Can't access data on HDD

The attached screenshot really says it all. I have an old laptop hard drive that I've been using with a USB enclosure as a specific backup for certain files that I want to keep. As the screenshot shows, Windows Explorer says the drive is empty, but under Properties it shows 32.5 GB used... those are my files. I've tried data recovery software (Recuva and EaseUS Data Recovery), and was only able to recover the contents of one subfolder, roughly 18GB. This surprises me because, since initially removing the drive from the laptop and formatting it, I've never put anything else on the drive other than these missing files, so one would think data recovery would be fairly easy, as these files should be on the "top layer", so to speak. Also, this drive is showing to be FAT32, but I'm positive I would have never formatted it that way. It would've most definitely been NTFS. I really need to get to the rest of my files. Any ideas?

What kind of drive is it? SSD or mechanical?

>> What kind of drive is it? SSD or mechanical?
Really it does not matter. According to description hard drive works fine.

Scan you data with TRIAL version of UFS Explorer Standard Recovery : https://www.ufsexplorer.com/download.php#tab-std
And share results here.

Iurii":2ssy7eab said:

[post]14660[/post] Really it does not matter.

Click to expand...

Really it ABSOLUTELY DOES matter. Ever heard of T.R.I.M.?

Sorry for the delay, I went out of town. It's a mechanical drive... Seagate Momentus 5400 120 GB.

I have used UFS Explorer, but it was not able to find my missing files. Just a thought... Does anyone think it would be beneficial to do a Quick Format to NTFS and then run the data recovery software again? Or wll this bury my files even deeper?

Don't format nothing...
Have you checked the health of the drive too?

spammsmcghee":1dxps8kn said:

[post]14740[/post] Does anyone think it would be beneficial to do a Quick Format to NTFS

Click to expand...

No one who has a clue would ever recommend you write any data to a drive you're trying to recover from. Formatting is always the wrong thing to do.

Have you actually scanned the drive with UFS or did you just open up the file system with it? Also, are you sure you checked the correct file system boxes for the original formatting of the drive?

pclab":22t76qz7 said:

Don't format nothing...
Have you checked the health of the drive too?

Click to expand...

Appears to be Healthy

Jared":2u7alhbw said:

spammsmcghee":2u7alhbw said:

[post]14740[/post] Does anyone think it would be beneficial to do a Quick Format to NTFS

Click to expand...

No one who has a clue would ever recommend you write any data to a drive you're trying to recover from. Formatting is always the wrong thing to do.

Have you actually scanned the drive with UFS or did you just open up the file system with it? Also, are you sure you checked the correct file system boxes for the original formatting of the drive?

Click to expand...

Yes I did. I didn't check Mac and Sun because I didn't think they would apply. But I did have all 3 of the Windows options checked. I will run it again, and get screenshots along the way this time.