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Accidentally reformatted

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by malikjaru

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Accidentally screwed up hard drive when someone tried to use system restore cd to correct windows hard drive error. Now only thing on disk it seems is some program with fat12 on it! Is there ANYTHING out there that can simply unformat the hard drive so that the previous O/S returns? I heard about the "unformat" command within DOS. Is that something that can work? If there is any software out there, it needs to boot to cd, because the laptop has no hard drive. I have always heard that once formatted, new format then that's it. Yet, I thought that I would see if there was absolutely any hope out there. Terrified about trying to transfer files from one drive to another, then doing clean install. Not at all confident doing something like that. Can anyone help me?

8 replies

by cmiller5400

If the system restore cd is from dell/hp/compaq it most likely reimaged the drive. I have built laptops/desktops with these "restore cd's" and they always use some sort of imaging software such as PowerQuest Drive Image etc. This means that there is no way to roll back what was on the drive because it has been overwritten by the imaging software. What mfr is your laptop? Was it done using the System Repair feature of the Windows Install CD?

by malikjaru

The laptop is manufactured by Sony. The restore cd that was used was not even for the laptop.(Not my doing!) When I hook up the drive to my desktop, the files seem to be in tact(at least the new drive shows two partitions, with mine being the third.) I don't think I need data-recovery software in this case. I did download one just in case called Recovery Soft Data Rescue PC. It shows files as well, yet it also shows a bunch with no name since files were changed. I was thinking if I was able to copy files to external drive, I would then want to see if I could go back to previous O/S state. I hope this helps to answer the couple questions that came up in the responses to this case. Again, thank you for any help you can give.

by notforattribution

BFilmFan is on the right track--Recover my Files very well may help.

I recently helped recover data on a HDD that HP Tech Support had a user 'restore'. Only AFTER the restore disk started its mayhem did the ever-skillful HP tech suggest the data should have been backed up first...

I had the victim try Recover My Files. Result: 100% of the files considered critical, important and desirable were recovered, as well as most files that were 'nice to have' but that the victim had given up all hope of seeing ever again (even photos she'd forgotten she had).

A few caveats about RMF:
1. There were a few installation glitches--notably installation key is lengthy and must be entered in UPPER CASE (mfg forgot to mention this in documentation). Not an easy task when the installation is being hand-held over the phone
2. A obscure comment in the White Canyon documentation stated that RMF can be burned to a CD on a second computer, and then run on the machine, lessening the risk of losing files by installation, caching etc. It might be worthwhile to chase down this technique before installing the SW.

by malikjaru

I have heard of Recover My Files, only I also heard that it was not bootable. As I stated before, my main question is whether it was possible to revert back to previous O/S state, that is, bring back XP as it was without doing clean install. If not, then I will definitely go with RMF or the other software I downloaded. I thought the "unformat" command using DOS might be able to do that.

by hal 9000

As you don't want to follow the correct advice for the cheap fix you can rebuild your HDD with a Program called On Track Easy Recover Professional but it isn't cheap. Well over the $1,200 mark and if you take the drive to a Professional Data Recovery House it will be around the 3K at the very least. See the following link for details and pricing

http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/

If you can really read the drive then just copy all of your data off it onto another HDD in a Temp Folder and reload and then restore your data.

You may have to Take Ownership of your files if so then follow these directions at

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

It will be the cheapest way out of your current problem but you can also try any of the following Data Recovery Programs.

http://www.x-ways.net/

http://www.iolo.com/sr/3/

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

http://www.stellarinfo.com/

http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml

http://www.winternals.com/

OH by the way the Rebuild DOS command will not recover the original formating of the drive and will only work with FAT8, FAT16 & FAT32 Partitions not NTFS.

Col

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