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Unformat Hard Disk

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7 replies

by romer_balon

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I reinstalled Windows XP on my firend's hard disk and went through to formatting it and then completely installing Windows XP SP2. Some other softwares were installed afterwards(MS OFFice, antivirus, spybot). Then the following day, my friend said he forgot to make backups of his important files and pictures. How can I recover those files?

7 replies

by older mycroft

Assuming your friend's "files and pictures" followed the established convention of being stored within the 'Documents & Settings' directory, they are now well and truly gone. :(

by thechas

You cannot undo a format of a hard drive. At least not in the manner you are thinking.

What you need to do depends on how valuable the files are to your friend.

First and foremost, leave the computer off until you determine a course of action.

If the files are critical and valuable, your only real option is to send the drive off to a data recovery firm and let them give you an estimate of what they can recover and what that recovery will cost.

NOTE: The more you do with the drive on your own, the less a recovery service will be able to do, and the cost will be higher.

If it would be nice to recover the files, but they have no real value, then, go ahead and try some of the recovery utilities.

SpinRite has been around for a long time.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Unfortunately, there is no information on the web site as to if it can recover files from a formatted hard drive.

I don't have a specific utility to recommend for recovery of a formatted drive. Do some research and pick one based on published reviews and ratings.

As a side note, I always make my own backup copy of data files when I work on a computer. Unless, I have verified the physical backups exist.

Chas

by vigremrajesh

Hi

It depends upon the format done while installing windows XP. if the format is unconditional (means slow and full erase) its hard to recover the files deleted. but there are some tools which recover files based on the tracks & sectors of the HDD. but that also only 10%.
Try with Easy recovery Professional or Enterprise tool.

I have tried with that tool and recovered some my files.

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