My hard drive info disappeared after using it to boot windows

You turned your ESD-USB drive into a 32GB drive by setting it up as a Windows installation disk.
- You should not set up a disk containing other data as a Windows installation disk.
- The procedure that the "MCT" uses to make it an installation disk includes reformatting the whole disk in "Fat32" format which is, by default, a maximum of 32GB. That's why you can only see 32GB at the moment.
- Most people use 8GB USB sticks as their Windows installation disks.

I do not expect you to be able to recover your original data
- You can reformat the disk with the "NTFS" file system choice to regain use of the whole 2TB.
- If recovering the original data is your priority then don't reformat it or do anything else with it. Just take it out of the computer and don't use it for anything then await possible advice about data recovery from somebody else [just in case somebody knows a way of recovering it that I do not].

In preparation for such possible advice, post a screenshot of Disk management.
How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management - TenForumsTutorials

@jumanji - Can you help? Is data recovery possible in these circumstances? - part of the disk has been reformatted then overwritten & the rest is now, I assume, Raw.

Best of luck,
Denis

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Welcome to TenForums,
Denis

Try3 said:

.........@jumanji - Can you help? Is data recovery possible in these circumstances? - part of the disk has been reformatted then overwritten & the rest is now, I assume, Raw........

May be possible if only the first 32GB is formatted to FAT32. Also depends upon how the OP prepared the HDD to make it bootable.

My action plan:
1. Write zeroes to the first 32 GB using bootice after examining Sector 0 and saving it.
2. Initialise the disk with Windows Disk Management. This will bring the disk online writing only the unique id to sector 0
3. Run TestDisk to find the Backup of the Volume Boot Sector. If it exists it can be written into the start sector of the partition - usually sector 2048.
4. Recover the partition with TestDisk. This will write the partition table to sector 0 and make the partition accessible and all data beyond 32GB can be accessed - if all my assumptions and presumptions turn true .

Note: These are not instructions to the OP. He should not try it on his own.

@Unizori

Post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management with only your problem HDD plugged in.

Note: Hide Console Tree, Action Pane. Then View > Top > Disk list (This will show the partition style of the disks)