Techy question-file recovery

[moggieb]

Please anybody? Is there any way to recover files after formatting the hard drive? Have found some programs that claim to do this but do they really work? Had a real problem recently-only way out was to format hard drive & restore factory settings. No chance to copy anything. The only thing I am REALLY upset about are my photos of my grandaughter who I no longer see. Any advice anyone?

[Castlebest]

I believe formating overwrites anything that was there before so no I don't think so, deleted files can be recovered unless the physical space they occupy on the hard disk has been reused.

or thats my understanding

[Rooster-UK]

There are file recovery programs and they do work.

Provided............

That the format was not a "deep format".
A deep format writes to every sector and basically deletes everything.

If the format only cleared the TOC (table of contents) then the files will still be there although "invisible". Provided that the files have not been overwritten then a file recovery program will find them.

One thing to bear in mind is that most of them will not save the recovered files to the same drive that they are being retrieved from, so you will need an extra drive. Once recovered then they can be transferred back to the original drive.

[moggieb]

Thanks guys-haven't a clue what happened. Bit more info. Switched on PC & received error message-'Windows did not start successfully due to hardware/software problem.blah blah' Am sure you know the options 'cept they didn't work. (Start normally, start last config etc-none worked). Have extended guarantee & techy guy advised reformatting as this seemed to be the only option. But I've lost most of my precious photos-don't give a s**t about anything else. Don't condemn me for not backing up please. I should know better but we don't think it will happen to us,do we? PC is now back to how we bought it. Can I get my precious photos back?

[Iaintpayingyoudotcom]

Warning the File recovery Programmes do work, for Pictures, music and Vodeos, But and the is a big one, they can fill a hard-drive up very fast also it plays hell with the File Allocation table, kills the hard drive. If you can avoid then I would.

[locutus]

Did you do a quick format or a full format? (full format = very little chance of file recovery)
Also even if you did a quick format, in re-installing the OS there is a good chance your data has been overwritten. If it was a quick format some of the programs *may* be able to recover some files. try googling "free file recovery software"

Good luck.

P.S. I've used file recovery software before and no ill side effects. It doesn't alter anything on the hard drive, it just reads old data that is not overwritten and recovers it to the same part of the hard drive. The only thing they don't recover is the filename, as essentially deleting a file you only remove the 1st letter of the filename so the harddrive doesn't normally see a file there.

[moggieb]

Thanks for that everyone. Having spent the last few days exploring the land of deleted files I am truly amazed at what can be recovered from a previously formatted hard drive. All my 'lost' photos are there-plus loads of other stuff I never knew I had (3 sons if you know what I mean). However, the program I've chosen (not a free one btw) won't let me recover to the hard drive that lost the data (as per Roosters post). What is my best option bearing in mind that I am not an expert. We do have another computer in the house if thats any help.

[SteveH2508]

Originally Posted by moggieb

Thanks for that everyone. Having spent the last few days exploring the land of deleted files I am truly amazed at what can be recovered from a previously formatted hard drive. All my 'lost' photos are there-plus loads of other stuff I never knew I had (3 sons if you know what I mean). However, the program I've chosen (not a free one btw) won't let me recover to the hard drive that lost the data (as per Roosters post). What is my best option bearing in mind that I am not an expert. We do have another computer in the house if thats any help.

If you can network the two together you could recover to the other one. Probably a better bet would be to buy an external USB hard drive (to do your back-ups on from now on ) and try to recover to that.

[locutus]

Cheepest way would be a USB memory stick. I got a 2 gig one from boots the other day for under a tenner.

[SteveH2508]

Good point locutus - 7dayshop.com have some good deals on USB sticks at present.

[moggieb]

Despite formatting my hard drive, thanks to the advice from here I've recovered nearly all of my lost photos and other files. It took a while but they are now safely stored on a USB stick which I should have done in the first place. Thanks again everyone.

[locutus]

Glad to hear it. Maybe worth making a 2nd backup on a CD maybe aswell now that you have the files recovered. (cost of a CD is just a few pennies and the piece of mind knowing you have more than one backup... also many DVD players will play a photoCD aswell)

[SharpmanTF1]

As Moggieb found out, it is possible to recover after a format, as long as the hdd isn't written to again. (I had a similar issue whereby I formatted the wrong usb drive agggggh, had loads of stuff on it. Took several hours to recover but managed 90% of it. and all the files I needed) obviously writing to the hdd after format will replace any files still on there. Therefore making it unlikely to make a succesful recovery unless you go to an external company who charge the earth by the mb.

sharpman

[dx100uk]

getting files back from a memory device should be easy and very quick.
from an hdd it can be a different matter.
having been in the trade since before the first '86' processor.
the one i like at present is a prog called restoration.exe

even works on devices with no removable media.
as long as it connects to a pc it can find it and recover files/

dx

[Rooster-UK]

Hi Moggieb.
Glad that you managed to retrieve your files. I bet that was a relief to you.
Rooster.

[moggieb]

Very relieved-not easy though. Recovery took about 10hrs and retrieved about 50,000 files-almost all of which I didn't need. However, I finally worked out the program which suited me most & although I had to pay (£30.00) I didn't mind-it was worth it and its permanent. Photos of my GD are priceless. To anyone who has done the same best advice I can give is to avoid using the affected hard drive (haven't used my PC til I knew the crack-I've been off line for a week!!!!!) and get an alternative drive to back up to..

[Wingus]

The FAT tables, and indeed the NTFS system are recoverable up to 3 years of format, however you will loose the Hard drive after recovery. That is the drastic action, but like others, and indeed yourself have found, some simple programs can recover the files you need.

A standard, and indeed depp format only remove the first letter of the file name, and deleting the extension. This is nore than adequate, untill it had a 7 pass DOD format, then the binary code is converted to hex, it's a hell of a complicated system, but almost any file can be recovered.

You did the right thing, and i hope you got the photo's back. Indeed put them on a simple usb memory stick, that seems to work for my and a few mp3's as well, at 16 gig worth, i got a memory stick to provide all i need

Best of all you can password it and lock it to prevent acidental format

The technitian that advised to you to format in the first place was slightly in error, as you can recover the photo's before a format, even if it wont let you in the windows OS. They will tell you anything just to buy another hard drive now a days..lol

Another good p;oint was the putting the hard drive into another machine, and transfering it from there to the other machine and so on, just change the jumper setting on the back of the hard drive to slave, not master, as the other machine will already have a master drive.

Then you can copy over and format all you want, without any loss of disk even.

If you got the photo's..and all else fails..i recomend a hammer, they are reliable