Hey everybody! I was just wondering... What are the chances of recovering the data of a hard drive that has been formatted twice? I'm working on a friend's computer that was previously serviced. The other technician formatted the drive twice and then reinstalled the OS. Are there any software tools out there that I might be able to use. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is a sticky situation!

The format does very little harm. The reinstall is more dangerous. Ontrack's 'Easy Recovery Pro' (http://www.ontrack.com) and PowerQuest's 'Lost and Found' (http://www.powerquest.com) are two excellent recovery programs.

Before I get a lot of flack, I better explain myself. As far as `recovery' programs go, format does very little harm. They can recover practically all files after a format. That is if the drive is not used after the format.

Hi New Guy It all comes down to what method was used to format the drive. I used to wipe `em for a living and a "format C" just won't do. We used to use a floppy that contained a batch file that allowed the hard drive to be overwritten 7 times. This was a disk that was authorised to american dod specification. Then we would reboot and then format, I still use this to completely wipe but obviously I can't send it to you as it is illegal under copyright law. As far as I know a similar disk/program called Killdisk is available that should do the same job although don't quote me on this. Hope this helps Wolfey On a hot summers night would you offer your throat to the Wolf with the Red Roses?

I have to agree with what ham30 said about formatting. It's the reinstall that's more dangerous, and in my case, that's exactly what happened. My worry is... can the data that was on that drive be recovered if the OS was reinstalled after the format? That did overwrite the hard drive. Thanks Wolfey! It's definitely reassuring to know that a "format c:" won't truly kill the drive. There's hope for me yet! Now if I can only dig up the previous data. It seems almost impossible. I managed to get my hands on Ontrack's Easy Recovery Professional Edition. Will that do the trick? I normally wouldn't be so determined about recovering the data off a hard drive, but my friend really has some precious data on there. Any more suggestions are more than welcome. I'll take all the advice I can get on this one. Again, thanks for all the suggestions!

"My worry is... can the data that was on that drive be recovered if the OS was reinstalled after the format?" The short answer is NO. The long answer: The area of the hard disk that was used for the re-install will definately not be recoverable as it has been overwritten by the re-install. Any data area NOT used by the re-install may have your data but it is dependant on the defrag status of your drive prior to the format and re-install. Thus even files that might be recoverable may not be complete (as some of its sectors may have been used during the re-install). All you can do is attempt to recover and see how much you can salvage. Also if the proportion of the hard used by the re-install is small in comparison to its original size, then you also stand a better chance of getting some of your data back. Good luck. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

Since you have Easy Recovery Professional, it's sure worth a shot. But I hope you haven't continued to use the drive. Any further use diminishes the odds. Disconnect the drive (if you haven't already done so) and hook it up as a slave on another system to do the recovery.