Need help - deleted ~2Tb of backups (Windows 11)

[ad77]

Hello,

I wanted to copy a folder 20 Gb from one flash drive to another USB HDD (which had about 2Tb of backups)

I put Mirror to copy from one drive to another, however, it didn't just copy that folder, but deleted all of my data on the target drive.

I hit pause already at 100% when files were being moved to recycle (?) - please see screenshot below.

What would be the best way to recover from this situation and get back my files?

Thank you!

FreeFileSync_x64 - 2025-08-14 - 14-24-29.png (340.67 KiB) Viewed 207 times

[John1234]

Hi,

Any chance you have a recent backup that's not quite as new but still a backup?

I think you're going to find it a challenge to try and recover two terabytes from the recycle bin. It may have purged files already.

Going forward always have at least two copies of your data aside from the original.
I always buy my backup drives in pairs. I use free file sync to keep backup drive a in sync with backup Drive B so that if either one of them were to fail or get ruined I have another copy.

[xCSxXenon]

You are looking at data recovery services at this point. I would find someone reputable locally, or finding a specialist with mail-in service. If you care about the data, disconnect the drive and don't reconnect until you've decided you don't care about it

[ad77]

Thank you for the suggestions! Unfortunately, no second backups - that was it.

[Plerry]

Which setting did you use for "Delete and overwrite" in the FreeFileSync (FFS) Synchronization Settings (F8)?
If you used "Recyle Bin", you should be able find files deleted by the sync in your Recycle-bin.
If you used "Versioning", you should be able find files deleted by the sync in yourVersioning location.
If you used "Permanent", you are out of luck.

[ad77]

Hi Plerry, you're a savior!

Apparently, I used Recycle Bin and 9 out of 11 deleted folders found!

My current situation is as follows:

There is a folder called E:\RecycleBin~7292.ffs_tmp. Inside it, I have 9 out of 11 deleted folders.

explorer - 2025-08-16 - 09-15-24.png (63.88 KiB) Viewed 170 times

One of the missing folders was called ! 2022-08-30 ! And in the log file it says:

Cannot write file "E:\sync.ffs_lock".
ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND: The system cannot find the path specified. [CreateFile]
14:48:54 Error: Unable to move "E:\RecycleBin~7292.ffs_tmp\! 2022-08-30 !" to the recycle bin.
Cannot read file attributes of "E:\RecycleBin~7292.ffs_tmp\! 2022-08-30 !".
ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND: The system cannot find the path specified. [GetFileAttributes]

Another missing folder is not in the logs.

There is also a “hidden” $RECYCLE.BIN folder which has lots of other hidden folders to all of which the access is denied.

explorer - 2025-08-16 - 09-16-04.png (134.81 KiB) Viewed 170 times

Is it possible that the 2 unrecovered folders are in some of them? Maybe there is a way to restart FFS and finish the mirroring after which all 11 folders will be in RecycleBin~7292.ffs_tmp? Or maybe there is another way to get access to those folders and see what’s inside them?

Thank you very much for your help!

[therube]

I'm guessing...

Recycle...fff.tmp is simply something inadvertently left over, that normally would not be there.
So anything you can recover from there is to your benefit. Do so. At the least, make a copy of that directory & work on the copy. (Possible ? that FFS on see that, might ? automatically clean it up - such that it will no longer exist?)

$RECYCLE.BIN is your "Recycle Bin" (whatever Windows might call it).
You should be able to access the directories/files within.
You might not be able to do it through Windows Explorer, not sure?
(At least I opened an Admin level CMD prompt, then ran explorer.exe & still wasn't allowed access.
But running my file manager, elevated, so at an Admin level, did allow access.

Note that what "Recycle Bin" (or whatever Windows calls it) is a "virtualized" structure, while what a file manager shows you will be the raw files/directories that make up that virtualized "Recycle Bin".)

[ad77]

Thank you very much, therube!

I got access to $RECYCLE.BIN with admin CMD, but the missing folders were not there.

But I'm lucky to have recovered as much as I did.