Massive mistake with Storage Spaces in Windows 8?

The_Abyss · 9 Jan 2013 at 00:03

I recently upgraded my PC and installed Windows 8. The configuration is:

1 x 500gb SSD - Samsung 840 - OS, apps
3 x 1 TB HDDs

I used to keep all my pictures on one of the 1 TB HDDs, and use another as a backup. The remaining drive was spare.

I wanted to create a more resilient backup, and so merged the backup and spare HDDs as one storage space with 1 TB. All good so far.

At this point I then thought that it wouldn't make sense to back up my picture files to this new storage space - what would be better would be to create one storage space across the whole 3 drives, so I added the 3rd drive to the space - the drive with all my photos on.

I assumed that the process would keep the files, but instead it appears that all the files have been deleted, and now the drives won't even show up in Explorer. They're present in Disk Management, but when reassigning them with drive letters (not formatting as I go) they're all completely empty.

All my photos from the past 11 years were on my drive, and they appear to be completely gone. Have I lost them completely?

Help!

The_Abyss · 9 Jan 2013 at 00:24

Thank you very much - I'll look into that.

Without questioning the answer, does anyone else have ideas? I just want to be sure that I can select the best means of recovering my photos. I've diligently backed them up for years, but this time combined with updating the OS I've really come unstuck. They're all my professional photos, but more importantly they're also all my own personal photos dating back to when my son was born and all the years since then. I'm feeling more than a little nauseous to think I may have lost them all.

The_Abyss · 9 Jan 2013 at 08:39

Top answers people - thank you very much. I'll get on it tonight.

The_Abyss · 9 Jan 2013 at 08:56

Thanks but I was looking for advice, not judgement. If you read what I posted then you'll see that I do back up, and this situation came about out from looking to create a more robust backup.

The_Abyss · 13 Jan 2013 at 16:50

Thank you to everyone who constructively helped with suggestions on the restoration of the files. "Get data back for NTFS" worked a treat - not bad at all for $79.

I'm now going to explore some alternative backup solutions.