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I took my computer in for repair and the idiot formatted my HDD's! Is there anyway I can recover all if not some of the data? free programs if possible?
Unfortunatly, unless someone knows something we don't, you've lost it. 'format' by definition is permanent.
To be fair to said 'idiot', it is your own responsibility to backup your data before anyone looks at repairing your computer.
Your PC may have NEEDED to be formatted in order to be repaired.
Follow this mantra: Backup, Backup, Backup.
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Free...If the data is recoverable then Disk Investigator might be able to help.
For $89 Spinrite 6 alledgedly can do the job.
Of course, anytime and everytime you start the PC or add something to it then you are overwriting any possibilities of recovering the data that used to occupy that same space on the hard drive.
Your chances are better if you were to install this hard drive as a slave to another PC until you finish your attempts at recovering your data.
Best regards,
Bryan
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Well there are two drives my C and D drive the C drive had all my programs on which I don't really mind about losing. But the D drive has all my digital photos on which I would like to recover. If I was to put Windows 98SE on my C drive and left the D drive empty would I be able to recover then?
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"If I was to put Windows 98SE on my C drive and left the D drive empty would I be able to recover then?"
Yes, the chances are very good. I would advise a 'paid for' program like 'Easy Recovery Pro' or 'Lost and Found'. I know that they can recover files after a 'quick' format. A quick format is what is normally done.
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If the drive was partitioned as FAT16 you can use the old dos unformat command.
It's likely the drive is FAT32 but you can check by runnig fdisk and choosing option 4. See what it says under 'system'.
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^^^Does this freeware work? If so how do I run it through windows or dos? I have not installed Windows yet as I am waiting to see what you guys say.
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"Does this freeware work?"
Yes.
Fairly self explanatory, unzip and copy the DOS rescue.exe file to a floppy and run it.
Unzip the Windows setup.exe file and run it to set up Drive Rescue in windows.
The Tips document helps explain things.
The windows versions are certainly easier to run. Just don't copy/install anything to the drive in question, (Slave it) and save all recovered data to ~ANOTHER~ hard disk.
It's a good day when you learn something
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Since nobody has mentioned it yet, stop using the drive if you want to be able to recover anything from it. The more you use the drive - even just booting Windows from it - the more you decrease the chances of successfully recovering any of the data that was lost.
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I saw that. The correlation between "starting the PC" and "overwriting...the data", while obvious to anyone who already knows, is not clearly stated.
And besides, it wasn't nearly emphatic enough ;)
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Good Day guys,
On a different note, My girlfriend formatted her laptop, Partitioned the original drive, reinstalled windows XP, She's been using the laptop and the same drive for over 5months after that. She would like to recover some of the old info.
Is she asking for miracles or is it possible to recover at least 70% of the data?Regards Smuffy
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Yeah, she's asking for a miracle. Anything that's not been overwritten could be recovered. But once a drive's been formatted or files deleted that space is freed up for windows to use. It may use the blank space to temporarily park a file or part of a file and then move it elsewhere thereby overwriting a larger portion of the drive than the physical size of the files would indicate. So even if, for example, the current OS and related software comprised 1 gig of HD space it's quite possible an additional 2 or 3 gig have been used.
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