I formatted a second hard drive under Windows 2000, and I NEED valuable information (one piece I forgot) off of that hard drive. Is there anyway I can get it back? Craaaap. Thanks.

as far as i know, you can't unformat.

The partition still remains (FAT32) but no data. Im running a few scan programs on it now, but if that doesnt work.... Ill send someone money if they can show me how to get this info back. Thats how important it is.

have you tried lost and found?

VERY UNLIKELY that you can get it back. However you can try. Follow these links. http://www.ontrack.com/software#datarecovery http://runtime.org/

Lincoln...it CAN be done... There are several data recovery programs that advertise the ability to do it...I have several of them...Ontrack Easy Recovery is one...DTIData is another...Final Data is another... Most of the better ones that work on FAT32 cost between $100 and $200...if you need to work on NTFS the price goes up to about $500... All of these programs will not see the same data to recover...If I am looking for a specific file, I might have to look with 2 or 3 different data recovery programs before I find it... My success rate is around 75%... Do a search with Google and you will find maybe 2-3 dozen different data recovery programs...read the claims carefully and choose... I have recovered data from a number of HD crashes but I have NOT specifically gone after data on a HD that was re-formatted...but I have seen data on a recovery project that I know was on the HD BEFORE it was re-formatted... Here is what you do...DO NOT INSTALL ANYTHING ON YOUR HD...ANY DATA, PROGRAMS ETC THAT YOU INSTALL MIGHT OVERWRITE THE DATA YOU WANT TO RECOVER AND IF THAT HAPPENS YOU WILL NOT, NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER THE DATA... Remove the HD from your computer and slave it onto another computer...Install whatever data recovery program you get on the primary HD of the second computer...the program will then opperate from the C:\ drive and scan the D:\ drive (the re-formatted HD)...and will then show what data can be recovered...you will then save that recovered file to the C:\ drive...when you are satisfied you have everything you want, you can then transfer your recovered data back to the D:\ (origional) HD... It will help if you know the file name or what folder it was in... You CANNOT recover email attachments that were separated from the email and saved in some folder...even though it may be a word.doc file and you can open it in Word, once it has been erased you cannot recover it... The entire file is NOT erased when you "delete" it...Only the first character of the file name is deleted and it is replaced with a blank space...this way the FAT table cannot find it... The data recovery programs can find these files that have the first character removed... Deleted email attachments, I believe, have the first 2 characters removed when you delete the file, PLUS there is a security character that the email program adds to the file name to "attach" it to a particular email... You CAN, however, recover specific email messages, but NOT the attachments...if this is your problem, the best program for finding deleted email messages is Final Email from Final Data... Hope this helps...if you need, email me at stevem5001@yahoo.com Good Luck STeve

Lincoln...page 2... If the data recovery program you get does NOT find the data you need, and you absoutly have to have it... You can send you HD to a data recovery specialist...they will take the HD apart and use specialized equipment to copy each individual platter to a master and then work on recovery... It is expensive...plan on about $600 minimum and it could go as high as about $2000...if the HD is physically damaged... But in my experience $1000-1200 usually gets it... I noticed the earlier post for Lost and Found...this program is no longer sold and Partition Magic has discontinued it...HOWEVER...it can be found with a Google search...and when it asks for a serial #, just punch in anything that comes to mind...seems to work... This is a DOS based data recovery program...can be a little confusing to use...and I would NOT try using it on a critical HD WITHOUT practicing on something else... Also note, some of these data recovery programs will run the scan for 2-3 HOURS...I have let one run all night...these were the older DOS based data recovery programs... Be patient... STeve