Personal files now missing on Windows 10 bootable USB, after entering Advanced Start-up mode

[Nived R]

I had a windows 10 bootable USB with extra personal files on it. I just tried to do an advanced start-up using the USB, but it failed. Now when I access the USB, only the windows 10 files show up and the personal files are not there. I have tried viewing the drive with hidden items checked, but to no avail.


I think the files are still on the drive as the drive is showing up with 41.7 GB used, even though there's only 3.16 GB worth of windows 10 files on the drive. This is a 64GB drive.

I'm not sure what happened, but can anyone please help me retrieve the personal files that were originally on the USB.

 

[Bighorn]

If it were mine I'd either plug it into my Linux Mint computer or boot the computer to a Linux Mint LiveDVD and check the formatting of it. LM [or other flavors of Linux] is free and seems to handle more drive formats than other OSes and may give you more information.

 

[Norton]

I'm not sure about this. Just a thought, but I would think that the creation of the ISO on the thumb drive may have overwritten the personal files?

 

[Bighorn]

I'm not sure about this. Just a thought, but I would think that the creation of the ISO on the thumb drive may have overwritten the personal files?

Yes, if using the MCT/Media Creation Tool it will reformat to FAT32 losing all data on the drive. But a kicker in that is Windows can only deal with up to 32GB in creating/formatting as FAT32, any space remaining on the drive will be inaccessible, will require deleting the partition and re-establishing the full capacity. The Thumb drives come from the factory as FAT32 up to 64GB, haven't gotten a 128GB drive yet to check.

 

[Norton]

I hope the OP had a backup copy of those missing files.