Accidentally Formatted Data Drive

[2Turtles]

I should be killed

I haven't been, which is why I am here (again) in search of help. I say again because sometime back I went through this, sort of, but with my first tryout of win2k as my main o/s. Long story short it melted down, took my data and vanished like jellybeans in a daycare. But that was the o/s side of a new drive and I was sucker punched.

This time it is the data partition of my trusty win98se (which salvaged the former meltdown remnants) that I had gratefully resumed using. And this time, I very gracefully sucker punched myself right between the eyes! After a very long day at the desk I opted to do one final task before calling it a night - I would format my mp3 player, load the music I have spent 2 weeks ripping and tagging and then I would go to bed. Oh and I formatted all right - but did I format the (I:) drive which is, and has always been the mp3 player???? Noooooo. I formatted the (E:) drive which is, and has always been the DATA partition of my hard drive.

There is - correction, was - 20GB of photos, documents and music on there and now of course it is blank. Please, anyone, is there a procedure or way to undo or recover from an accidental format? This was the click on the drive letter/right click/(full) format option in Win98se. Not DOS fdisk, and I have not let scandisk run or shut the computer down or touched any files on either partition since doing this.

It's win98se-to-ME with autopatch (from axcels website)

40GB Hdd (C:)20GB with o/s & programs (E:)20GB data ----- *(D: belongs to a different aneurysm and is not connected to the 40GB)

Win98se is unaffected and working fine - I am not sure of

the best procedure to follow to recover from a format - if there

is a page or link or any rules or suggestions please please please have mercy on a fool who should have gone to bed without a song....

[dencorso]

Get Unformat.exe from Norton Utilities 2002 (for DOS) and try to unformat the partition in dos mode.

NU 2002 also comes with Norton System Works 2003. If you are very lucky, it may solve your problem.

[mara-]

If you really need your data, buy yourself Active Partition Recovery. Thanks to this software I successfully recovered over 22GB of data. Also, don't use that disk for nothing until you decide how you will recover data. Also, do not try to recover on it, use other partition to recover data.

Cheers

[cannie]

If your formatting was quick (format E: /q) you may recover almost everything. You may use this link:

http://www.winundelete.com/?rid=google&kid=wu0401.

If you made a complete format (format E:\), don't blame yourself: nobody is infallible.

Good luck!

Edited June 12, 2008 by cannie

[Sfor]

The Windows 98 is using a quick like format as the default routine. So, your chances of retrieving the data are quite good.

[frodo]

1 word:

TestDisk: here

I have used to it to get back 120Gb on one occaision that a user had managed to kill by deleting the partition table and formatting the drive. I got EVERY byte back with it.

Did i mention its free?

Get the DOS version or use the LIVE CD

Edited June 12, 2008 by frodo

[SlugFiller]

Runtime's software GetDataBack did that trick for me. It has separate versions for FAT32 and NTFS. It's not free, though, so test the free solutions first.

Needless to say: Install nothing on the formatted partition. If possible, install nothing on the same harddrive.

Not that it would necessarily prevent file recovery, but better safe than sorry, if at all possible.

[neo]

I prefer Stellar Phoenix NTFS Data Recovery Software....

I have tried myself...Last February...I have lost my partition too (deleted) and I recovered all data (40GB)...

I did not loose a single bit....

It will help you.....!

[Fredledingue]

No worry: that's because you come from Quebec, so when you listened "e" (in english) you thought it was "i" (in french).

I hope will you recover your datas with tha advises above. Try not to use the Hard drive at all and it was a good idea to let the pc running and not touch it.Avoid the internet if the cache is on this partition.

[noguru]

If you made a complete format (format E:\), don't blame yourself: nobody is infallible.

"Nobody" doesn't include a good backup. Blame yourself for not having one if the data is valuable to you.

The right-click format option is horrible. Should not be there in the first place. To easy to make a mistake, one time I tried to format my c:, thinking I was clicking yes to something else.

[cannie]

"Errare humanum est", old latins said. If anybody says "I am never wrong", he is wrong.

[SlugFiller]

"Nobody" doesn't include a good backup. Blame yourself for not having one if the data is valuable to you.

It depends on how much valuable data you have. It's a bit more difficult to have a running-backup of several gigs. I have enough trouble just keeping a local backup of my bookmarks up-to-date.

Besides, it's easier to just keep the phone number of a good data recovery company at hand.

[2Turtles]

Thanx everyone for the input, much appreciated

I've been reading, weighing my options and did a few test runs - at this point I've recovered some stuff but I'm hoping to do better/or different. I have experience retrieving corrupted/mangled data from a win2k (another thread here) partition, so fortunately I have a fistful of programs already in my arsenal, posted links at the bottom for any other souls landing here looking for similar help. My personal favorites are Testdisk/Photorec and File Recovery Pro, but all of them are decent in their own way.

For the record, TESTDISK itself is rendered useless in this case because of the format, however it's partner program PHOTOREC has no problem finding the files, it's just a matter of sorting them out and renaming them etc. File Recovery Pro doesn't find anymore files than PHOTOREC but it does rebuild part of the former directory structure - which is a bit helpful although not enough to restore the drive to a functioning condition.

I am quite interested in the "unformat" mentioned earlier and have been reading up - however I seem to keep finding conflicting information - that there is no such DOS program, to there is but it doesn't work on FAT, to it does but not FAT32 etc.. etc.. It seems many programs are touting the capability of "unformatting" but upon closer reading I get the impression that they are using a rather loose definition of unformat, and more accurately they are just variations of data recovery - not truly capable of unformatting as the word itself implies.

Does anyone have any direct experience/results of actually undoing a format and carrying on using the drive without having to piece together and repair re-collected data salvaged by a recovery process? As it turns out I had located a 3 graphics programs there and as such their links from the C: drive are broken and default folders have been lost. If there truly is an "unformat" out there I wouldn't mind trying it to see if I could avoid restructuring that drive. I'm going to read a few more days before settling for file chunks, there might be a way out there if there's any truth to the infamous "unformat" option

Cheers folks!

here's a list of helpful links, many inherited from folks who've helped me here in this forum:

Hard Drive Testing/Diagnostics - HDAT2

TestDisk and PHOTOREC - Freeware

Filerecovery Pro - Demo Version Downloads

Active@Partition Recovery - Demo Downloads

R-Studio - Demo Downloads

Convar PC Inspector

Davory - evaluation

Getdataback

Powerquest Lost and Found demo (now Norton)

Recuva - Freeware

Softperfect File Recovery - Freeware

PTEDIT32 - Freeware

Beeblebrox - Freeware

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows - Freeware

If needed build a PE (Pre-install Environment) CD through

Recovering CHK files - Freeware

If you are going to try and extract text from "recovered" files, there are

utilities that automate the work, here is one: Bintext - Freeware

[dencorso]

I am quite interested in the "unformat" mentioned earlier and have been reading up - however I seem to keep finding conflicting information - that there is no such DOS program, to there is but it doesn't work on FAT, to it does but not FAT32 etc.. etc.. It seems many programs are touting the capability of "unformatting" but upon closer reading I get the impression that they are using a rather loose definition of unformat, and more accurately they are just variations of data recovery - not truly capable of unformatting as the word itself implies.

Norton Utilities 2002 UNFORMAT.EXE is a Real-Mode DOS only program. It is the last existing version of this utility. You can make it tell you its version by running "unformat /version" at the DOS prompt and should receive this result: "UnFormat, Norton Utilities 2002 ..10E, Copyright © 2001 Symantec Corporation" if you have the right version. It refuses to do anything else from a DOS box, but will tell you its version even from a DOS box. It knows about FAT-12, FAT-16 and FAT-32 and will work with all three types of FAT. It does not understand NTFS, nor any other non-FAT file system. I've just checked it, it is findable as part of the standalone Norton Utilities 2002 and also as part of Norton System Works 2003, 2004 and 2005. Unformat.exe is around since before 1993, so what it's capable of depends on its version and 2002, the last, is very dependable and able to work with any type of FAT. But I don't think it's way better than some of the other softwares you've enumerated. I have used it once in a while, way back when, and it did deliver as promised, so it happens to be the one I'm familiar with.

Edited June 14, 2008 by dencorso

[2Turtles]

Thank you for the information dencorso, especially your opinion on it not being necesarily better than the other software I have on hand at the moment as it has helped my decision. I think I may even have Norton Utilities or possibly Systemworks but as I've not used/unpacked many old programs since moving I can't be sure which year the Norton is (or where it is lol). Unfortunately this has happened at a bad time and I haven't got enough spare moments to experiment although I'd really like to (these things never happen in the winter when you're house-bound and dying for some distraction!) As things are I was in the middle of putting together a musical extravaganza for my grandparents 65th wedding anniversary which has to satisfy the ears of 4 generations of musical tastes! There's also maps and various other required printables that have to happen all in the next 10 days - so I think I am forced to rebuild my machine as I simply haven't the time for slow and careful testing/reconstruction.

I am still interested in seeing if this could have been solved and wouldn't mind saving it to work on later this year - and am wondering a few things:

1. Can this formatted partition be cloned to work on in the same way as a corrupted drive or does the fact that it was formatted mean I'd just be cloning an empty formatted drive?

2. Since this was a formatted partition on a single drive does the entire drive need to be cloned or just the partition? (if cloning is possible that is)

I've never cloned a drive so it's new territory for me - obviously I'm meant to learn

Thanks for all the help, Cheers!