTHING.
    – Francesco Mantovani
    Commented Jan 6, 2022 at 13:05

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