# Accidentally FORMATTED my External hard drive



## lively22

Guys, I badly need your help..

I've formatted the wrong drive..
Yesterday, I was suppose to format only the flash drive.. It was just this morning that I realized I formatted my external drive, where all my files are there since last year.. I've no back up.

It's a Western Digital 1TB
Accidentally formatted it as NTFS
(quick format)

I need your help plss...


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## koala

Hi, welcome to TSF

You could try a data recovery program like GetDataBack, Recuva or PC Inspector to restore the files to another hard drive, but there's a good chance that some of them will be unrecoverable after a format.


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## lively22

Hi, Koala
Is that possible even if I've zero'd the external drive?.. I mean all files are gone?


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## koala

Zeroing the drive will have made it much harder to recover any data, but it's still worth trying. If you just did a quick format, the data recovery will be more successful.


EDIT: Just to avoid confusion, when you say zero do you mean you ran a program to write zeros or random data to the drive, or did you just do a quick format? Zeroing takes several hours and makes the data very difficult to recover, whereas formatting takes just a few minutes and still leaves most of the data recoverable.


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## lively22

Thanks Koala, will try that. Wish you were here


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## spunk.funk

To try and clear things up, there are 3 kinds of formatting. 
1. *Quick Forma*t: It writes control information, or a Table of Contents to the drive, to prepare it to save files to. The actual previous file is still there, but there is no information telling it where it is. If you download/install files to a *Quick Formatted *drive, it will overwrite the previous information
2. *Full Format*: This is the same as above, but it also scans the drive for bad sectors and marks them as such and does not allow data to be written to that sector if it's bad. This takes much longer
2. *Wiping the drive*: better known as _zeroing_ out the drive. Using a program like *DBAN* or *KillDisk*. These programs overwrite the data to all Zero's totally wiping the drive. To add files to the drive after this, you would still need to do a *Quick Format* to prepare the drive. 
So, the first two options of Formatting, you will still be able to recover data, if it has not been overwritten. The last one, you cannot.


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## lively22

I did number 1
- Quick Format
- NTFS
But the format was successful as in there is no data left..

Is there still a chance?
Help me pls


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## Masterchiefxx17

If Koala's software links did not work then getting the data back is no longer an option.


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## Corday

If the data is super important, there are high priced services that can retrieve. We're talking big bucks (Euros? Rupees?).


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## spunk.funk

Yes, as stated, *Quick Format* there is a good chance and you should be able to recover your files, if you haven't overwritten them. 
You can use the Free TestDisk program but I, and Koala, I believe, have had the best luck with GetDataBack
You will need another drive of the same size or larger to restore your files to.


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## lively22

Can I use my pc to back up my files? I have no extra external drive


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## Masterchiefxx17

Did you format the drive and then install Windows on it?


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## lively22

Nope.. I'm talking about EXTERNAL hard drive..
The one that I accidentally formatted


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## lively22

Do you guys also trust Wondershare?


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## Corday

Wondershare is best known for its video products. Good rep there.


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## koala

lively22 said:


> Can I use my pc to back up my files? I have no extra external drive


Yes, you can use your PC's internal hard drive to store the data recovered from the external drive, as long as it has enough free space.


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## lively22

koala said:


> Zeroing the drive will have made it much harder to recover any data, but it's still worth trying. If you just did a quick format, the data recovery will be more successful.
> 
> 
> EDIT: Just to avoid confusion, when you say zero do you mean you ran a program to write zeros or random data to the drive, or did you just do a quick format? Zeroing takes several hours and makes the data very difficult to recover, whereas formatting takes just a few minutes and still leaves most of the data recoverable.


Koala, I just did the quick format. Zero, I mean there were no files left, the format was completed. But pretty sure that only did a QUICK FORMAT


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## koala

OK, that will make it easier then. The data is still on the drive after a quick format, so should be recoverable.


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## lively22

koala said:


> OK, that will make it easier then. The data is still on the drive after a quick format, so should be recoverable.


Koala, do you also trust iCare? I just went to the the a computer techinician.. He used iCare.. I left the external hard disk there and wait if it will recover some files.. Sorry am afraid doing it myself I might worsten n problem :'(


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## koala

iCare does the same kind of thing as the other programs mentioned earlier. I haven't used it, but it gets lots of good reviews.

As long as the external drive hasn't been used since you formatted it, then iCare is as likely to recover your files as any of the other programs. Good luck. Let us know how it goes. :smile:


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## lively22

I just want to add.. Yesterday right after I found that my files are gone, I downloaded the Wondershare software.. But I didn't finish scanning. I end up to 62% because I had to leave the office at 5PM. This morning I went back to the office I opened my external drive, I saw a folder that has gibberish name.. I knew then its because I tried scanning it thats why theres a folder in it. Is that natural? I did not save any files on that external hard disk yet..


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## Corday

Did the folder have $$$$$ signs in its name? If so the files in it are partially corrupted. Probably written over.


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## lively22

The folder name this one..
The external hard disk is currently with the computer technician.. I'm so nervous right now


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## Corday

.res files shouldn't have what you're looking for. They can be converted but IMO you'd be wasting your tome.


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## Basementgeek

I guess now you know the importance of backing up your important files. Stuff like you have is something many of us have been through.

BG


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## lively22

I know, I know.. I should have backed up.. It's more than a year of my artworks :'(


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## Masterchiefxx17

If you want you may just wish to send it to a data recovery company.


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## spunk.funk

spunk.funk said:


> You can use the Free TestDisk program but I, and Koala, I believe, have had the best luck with GetDataBack


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## BIGBEARJEDI

Hi Lively:
You will hopefully pickup your computer from your repair place and they'll have some discs with your stuff on them or backed up into a folder on your hard drive. 

However, to give you some hope, if they say it's a lost cause you have a couple of options. Try to find a "seasoned" Computer Tech who is an independent but licensed and certified. They can also do a really good job for you--as that describes me as well--and at a fraction of the cost of the big computer chain store services centers. :grin:

A recent example was this summer, I had a Client referred to me by another Computer Service Tech who had problems recovering data from a laptop hard drive that the husband accidentally formatted (full format from Spunk.Funks list above) and wrote over all the wife's photos she used for her business. The 1st Tech gave up and called me since she knows I have lots of experience doing this. After running through about 15 software recovery programs and several weeks, I was able to recover over 96,000 photos from a hard drive that was considered a complete lost cause! :dance: They were thrilled needless to say. I charged them a whopping $25 for this service. The chain stores if they send your drive out, as MasterChief suggests, will begin around $225 and can go up to $40,000 or more. So, you *REALLY* have to want your stuff back bad to pay that kind of coin. I suggest you look for a competent Independent Pro as I suggest, try to get a personal referral, not just someone out of the Yellow Pages. 

If they fail to produce results, you can always go the Professional data recovery route as suggested, but get ready to pay BIG bucks to get that done. BTW, they can still recover files even if the drive has been "zeroed" out, which has not been done in your case. I personally have recovered quite a bit of data from "zeroed" hard drives over the years--to the complete amazement of the companies I worked for. :wink:

Cheers!
BIGBEARJEDI


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## lively22

Hey guys!
I got my external hard disk back earlier from the computer tech..
I'm not sure on what program he used.. He recovered 50GB files.. Although the file names became "file1234" like that and the folder became sorted like Coreldraw files, Adobe Photoshop files, and so on..
Will be sorting tons of files tomorrow.. My problem now is that some of the files I think are corrupted.. Like my coreldraw file, when I open it, the drawing does not shows.. Also other JPEG files won't work.

Learned my lessons now.


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## Corday

Sounds like he recovered some complete files and others that were written over, maybe more than once.


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## spunk.funk

Unfortunately recovering files from a formatted drive is hit or miss. Be sure to always keep a current backup of files you can't live without to a separate HDD. Make sure they are in at least 2 different places.


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## Corday

spunk.funk said:


> Make sure they are in at least 2 different places.


With the problems we've seen amongst users, perhaps one of those 2 places should be The Cloud. Back in the day, I had an employee who was instructed to make incremental tape backups daily. I had to have him recreate 2 days as a result of his failure and the loss of HDD. That computer was for Accounting only so putting Windows NT, our Cyma software and the last good tape on a new HD was a lot easier than his duplication of two days of entries.


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## BIGBEARJEDI

@Corday--That's too funny! I used to sell Cyma Software "back in my Day!" on Altos Unix systems. They were a pretty good outfit. Weren't they in Arizona or somewhere in the Southwest? BBJ


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## Corday

CYMA is still around in Phoenix. I used their NFP package on Windows and helped a Unix user who had the standard package. The whole system added Crystal Reports in later years which gave it more features.


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## BIGBEARJEDI

That's Cool! I was selling their stuff back in '82-'84. So, I was right, they were/are in AZ!
Yeah, I used Crystal Reports with Sage/Oracle/SAP projects I worked on; that's good stuff especially if your exporting/important with some versions of SQL server. 

Cheers-BBJ


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## Michal Robert

Once my friend also accidentally formatted his external hard drive then someone suggested him Remo Recover utility which helped him to get back his deleted files. You can also go through with this hard drive recovery tool, it may aid you.


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## Mirano

I used MiniTool Power Data Recovery (Damaged Partition Recovery) after I found out all the files on my external hard drive were gone. At first I wasn't sure why although I was trying to format my other external hard drive 2 days before so I probably accidentally formatted the wrong external hard drive with all my work for the past several years. Pretty sure I used Full Format. I accidentally formatted my NTFS external hard drive to FAT32...

Thankfully I only used two data recovery software, I first used Recuva by Piriform which didn't work, then I read on https://community.wd.com/t/passport-data-recovery/8474 that someone used MiniTool Data Recovery which I used second and I was impressed, it recovered > 500 GB of my files with the folder structures and file names intact, except for file names in a foreign language which were renamed to something weird but the contents were intact. It did take all day to scan and recover the files, and I paid about $100 CAD via PayPal to recover more than 1 GB after the scan was finished. I bought the personal license + bootable media builder + lifetime free upgrade because I was paranoid at the time and wanted the best option but there's just the personal license for $69 USD.

I was willing to pay hundreds of dollars to a technician to recover even half the files and was wondering if I should cancel the scan when it was 99% done because I was worried the program may make things worse after reading horror stories of files becoming even more unrecoverable after using some free data recovery software. But I didn't cancel it because this forum said canceling Wondershare scan in the middle caused a folder with gibberish name to appear in the external hard drive.. I didn't know that could happen?! Why would the program cause a folder to appear in the external hard drive just because the scan was canceled in the middle, wouldn't that overwrite data? I almost used Wondershare too before using MiniTool Data Recovery. Also while I was running the MiniTool Data Recovery scan, I read some reviews of iCare and they were mixed, with some people saying it worked and others saying it just took their money and didn't work and only corrupted the files even more.

If your technician made a clone of your external hard drive before trying to recover data from it, maybe you can ask for the clone if the technician still has it, and try MiniTool Data Recovery on it? Maybe you could have recovered all/most of your data since you only did a Quick Format whereas I did a Full Format. But maybe it's not too late, try MiniTool Data Recovery Damaged Partition Recovery scan on the external hard drive, see if the original folders and files in the external hard drive show up in the preview (for me the picture files showed in the preview but not word files, but word files were also recovered after the program recovered them), if they do then maybe buy the full version and try recovering data again. Not sure if there's an even better and/or cheaper program out there but it did what I needed. I felt so relieved.


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