You can pay a data-recovery expert to attempt salvage of some of the files that were previously stored on the D drive.You all have been helpful, after looking into it. Yes, You all are correct. Me not knowing what to do and being new to the Raspberry PI. I can say I downlaoded the image software to my local drive. instead of the sdcard on the raspberry pi. I do recall it saying pick a drive so, I picked my D Drive. wich was just an extra interdrive I had added when I got the pc. Luckly it wasnt my C Drive. but, I did use it as a drive to store data. So, best recommendation is to have a professional look at it? thank y ou all again for the info.
Full recovery is unlikely.
For example, the first files you stored are more likely to have been overwritten as they would have been stored at the beginning of the disk.
Back when hard disks did not have integrated controllers, I wiped the first track of my D drive by plugging the ribbon cable in backwards. It took a summer to recover the files but I managed to get back almost everything. I don't think I would be able to perform the same task again. Note also that you overwrote more than a gigabyte of data.
For me personal photographs and other creative work are more valuable than something sold by a third party which can be purchased again. While I'm not an attorney, I do not think a lawsuit over damages related to unusually dangerous software would turn out well.
If good local help is not available one could send the drive to a company that specialises in data recovery with an explanation of what happened and what files you want to salvage. Even though the cows--so to speak--are out of the barn, I'd also suggest getting a large external HDD to back up your C drive. I'm about to do that here with a server that just suffered a failed drive in a redundant drive pool. I always like to have an extra backup just in case.
I've enjoyed tinkering with Raspberry Pi for many years and am sorry to hear about your troubles. I hope you can get your Windows computer and Pi working normally soon. Good luck.
Statistics: Posted by ejolson — Sun Aug 10, 2025 9:17 pm