Fully formatted disk

Hello, I just fully formatted my external disk and 500gb of my work vanished
Can you help or advise me in any way to recover my lost files?

 

You can look for an application here.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads38.html

Why or how did you format your external HD?:confused

 

Wanted to format my flash drive and clicked the wrong drive :cry:hammer

 

Crap, I hate when that happens.

You might have to pay to get a program, like this.

http://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-files-after-format.htm

Good luck.

I'm hoping other members of this board will join in and help.

 

One factor you have to consider is what format you used, if it was just a basic format you have a chance of recovering some data but if you have used a high level format where it makes 7 passes or more then the chances are dramatically reduced.

Now you have to decide how much value you put on the lost data because most data recovery programs are not free, you can browse in here http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads38.html to see if any give a free trial (but those will normally limit the amount of recovery untill you buy it) so unfortunately you are at a brick wall

 

I formatted the disk under windows, and it wasn't a quick format(I unchecked quick for some stupid reason), so I would call it full format.
In other words, I can forget all the information? I would buy any soft if is at least 70% sure I can get my files back

 

It is very hard to say how much is recoverable but the best advice i can give is to browse through the data recovery programs and use the free trial to see how much can be recovered (it will give you that info on the free trial) then you can decide if it is worth paying to get it back.

 

I did only know of the Easus utility, but after a little searching I discovered that yet again the Ultimate Boot CD 'has an app for that'! Download the ISO, burn it to CD, boot from it, and select Data Recovery. The two apps are PhotoRec and TestDisk. There's also http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ though I know nothing about their service.

My advice is to start with the Easus utility though. I suspect that many of these recovery programs will try to restore any files/folders/partitions it finds to the original directory. That might mean such a program would prevent future attempts to recover data, using a different program. I would try to free up enough room on another hard drive to save all recovered information There, using whichever tool allows you to chose where to restore data to. Only if that's not possible would I try to restore the whole partition.

 

Like 94dgrif just posted, TestDisk might enable you to recover your data, ensure you have enough free space on another connected drive to copy it to.

If that doesn't do it for you, I think you'll have to use paid software, RecoverMyFiles is one I've used successfully at recovering data from formatted drives.

 

The difference between a long and quick format is simply that the hard drive is scanned for errors. In the event no errors are found, your hard drive would look identical between the two formatting options. If errors were found, however, then the areas pointing to the bad areas would be rewritten, which removes the information at those points - though to have the bad karma for your hard drive to be failing And accidentally formatting it would mean you must have stepped on a puppy or something.

Formatting a hard drive is like the taking a huge book written in pencil, and marking new headings at whichever pages match how your want to organize the book. Besides the heaings, none of the penciled writing is actually erased, but you make a mental note to erase anything you want, when you come to write in it. So if you formatted the hard drive, realized the problem and removed it asap then you have a very high chance of recovering files. If instead you formatted the hard drive and then wrote files to it, then with each file written you would have permanently lost the information that used to sit there.

 

Ok, I'll try your advice asap, but is there any difference if my HDD is connected on usb and not on SATA? Atm I use it on USB, tried EASEUS and no luck, also tried O&O DiskRecovery, no luck. Maybe because I used trial?

 

If you decide to use a recovery program, there is a freeware program for home use that lets you recover an unlimited amount of data. Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition 5.01.

 

...and that is why when you choose to format any drive, you remove every drive but the one you want to format, even if it means opening a case and disconnecting a secondary drive. The time spent doing this is minor compared to the headaches faced trying to get things from a drive that should not have been formatted!

If the files are very important, then you best bet is a data recovery service.

 

Recovering/accessing data on an external USB depends on the chipset on the external device and the drivers used by the software, changing the enclosure or using a different program may allow access/recovery.

Fitting the disk internally to the PC always gives the best chance of success.