windows 10 media creation wiped my external hard drive and can I get the files or most back

[Crisco76]

The windows 10 media creation wiped my 500gb hdd. Now only Fat32 30gb or so is on it and unallocated space. How can I get most files back for free can't afford to pay for it

 

[Ralston18]

Did you use a procedure similar to the following link?

https://mspoweruser.com/clean-install-windows-10-using-media-creation-tool/

Do not wish to offer any false hopes but was the 500GB drive partitoned by any chance?

That the 500 GB HDD ends up showing only a 30GB FAT32 partition seems odd to me.

Without really knowing what you did and what may have transpired consider trying the EaseUS product:

http://www.easeus.com/storage-media-recovery/how-to-recover-data-from-wiped-partition.html

Most likely your data is gone and/or anything you do could make any recoverymuch more difficult or impossible.

Do not be in a rush and start applying tools per se. May make things worse.

Research and consider the options and risks available.

 

[rgd1101]

Did you use your 500 gb as the ISO media?

 

[Alabalcho]

I did that once to myself: Instead of selecting 16GB flash disk as target for the image, I have selected an external hard drive.
Being lazy (hopefully, I had nothing important on that hard drive), I used TestDisk and I was able to recover majority of the files there. Directory structure was mostly lost, but this did not matter.

To the OP: If you can afford, borrow / buy a hard drive big enough to make first an image copy of the corrupted disk. That copy would (and will) take ages to execute, but you will have peace of mind that you can try as many recovery tools as you like.

The way I recovered my hard drive: I ran TestDisk under Linux, and it operated on a file image of corrupted disk.

 

[Crisco76]

I downloaded the creation media file and missed the small warning that it would overwrite all files on that drive. It shows the FAT32 30gb file in disk management and 400+ of unallocated space. I believe it was only originally formatted and one partition, I was able to recover about 40 jpegs.... 🙁 Would it best to recover partition then data or just data etc? I tried a couple programs that google gave and not having the best luck, I realize its my own mistake tho lol

 

[Ralston18]

If viable I would go straight for the data. Who knows what may happen with an attempt to recover the partition.

The simpler the process the less there is to go wrong.

You have options as suggested in the preceeding posts. Take your time, weigh your options, plan it out, and hope for the best.

 

[rgd1101]

if the data is important, do what Alabalcho said