HELP!! I lost everything!

[sail3005]

How do i recover data from a drive that was formatted? I didn't have any backup software on there or anything . Is there any way? Nothing has been written to the drive yet i don't think...

PLEASE!!

[cyberwarpy]

Originally posted by sail3005
How do i recover data from a drive that was formatted? I didn't have any backup software on there or anything . Is there any way? Nothing has been written to the drive yet i don't think...

PLEASE!!

Try the "Lost & Found" Software... the same creators of Partion Magic... There is a trial version you can download

Otherwise...

Commit Suicide

[sail3005]

I didn't see the demo on their website.

[cyberwarpy]

Well... the last time I used it.. it was a demo... that was about 10 months ago...

Originally posted by sail3005
I didn't see the demo on their website.

[sail3005]

Any other ideas? Anyone?

BTW, thanks for helping cyberwarpy. i wish i could find that program, because it sounds like it might do the trick!

[Cander]

as far as I know you cant recover from a formatted disk. Everything is gone.

[chrisjk]

I think Cander is right. Formatting is the process of erasing anything already on disk and preparing it for use again. There are these deletion-recovery apps but they only work because the data is still there, allbeit unaccessable using normal methods. Formatting erases data and FAT.

Moral of the story: Make backups and don't format drives you aren't meant to.

[kedaman]

i remember there was an unformat app back in the msdos days.

[kedaman]

in fact i just found unformat.com on my hdd in c:\dos\

[sail3005]

I got an app called recover 98, it allows me to view all the files that were on the drive before the format. It is a demo, and will only let me recover one or two. I know it is possible to get my data back, any other programs? The demo is $160 to register, i woud rather loose all the data.

[zmerlinz]

when you format your computer the information that was on your hard drive is still there, it is only once you write something to the dirve does it actuall go, unless of course you do a full format, you will notice that this takes longer this is because it writes data to your drive then deletes as well as formats it, i am not sure what the data is but i think it is just random gumpf

just by 2 cents worth

[scoutt]

wrong. if you did just a format then you can get it back. if you fdisked it then you are out of luck (that is what I've read anyway). fdisk takes away the table of contents and writes a new one. so basically it writes over the old one and destroys the original TOC.

How do you think the government gets information from HDD if the person formats it and then writes over it. the gov't has people that have programs that can go 7-10 layers deep to get info on HDD so it doesn't matter if it was formatted or not.

originally posted be zmerlinz

it is only once you write something to the dirve does it actuall go, unless of course you do a full format

I have never heard of a format that is partial then it is full. a format is a format doesn't matter how you run it.

[HarryW]

Those really smart data recovery systems can tell, from minute variations in the intensity of the magnetic field, what value each bit had before the data was changed. It's quite funky.

I'm with scoutt on this one. I'm pretty sure you can recover your data if you get the right program. If that 'Recover 98' program needs a serial number for registration, you can probably find one if you look hard enough.

[zmerlinz]

Originally posted by scoutt

I have never heard of a format that is partial then it is full. a format is a format doesn't matter how you run it.

fair enough i don't mind being corrected but with floppy disks how come you have a quick format and a full format ???

[scoutt]

floppies are a different bread than HDD. the quick format just erases the TOC and then the full format erases the whole floppy. I don't think (I might be corrected on this but) you can't do that to the HDD, unless you fdisk it and then it won't work anyway. the files are still there but the TOC is gone. floppies don't use the fat32 or 16, they use a fat12 I think. so the TOC is different. didn't mean to be rude but it just sounded funny

Scoutt

[zmerlinz]

Originally posted by scoutt
floppies are a different bread than HDD. the quick format just erases the TOC and then the full format erases the whole floppy. I don't think (I might be corrected on this but) you can't do that to the HDD, unless you fdisk it and then it won't work anyway. the files are still there but the TOC is gone. floppies don't use the fat32 or 16, they use a fat12 I think. so the TOC is different. didn't mean to be rude but it just sounded funny

Scoutt

Ok cheers i stand corrected but just one more thing, you can do a quick format and full format on a HDD if you format it within windows i can't remember if you can do it in DOS

[marnitzg]

A "Full Format" on a hard drive is called an unconditional format. i.e. format/u. If you do an unconditional format on a hdd then the data is irrecoverable.

[scoutt]

right you can, but it can't be the primary drive. Windows does something different, I don't know if it actually does fdisk it in windows or something totally different. but as far as I know you can't do it in dos. it is either fdisk or format.

Scoutt

[scoutt]

orignally posted by martinzg

A "Full Format" on a hard drive is called an unconditional format. i.e. format/u. If you do an unconditional format on a hdd then the data is irrecoverable.

that is what I was trying to remeber. you got your post in before I did so thanks

Scoutt