Need to save my files…..

Hi everyone, I have a problem that I would like to share with you. I recently bought a hard disk and had formatted it on my friends system. The installation had no problems and I copied some software in that. But later I found that I could not read some of the files and without my knowing my friend formatted the disk. Now I have lost some important data and need to get back that in any case. Please do suggest some good tools which can help me get them back without much hassle.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/ooformatrecovery/

 

Welcome to Major Geeks. First off, if the drive was not 'zeroed' (meaning that zeroes were written across all platters) or if a low-level format wasn't done, then there's a decent chance that some of the data is recoverable. If the drive was quick-formatted, then there's a real good chance that the data is recoverable. This is assuming that nothing has been written to the drive at all since it was formatted. There are a few free programs that might work:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TestDisk_&_PhotoRec_d5561.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Data_Recovery_d5336.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/SectorSpyXP98_d2562.html
http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?Language=1 (this is probably your best bet for freeware, but it's not real user friendly)
Many GREAT shareware (meaning $paid$) programs are available in the link provided above by plodr. File Scavenger, GetDataBack, and Recover My Files are really good. I have personally used Easy Recovery Pro v6 from OnTrack Software on many occasions, and have successfully recovered data from formatted drives with it, so I can personally recommend it 'cuz I know it works. But, it is NOT free. I think they have a trial (as do most of the others) that will scan the drive and show you if the data is actually there to be recovered. However, the trial versions will not save the data; they just show if it's there and recover-able. You can then decide if you want to buy the program. If you do, they provide a registration code or something that will 'unlock' the program and allow you to save and recover the data. Here's the link for Easy Recovery Professional if you're interested:
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/file-recovery-software/
Keep in mind that once data has been erased, or a drive has been formatted, even if you do manage to recover the files, there's a good chance that they will not be complete, or the headers will be missing, or they'll be just corrupt enough to not work. I recently recovered about 300 pictures for a lady (her son erased 'em by accident). I had no trouble recovering the pictures, but actually opening them was a completely different nightmare. Of the 300+ pics, I think only about 40 or 50 of 'em opened, and most of those had visual corruption (thick green lines running vertically or horizontally through the picture). So, even if the data is recoverable, it may be a long way from being use-able.
I wish you the best of luck!

(BTW- Your friend should pay for any software needed if the free programs don't work).