Storage HDD (D:) Disappearance -- I DARE you to figure this one out!

knight15 said:

Thanks to all for the inputs: I could fire the drive up to search for the file extensions in the mystery folder, but that would violate the admonition against running the thing on a windows machine before making a clone: I’m on my way to Geek Squad to see what they say. First request is to make a clone for me!

I have no idea of what Geek Squad is.
as for looking on the drive without mounting it in Windows..
You can create a Linux Live USB stick. Linux never write to disk unless you tell it to do so,
Linux Mint is mention by many as it feels a bit like windows (even if its way different)

Thanks @Marie SWE for your opinion.

@knight15

Looking at the check disk log brings some cheers to me. 1, There are no bad sectors on the disk. 2. MFT was not corrupt. Only MFT mirror was corrupt and check disk seems to have corrected it, So my assumption that MFT could have been corrupt due to bad sectors and as a result checkdisk could have deleted all your files stands nullified,.Check disk did not find any non-indexed files and so has not put any such files in the "Lost and found" category. The only million dollar question now is why your files are not showing up.

Since there are still many unknowns and as a matter of abundant caution, I would still consider any data recovery should be attempted on a cloned drive.If you want to hand over the job to geek squad ask them to clone the drive and do the data recovery only on the cloned drive. Because of my busy schedule in this foreign land and also I am operating on a borrowed
and unfamiliar Windows 11 laptop I may not be able to work on this atleast till 24th May.

Nope, I am not a data recovery professional. I hadn't practiced it for a living anytime before nor do I do it now. I am only an Electronics and Communication Engineer, a Biomedical Engineer and a retired Sceintist in Defence Research and Development drawing my monthly pension from the Union Government and hitting the 77th milestone in June . As a member of Seven Forums, aided, abetted and encouraged by Seniors like essenbe and kado897, I developed certain skills in data recovery by my own experiments and reading user experiences, mainly to help members of these forums in need of data recovery. Rest is history and it has become a passion rather than a profession .

OK, with that loose talk over and coming back to the topic, since your disk is in good condition and for this one time you can have it spinning and check whether WinRAR can see any hidden files. WinRAR can see even super-hidden files that can't be seen by Windows.

( Normally, when I give instructions, I run the tool on my Desktop PC ,and provide illustrative screenshots step by step to the OP. I have all the tools on my Desktop but here I do not want to mess up other's laptop.That way I am handicapped.)

Anyway, if you want to go ahead with it here is the link. WinRAR - Access hidden folders on your computer - Winrarfree.net In WinRAR, navigate to the disk in question, explore, and if you see the folders/files , right click on it and copy it to another drive.You may also google search on the topic.

I leave it to you to try or not to try.

knight15 said:

Arrrrrgh!! I FINALLY figured out what the “mystery folder” is: I knew I’d seen it years ago, and it’s potentially bad news. The folder is created during a drive erasure from a program simply called “Eraser.” Once the program completes the erasure, the mystery folder goes away..............

Can you, if you please, post the link to that erasure program. Just want to have a look at it - what it does and how it does.

OK, If WinRAR does not show any hidden files, I will take it as none available.

In data recovery if one does not give the desired result, we have to try something else and that last recourse here will be trying with a live Linux as Marie SWE suggested in her post #21

Folks here suggest Linux Mint.. You have to download the ISO, and create a bootable pendrive using Rufus.

If you want a "walk-through" then go the Lucid Puppy way Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer - Windows 7 Forums (also applies to recovery from unreadable HDDs)

So whichever you choose-Mint or Lucid Puppy.

Honestly I do not beleive that is going to bring any results but no harm in trying -atleast we will be satisfied we have tried everything possible.

I'm going to say something you won't like.
as in the title of the link.. (Secure Erase Files from Hard Drives)
as i wrote in post #19

For those who wonder why the difference.. It is an HDD. so it leaves magnetic traces/shadows.. for every time you write to it, they get weaker. That's why with secure erase you write 1 an 0 to the same sector multiple times to erase the shadow for possible data recovery. Governments and company's does it and some ordinary people.
So even if the disk has been abused they do have a better chance then a home user has and even worse if they never done this before.

I think you should call a recovery firm and discuss your situation with them and to see what they say about the chance of recover the data, and take it from the top step by step what you have done so far, so they have a chance of giving you as good answer as they can. Then ask about price

And turn to a firm/company that has been around for a while 10 years or so.. Company's that has survived more then 3-4-5years can't be bad as they had gone under by then of bad reputation
So give one or three company's a call.. asking is most often free in life. :)

I agree. Only Forensic Recovery by a competent Data Recovery Agency can bring out the buried data. But what if the OP had used that Erasure software for a secure erase?