Recover formatted hard drive. How to recover files after formatting a hard drive. How to recover data from a formatted hard drive
And folders or after hard formatting disks and logical partitions. It's okay if an accidental deletion simply places files in the Recycle Bin or even empties it. You can recover such data using simple utilities. But what to do if the disk or partition has been formatted? Now we will consider best programs to restore files after formatting, since this problem is solved purely in software.
How are disks and logical partitions formatted?
First of all, you need to understand what the process of formatting a hard drive and its partitions is. There are two types: quick formatting (clearing the disk table of contents) and full (so-called low-level) formatting.
Let us immediately make a reservation that data recovery can only be carried out with quick cleaning. If a full formatting has been carried out, there is no program for recovering files from hard drive will not help.
Let's look at options for formatting disks and logical partitions. Quickly clearing the table of contents only involves overwriting the file allocation tables. In other words, the system is given an indication that the disk or partition is empty, although in fact the deleted data is still physically present there. As well as after emptying the “Trash” in the process quick formatting the files are renamed in such a way that they are not visible to the system, much less to the user. IN in this case The first letter in the file name is changed and replaced with the “$” symbol.
As for low-level (full) formatting, the situation here is much worse. The data on the disk is completely erased, so that no program for recovering deleted files will find absolutely nothing on it. The difference between these two processes can be represented by simple example. Let's say we have some kind of foggy glass surface on which something was previously written. If the moisture simply dries, the inscription will become inaccessible. Sometimes, if you breathe on it again, the inscription may appear again. This is a quick format. If you walk over such a surface with a sponge with detergent, wiping everything thoroughly, no matter how hard you try, you will not see the inscription again. This is full formatting.
Of course, this is a rather rough example, however, it almost accurately reflects the formatting process. Here you need to understand that any program for restoring files after formatting can only work if the table of contents is quickly cleared.
Is it possible to recover files after formatting?
Naturally, after a quick formatting, you can restore the files. This is why file recovery programs are created. They work, in principle, based on the search for renamed files (as mentioned above), as well as on entries in the MFT (Master File Table) allocation tables, extracting the necessary byte sequences from there.
As for what exactly any program for recovering files from a flash drive or hard drive is capable of, each application of this type has its own capabilities. Some software products are designed purely for recovering multimedia files, others are exclusively for office documents, and still others can restore files regardless of type using a search by extension.
What needs to be done before recovery?
Before you launch, say, a program to recover deleted files from a flash drive, hard drive or logical partition, it is strongly recommended to take into account some important points. First of all, you shouldn't use logical drive, logical partition or removable USB drive, to which data is supposed to be restored to save new information. It is also advisable not to open the Internet browser as it may save temporary files.
The situation is that even if the renamed deleted file is still present on the disk, it can be recovered. But if information is overwritten in this place (sector or cluster), then no program for restoring and formatting files will cope with its direct task, no matter how hard you try.
Next, before recovery, it is advisable to check the disk for errors or for the presence bad sectors. Of course you can use standard means Windows OS with task automatic correction system errors, but it’s better to turn to professional utilities like Victoria. If there is sufficient severe damage surface of the hard drive, you will have to seek help from unique program HDD Regenerator, which is capable of restoring bad sectors by magnetization reversal method.
Recuva
File recovery programs are quite varied. They have different possibilities and purpose in the sense of restored categories. Recuva is considered one of the most powerful and advanced applications.
The Recuva software product is a disk file recovery program that is distinguished not only by its rich functionality, but also ease of use. Users of any skill level can understand it.
When launched, the application displays a window indicating the types of files to be recovered (music, videos, documents, etc.). After selecting a category, the scanning process simply starts. In this case, the application requests the location of the files you are looking for. If you are not absolutely sure or the user simply does not remember exactly where the files were previously located, you can use a line that indicates that the location is unknown.
At the end of the scanning process, a full list, which indicates the status of the deleted file. In this case, you can only restore those files whose status is marked as “Good”. Among the advantages of the application, it is worth noting that it contains the function preview, but the downside is the fact that you can only select one from the list of categories at a time.
Please note that during the recovery process it is better not to use the original location where the desired file was stored. It is better to use a removable hard drive or any other USB drive and specify the path to it.
By the way, although it is believed that no program for recovering files from a hard drive gives a 100% guarantee of successful recovery, this application is capable of a lot. And, as practice shows, it even restores some files that other programs simply ignore due to their poor condition.
Pandora Recovery
There's another one interesting program. You can recover deleted files from your hard drive using the Pandora Recovery application.
The application is quite simple. The program itself for recovering files after formatting is intended exclusively for hard drives and logical partitions with FAT32 and NTFS file systems. Although the application can work with removable USB media such as regular flash drives, and even more so with memory cards (as stated by the manufacturer), it nevertheless often refuses to do so.
On the other hand, among the advantages we can note the presence of a special “Wizard” in it, which allows several simple steps configure search. The search, however, is quite slow, so you will have to wait. At all this utility designed more for beginners than for experienced users.
Undelete Plus
An interesting solution is simple application Undelete Plus. Despite its apparent simplicity, it can be used, for example, as a program for recovering deleted files from a flash drive or memory card of any format.
When launched, the program scans the selected disks or partitions, and then displays a complete list of files that can be recovered. Feature this application is that you can set a customizable filter in it, which will sort the data by type or, say, by the date of deletion or the location where it was originally saved.
PC Inspector File Recovery
As already mentioned, file recovery programs are quite widely available. And one of the most powerful utilities is PC Inspector File Recovery.
It will be difficult for the average user to figure it out the first time, but experienced users can appreciate all the possibilities that this offers. software package. Not surprising, because the application can work with FAT12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. Among other things, the program easily recovers information from SATA hard drives and IDE, scanning at the sector level. This approach allows you to find absolutely all fragments of files that survived after formatting, which cannot be determined by regular scanning. Naturally, this application can also be used as a program for recovering files from a flash drive. For example, restoring a photo from a memory card of a modern camera using this utility is as simple as possible.
Free Undelete
Free Undelete is another one free application to recover lost data. The program is one of the most primitive and is designed only for FAT32 and NTFS file systems.
Unfortunately, there is no preview function here, and recovery of multiple files at once is not provided. In each individual case, manual confirmation is required, that is, selecting several files at a time simply will not work. But in extreme cases, for novice users the application will certainly be useful.
SoftPerfect File Recovery
This application is another tiny utility with minimum size, which is convenient to store on a Flash drive.
Of course, it is far from professional utilities, but it can even work with NTFS5 file systems. Unfortunately, the program does not show the extent of damage to the deleted file. But, as already mentioned, its small size and fairly high performance make this program very popular among beginners, so to speak, as a last resort.
Diskinternals Uneraser
Diskinternals Uneraser is one of the most powerful and interesting utilities its direction. It may not be able to scan hard drives by sector, but it can easily recover data even if HDD"crumbled". Moreover, it starts even from damaged hard drives without any problems.
The application interface is very simple and somewhat reminiscent of standard Windows Explorer. In addition to the fact that the application can work with multiple file systems, it can also be used as a tool for creating an image of an entire logical partition.
Among the disadvantages, we note that this utility is paid. In addition, it simply does not work with versions of Windows OS higher than XP and 2003 Server. But for other “operating systems” in the case home use If the hard drive is damaged, it will do.
What's better?
Of course, we have not reviewed all file recovery programs, however, to summarize, it can be noted that simple utilities are perfect for home use. But if you search comprehensive solution, when you need to take into account every little detail, it is naturally better to use the professional utilities mentioned above. Overall, it's worth just trying each one. software in use, and then draw your own conclusions regarding its functionality and ease of use.
If an accident happens and files are lost, it doesn’t matter how it happened - accidental deletion, hard drive failure, or just a crash file system when reinstallingWindowsto the wrong disk. We all think about how to get our precious data back. But for choice the right way, first you should find out what they aredata recovery programs .
Very often developers similar programs deliberately cut down on functionality, leaving only the ability to search for erased files on various media, while making them completely free and as easy as possible to use. A striking example -Recuva. The program's capabilities are enough to eliminate most common problems.
If the problem is more serious, you need to find a damaged or deleted hard section disk orUSBmedia, and without going beyond the range of certain sectors - here more advanced programs such as PC INSPECTOR File Recovery or GetDataBack can help us.
As a rule, such software is already available best case scenario shareware. This is understandable - the abundance of features and unique operating algorithms cost money, but at the same time they guarantee a high percentage of successful recovery of lost files.
The user’s task comes down to choosing software that is suitable specifically for your tasks and the level of knowledge available to you.
In our example, to recover lost data after hard formatting disk, we will use the professional utility GetDataBack, which is designed for a wide range of tasks, but also - no less important - has clear interface and a very good translation into Russian of specific terms.
There are two different versions GetDataBac programsk- for disks with file NTFS system and with the file systemFAT. The user is only required to guess what version of the file system was on the disk before formatting. Usually this is NTFS, butFATused on flash drives.
Since the recovery process itself is simplified to answering the Wizard’s questions, we will only have to launch the program and select actions from the proposed options.
In the first window of the Wizard, we will need to select our option for data loss - this is either a file system failure, for example, due to disk programs likeAcronis Disk Director, or unintentional installation of Windows on an existing data partition. In the latter case, select “Significant file system losses” and so on.
In our example, we will consider the option when Windows installation We accidentally formatted a disk that has data on it and now we want to recover files from it.
In this case, the most suitable item is File system loss. Mark this item in the selection window and click “Next”.
Step 1: Selecting disks for recovery.
Next, the Wizard will prompt you to select a disk on the left side of the window on which we will search for deleted data. Do not forget - this is the physical disk of your computer on which the lost data was located.
Even if the drop-down list of sections on physical disk the damaged partition is visible, it is better to select all hard disk, as shown in the screenshot.
We will not consider all other settings, for example, selective scanning; usually this is not necessary. Therefore, it is better to scan the entire disk, leaving the default values.
But let’s pay attention to the “Settings” sectionin which we note the points:
“Recover deleted files”
“Allow duplicate files”
Only now you can begin the scanning process itself by clicking the “Next” button. The progress of the search for data available for recovery is displayed as a ticker.
After the scan is completed, a list of found file systems will open, select it and click “Next”.
In this window we will be able to see the files that are available for recovery.
If necessary, their contents can be viewed directly from the program interface to ensure that the files are not damaged.
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Cleaning and formatting your PC hard drive is enough useful thing. Especially if you need to delete all or some sections of the data stored on it.
However, situations often occur when the formatting was unintentional and, as a result, all necessary information is removed from the PC. Naturally, the question arises about the possibility of recovering lost files.
I want to say right away that this is possible, but only on the condition that a quick cleaning was performed; with full formatting, nothing can be done to help. I will explain the difference between these two options for deleting files.
When quickly cleaning, information is recorded in such a way that the system will think that the disk is empty, but in fact, all the original information will remain unharmed.
That is, there is a change in the names of the files so that they are not visible to the OS or the user. However, as mentioned earlier, they can be restored.
Using full formatting, the files are deleted completely and irrevocably. Even no programs will help here.
This article will discuss how to recover files after formatting a hard drive as a result of using a quick cleanup using programs specially designed for this purpose.
What programs can I use?
As mentioned earlier, restore deleted files with quick cleaning possible. For this you can use various programs. These include:
- Recuva.
- Pandora Recovery.
- Undelete Plus.
- PC Inspector File Recovery.
- Free Undelete.
- Diskintemals Uneraser.
- Easy Recovery.
- R-Studio and others.
I think it’s worth examining the work in more detail popular programs, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
Some nuances before starting to work with utilities
When using any of the programs to recover lost data, you need to do some preparation. Also, do not use a logical drive or partition, including a USB drive.
The question arises: why? If the file that has undergone renaming is still on the disk, then it can be restored. However, if information is overwritten, nothing can be restored, even when using special programs.
It is also worth checking the disk for errors on the disk. For these purposes, tools built into the OS can be used or special utilities. For example, Victoria or HDD Regenerator. It all depends on the extent of the damage.
How to work with R-Studio?
If you are interested in how to recover files after formatting your hard drive, then you should consider a utility such as R-Studio. After downloading and installation, a window will appear in front of you in which all information will be indicated in English.
In it you will need to select what you want to scan and select “SCAN”. Next, the utility will scan and after a while a new window should appear in front of you. Here you need to find the line “EXTRA FOUND FILES” and left-click on it 2 times.
This is done to move to the next window. It will be divided into two sections. On the left side you can perform full or partial data recovery. On the right, information will be provided about all the files that were found by R-Studio.
If partial recovery is required, then you need to click on “RECOVER”; if you need to select everything, then click on “RECOVER ALL”. After selecting the action of one of the actions, choose the place where all this should be entered.
However, there is one point: the place where all data should be transferred must be 2 times larger in memory than the total weight of the files themselves. But if there is a catastrophic lack of space, then it is better to do a partial restoration. For example, “jpeg image”, in other words, pictures, and “ microsoft word" This text documents and so on. After this everything will be restored.
The disadvantages of R-Studio are that it is provided to users only for English language. The advantages are that it is free and quite easy to use.
Recuva
When solving the question of how to recover files after formatting a hard drive, you can use a utility called Recuva. When you launch the utility, a window will appear indicating the types of files to be restored.
If you do not remember where they were previously located, then this is not a problem; in this case, the line “location unknown” is used.
After the scan, a list of what was recovered will appear, but only those with the “Good” status will be available.
The Recuva utility is best stored on a flash drive. On the plus side, it allows you to preview what you are looking for, and the utility can sometimes even restore severely damaged files.
The disadvantages include the fact that at a time, it is possible to select no more than one category for restoration.
What can Diskintemals Uneraser do?
An application like Diskintemals Uneraser is quite powerful because it can repair even a severely damaged hard drive.
In addition, it is very easy to use. Another advantage of Diskintemals Uneraser is the ability to work with big amount files.
But no matter how good everything is, this utility has one big drawback. It does not work with any OS higher than Windows XP.
Easy Recovery
After installing Easy Recovery, you need to restart your PC and only after that you can start working with it. After launching Easy Recovery, you need to select “Data Recovery”.
If an entire hard drive partition has been wiped, you need to select “Recovery after formatting” and check the “Deep scan” checkbox.
Then, using the left mouse button, you will need to select a local disk for analysis deleted partition and click on “Next”.
Parameters are required local disk before formatting, if there are any problems with this, be sure to indicate this fact. Then click "Scan".
This operation will take some time. After providing information about the files found, you need to mark those that you want to recover. Then click on the “Save” button and on “Next”.
As soon as the information is processed, launch “File Reconstruction”. Particularly convenient this function in situations where damage to deleted file documents occurs.
How to recover files after formatting a hard drive, summary
As you can see, solving the question of how to recover files after formatting a hard drive, subject to all conditions and use certain programs, lost data can still be restored to its original state.
Of course, it is best to use professional utilities, however, what exactly will be used for these purposes depends on your preferences and requirements.
If necessary, contact specialists. However, no program or specialist gives a 100% guarantee of recovering all lost data.
This must be taken into account and remembered. I hope you liked the article and will help you resolve your issue.
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So, you have accidentally formatted media from which you need to recover data. Is it possible to recover data after formatting - you ask hopefully. Yes! It's possible. A little theory for those in the humanities who are inexperienced in information recovery. The fact is that file and directory names are simply pointers to the location where the files are stored, and when normal formatting Only the headers are cleared. And this is already part of the answer to the question, the data after formatting. At the same time, the data itself remains completely safe. This statement also applies (also used on flash memory) to NTFS - the most common modern file systems. In order to pull out with a 90% probability necessary photos, documents or audio files, in no case should you record other information on the media. Data may be irretrievably lost new information. Eat whole category programs designed to save information. Here are some of them - EasyRecovery, Zar, Testdisk, Photorec, Tiramsu. These are so-called heuristics. They contain an algorithm for searching images (jpeg, tiff, gif) and documents (doc, xls, odt), the format of which, as is known, has its own characteristics, throughout hard drive. To restore images, we recommend Photorec programs (distributed by free license) and Zar, which in the shareware version provide for image recovery without any restrictions.
Simply run the heuristic program, specify the formatted partition of your hard drive, and specify the type of images or documents you need. When the program finishes scanning, do not be surprised that there are a huge number of results. Save everything to another medium - a hard drive partition or Now let's look at what we received. Naturally, we find many defective pictures with distortion, as well as reduced pictures jpeg format(a feature of the jpeg format is that each file in this format contains a miniature copy of the picture). The likelihood of obtaining the desired images depends on whether the hard drive was recorded and the amount of time that has passed since the loss. Let's just say that most likely nothing will work out if the image was lost several months ago and is located on system partition, where you regularly install new software. These results will indirectly show whether files can be recovered after formatting. But it is possible that you will not find the necessary data after formatting. Then the question of how to recover data after formatting will be much more serious. Try combining several programs. Remember that you will not be able to do any harm in any way, since the programs only read information, but not write it. Some of them have already been listed in this article - Easy Recovery, Recuva, Photorec, PC Inspector File Recovery, R.Saver, Pandora Recovery, Any Found Photo Recovery. It should be noted that this free utilities.
Perhaps this time you will be lucky, and the long-awaited graphic file or the document will “reveal itself.” There is another way - take the hard drive to famous service, specializing in data recovery. And this great choice, because service specialists with many years of experience know best how to recover data after formatting. You should choose a well-known company with extensive experience and numerous reviews from grateful clients, preferably in a branch of a foreign company. As a rule, such companies have specialists who use their experience in the field software and heuristics are much more efficient than publicly available programs. In addition, such a specialist may know many subtleties about formats and setting up programs that you do not know, and will successfully cope with the task. And now the data has finally been found. But the cost of data recovery in such companies is quite high. Let this serve as a payment and a kind of lesson for the fact that you did not take care of the information you needed so much in time. But if the loss incident is critical important information and happened, then don’t despair - everything can be fixed. You need to carefully read the article “How to recover data after formatting. Brief instructions for a non-professional." Remember a simple rule - under no circumstances write information “over the top” onto this medium. And the last recommendation is to purchase only expensive ones. This can serve as at least some kind of, albeit rather ephemeral, guarantee of reliability.
As usual, I answer any of your questions related to recovering deleted information on your hard drive. I recommend programs for working with hard drive, I’ll tell you what to do if the hard drive is not detected, if the storage device clicks and is not detected, is it possible to restore data after formatting, etc.
The hard drive I used for backup storage files, stopped being read. I connect it to the computer, it says: I can’t, I need to format it first. If I do this, I will lose data. Question: when downloading a program for working with a hard drive and installing it on a computer, is it possible to revive an external HDD? Or should it be downloaded to a flash drive?
Answer. You formulated the question correctly and even partially answered it. That's right, it is highly undesirable to install a data recovery program on a hard drive that you plan to restore. If you have a flash drive or have the opportunity to install the utility on another HDD, use this option for working with a hard drive. This way you can avoid writing any information to the problematic hard drive. Before restoring, do not forget to possible mistakes, sometimes this greatly simplifies subsequent operations with the HDD.
I connected the hard drive to the tuner: at first the tuner read it, then question marks appeared, and today I connected it to the computer, but the computer does not see it. What to do if the hard drive is not detected?
Answer. To begin with, I would advise checking work hard disk by connecting it to the computer. Perhaps it has not failed (even judging by the fact that it is identified with a question mark). After connecting to the PC, it is very desirable, to do this, follow the link provided. Second tip: it is advisable to format the HDD by selecting the appropriate file system type specified in the documentation for the tuner.
I have a hard drive and on the first day I divided it into 2 parts. Now one part is visible, but the second is not, it is not detected on the disk. Here's how to get the second part back if the system doesn't see the hard drive?
IN BIOS system“sees” the 2nd HDD (which is faulty), and Windows also “sees” it, but when you try to open it, it displays the message: “No access to E:\. file or folder is damaged.” Reading is impossible. What to do if bios still sees the hard drive?
Answer. Most likely, the second - unformatted - part of the hard drive remains unmarked, the so-called. raw format. In order to return the second, “invisible” part of the HDD, you need to use any tool for hard markings disk. Suitable for these purposes: system component“Disk Management” (you can find it through the control panel), or any utility like Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic. Select unallocated disk space, select the file system type, and format the disk.
Using the PC Inspector program (for file recovery), I accidentally deleted or formatted the 2nd HDD partition, it had > 350 GB of information. When you turn on the computer and click on this disk partition, Windows gives a message: “that the disk is not defined and you need to format the disk.” I used various programs and utilities to recover from the Internet. They do not completely recover deleted data. Please help me, what should I do if the computer does not “see” the HDD?
When turned on, there is a click on the hard drive. The system does not boot, the display shows the message: “no signal”. What to do if the hard drive clicks and is not detected?
Answer. If the disk clicks, then most likely it has failed. However, one should not draw premature conclusions. First, check the functionality of the disk on another computer by connecting a storage device to it. It is also highly recommended to check the quality of the connection between the HDD and the computer: it is quite possible that the problem is a bad hard connection disk with motherboard.
If these procedures do not lead to anything, we advise you to read the material about and hard repair disk: .
