this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2026
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Most likely they are not the original files because that space was marked and re-allocated so though they present as your files their contents are either partially or entirely other data. If you haven't written extensively to the drive since then recovery may still be possible, if you have well most likely RIP but read on.
SSDs use something called TRIM which can make files unrecoverable after a time so that's another factor working against you.
Have a look at this page from the datarecovery reddit wiki: https://safereddit.com/r/datarecovery/wiki/software/
Try some of those software. They are reputable companies and most allow a free preview at least and a few recovered files before demanding pay. Use them for the specific files you're after in free mode and if that's not enough consider whether it's worth paying for any remainder. I wouldn't pay if you can't recover at least one file previously lost to you in the free mode as if you're just pulling more bad files there's no reason to pay for false hope IMO but it is your money. (DMDE is one of the better ones in my opinion to try first though you can go through the list)
Do not write to the drive you are recovering from. Immediately take that drive out of service and write and conduct your recovery using another drive if you want the best chance of recovery. Partitions are not low level divisions and a drive will happily overwrite what it thinks is empty space that used to belong to another partition in order to write data in yet another partition. They exist only as logical organizing principles for the OS and user.
This is also your reminder to always back anything valuable up and refresh back-ups regularly. Sorry for your loss.
@Majestic@lemmy.ml ooh, I think that my drive has been rewritten enough at this point that what isn't in those specific files is likely lost. In my attempts to recover the files I kinda filled up my storage with garbage :/
That link seems super helpful though, thank you, I'll give it a try!
Also I had not heard of safereddit.com, that's interesting
It's just a reddit front-end. Who knows if it keeps working in future but you can replace reddit links with it by adding safe in the URL.
Still worth a try running free mode of some of those software as you have little to lose. The recovering from the specific folder feature in particular is likely the first thing to fail due to being de-referenced. If you filled up your drive all the way or nearly so then yes very large chance it's gone forever. Take the time to decide on a back-up strategy going forward, commit to copying and backing up your critical files every 6 or 4 months, whatever works as best between maximizing recovery and maximizing your interest in continuing to do it by not making it a too frequent chore. Also you can look into automated back-up software and options that simplify it.