How to recover data from a hard drive after formatting. The importance of formatting

After the operation, the question immediately arises: is it possible to recover data after formatting? I won’t bore you and will answer right away: yes, it is possible to perform a media recovery operation, and quite successfully. Now let’s figure out in what cases returning data will work. One of the popular programs at the moment.

For a modern person, a computer is not only a device for games, the Internet and work, but also a reliable data storage. Important information accumulates on hard drives over the years, and flash drives sometimes store very valuable files. However, everything tends to break. Then you have to resort to formatting the media. After the operation, the question immediately arises: is it possible recover data after formatting? I won’t bore you and answer right away: yes, it is possible to carry out a data recovery operation after formatting the media, and quite successfully. Now let’s figure out in what cases returning data will work. Logical drives, that is, hard drives or flash drives, consist of sections and cells on which information is written. After its removal, empty windows appear and are filled with new data. The point of recovering information after formatting is that certain programs need to find deleted files on the system and return them to the same media or to any other recording device.

Files that have been formatted do not disappear without a trace; the operating system disguises them in empty storage cells. Information can be returned as long as the hard drive/flash drive remains empty. As soon as the user begins to fill the formatted disk with new information, the old one will be replaced. When old information is completely replaced with new information, data recovery after formatting is impossible.

If the stored information is very important to you, do not give up and do not write down new information. The following programs will help you recover lost data:

Recovers damaged files for free, checks damaged archive structure information and easily corrects any errors, thereby making the file readable.

— the program will become the best assistant for those who need to recover files that were accidentally deleted or lost during a software failure. It also allows the user to scan any available storage medium, which makes this program truly indispensable.

This is a software to recover deleted files even if they have been deleted from the Recycle Bin. Initially, this program was conceived as a powerful, but at the same time simple utility for recovering a variety of data deleted from your computer. All of them are easy to learn and will delight you with the return of erased files.

The following media types are supported: . IDE, SCSI, SATA. USB. Firewire drives. separate sections. dynamic disks. floppy disks. images. Zip/Jaz drives. Compact Flash, Smart Media, Secure Digital cards. USB Flash drives, iPod.

And folders or after formatting hard drives 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 look at the best programs for recovering 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’s immediately make a reservation that data recovery can only be done with quick cleaning. If a full formatting has been performed, no program for recovering files from the hard drive will 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. Just like after emptying the Recycle Bin, during the quick formatting process, the files are renamed in such a way that they are not visible to the system, much less to the user. 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 illustrated with a 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 designed exclusively for office documents, and others can recover 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 should not use a logical drive, logical partition, or removable USB drive to which you intend to restore data 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 of bad sectors. Of course, you can use standard Windows OS tools to automatically correct system errors, but it is better to turn to professional utilities such as Victoria. If there is sufficiently severe damage to the surface of the hard drive, you will have to turn to the unique HDD Regenerator program for help, which is capable of restoring damaged sectors using the magnetization reversal method.

Recuva

File recovery programs are quite varied. They have different capabilities and purposes in terms 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 by its 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 complete list is displayed indicating 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 has a preview function, but the disadvantage 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 is another 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, one of the advantages is the presence of a special “Wizard” in it, which allows you to configure the search in a few simple steps. The search, however, is quite slow, so you will have to wait. In general, this utility is designed more for beginners than for experienced users.

Undelete Plus

An interesting solution is the simple Undelete Plus application. Despite its apparent simplicity, it can be used, for example, as a program to recover 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. A special feature of this application is that it allows you to set a custom filter, 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 capabilities that this software package offers. 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 and IDE hard drives by 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 free application for recovering lost data. The program is one of the most primitive and is designed only for FAT32 and NTFS file systems.

Unfortunately, the preview function is not provided here, and recovery of several 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 as a last resort for novice users, the application will certainly be useful.

SoftPerfect File Recovery

This application is another tiny utility with a minimal size that can be conveniently stored 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 of its kind. It may not be able to scan hard drives by sector, but it can easily restore data even if the hard drive has crashed. 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 case of home use if the hard drive is damaged, it will be suitable.

Which is 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 are looking for a comprehensive solution, when you need to take into account every little detail, it is naturally better to use the professional utilities mentioned above. In general, you should just try each software product in use, and then draw your own conclusions regarding its functionality and ease of use.

Data recovery is the process of searching and returning (reanimating) found files.

Android data recovery

Lost valuable files on your phone? Let's figure out the problem and recover data via a card reader on an SD card or find contacts, photos and videos in the internal memory of a mobile device.

In this section, we will talk about recovering files (we will evaluate the chances of whether they can be recovered at all) and select a suitable recovery program for searching for lost data. Data seemingly deleted permanently? However, there are tools - paid and free programs - that allow you to bring data back to life, reconstruct it, and resuscitate it after scanning and analyzing a hard drive or other storage source.

What is file recovery?

File recovery- not always a predictable procedure when scanning files and subsequent reconstruction. The success of recovery will depend on the state of the data blocks of the deleted files - in other words, the degree of damage.

Often, the information located in the depths of your computer can cost tens of times more than the PC or HDD itself. No one wants to suddenly lose what they have accumulated over the years: just a valuable file, gigabytes of music and films, electronic correspondence, collections of articles or news on any topic, or an archive of family photos. Of course, you wouldn't wish this on anyone. But if any of the above nightmares have happened, you still shouldn’t despair. Deleted files and even information from a formatted hard drive can be recovered. The data is not lost irretrievably.

The fact is that when deleted, the file does not disappear forever, but is only marked as “available for overwriting.” Therefore, it is advisable not to access the disk where the information was erased at all when starting the difficult recovery process.

File systems such as FAT, NTFS (that is, windows-like) store files in special data blocks. These blocks are called clusters. The size of a cluster, or block, depends on a constant number of sectors defined during formatting. In general, most operating systems (including Windows, Linux, Mac OS) store information that is optimally useful for performing fragmentation. The time it takes to write and read files is extremely important, so it is advisable to fragment the hard drive at a minimum level to ensure that file recovery is as efficient as possible later.

Searching for one or more files of various types on the HDD will take some time. After this, as a rule, its name may not match the deleted one. Moreover, part of the file may be missing altogether (for example, if some information was written over it). There are many nuances, and there are also many solutions. Therefore, we advise you to study this section very carefully and select programs at your discretion.

If we compare, say, methods of recovering files from a hard drive and its data after a failure and simply restoring information from a disk or flash drive, the situation is not so dire: we still have the opportunity to recover lost data, at least part of it. Moreover, there are many specialized programs that simplify the task and take on all return responsibilities.

If the information you want to recover is on a CD, then before starting the procedure it would be worth checking how damaged it is. You will not get any practical benefit from this, but at least you will find out how “used” the physical surface of the disk is and what are the chances of recovering the file, lost data, and recovery guarantees.

Important: You can significantly increase your chances of recovering your files by minimizing your computer usage and data reading. This way you will reduce the risk of the file being overwritten. See mine for more information, as well as answers to frequently asked questions on the topic of "recovery."

Answers to readers' questions

This is the situation, the laptop is old, after the update it became dull and did not show the C drive, on which all the photos were. My husband took it to the “specialists” who couldn’t do anything, formatted the laptop and installed Windows 7, and did nothing else with the laptop. Tell me, is it possible to recover files after formatting? I don’t even need all the photos, just the children. You have an article on your website, it says that it seems like it’s possible to restore it. I'm really looking forward to your answer!

Answer. If those same specialists reinstalled the operating system and, even worse, formatted the disk where the photos were stored, then the chances of recovery after formatting were significantly reduced. However, we will give some tips that may help you solve the problem.

If you downloaded photos from a specific source (for example, from a phone, camera, memory card, etc.), it makes sense to look for them there. If they are no longer there, try to restore the files exactly at the source.

The second piece of advice is that despite the worsening situation with deleted files, try using various software for photo recovery - for example, PhotoRec or Recuva.

Situations in life can be different, and sometimes you can lose very important data. Fortunately, it is quite rare that this is irreversible and in most cases it can be easily fixed. The main thing is to have the right software and the right information.

Software developers try to make life as easy as possible for users. Therefore, today products have begun to appear that allow you to treat the file system. What is especially noteworthy is that you do not need to have special skills or knowledge to do this.

Possible causes of data loss

Data can be lost for various reasons:

Important! Try to use a basket to avoid problems.

• viruses. Another equally common cause is viruses and Trojans. They can independently make changes to the file structure;
• clipboard. Sometimes problems may arise when using the cut function;
• problems with the media. If a flash drive or hard drive starts to act up, some data may be lost.

In the first and third cases, there is a high probability of success. If viruses or disk problems have crept into the matter, then you should not hope for a positive outcome of the operation.

File recovery algorithm

Treatment of the hard drive file system, regardless of the selected software, works according to a single algorithm.

It looks like this:

Depending on the software you select, the scanning process may vary. More professional versions work with clusters, which allows you to achieve maximum results. Relatively simple samples work with temporary data.

A clear example of formatting a flash drive with subsequent data recovery

Often problems happen with flash drives and they have to be formatted. What to do if important data is located there. Fortunately, everything can be easily fixed.

Let's look at data recovery after formatting a flash drive in the most visual form:

Data Restoration

There are many different programs to perform this operation. Each of them has certain characteristics. Next, let's look at the most popular ones today.

Video: Recovering deleted files

This utility allows you to revive files even after deep formatting. However, it can only be used in cases where the disk is operating in normal mode. To do this we do the following:

As a rule, this utility is not always effective if there are problems with the media.

Recuva

Typically, the operating system does not physically destroy files. That is, information about this content is contained in a special table. It can only be erased if a recording is made in their place.

Experts advise that before restoring data, connect the hard drive (or similar media) to another computer. This is true in cases where the problem is caused by viruses.

Important! Try to restore immediately after data loss.

When you start the program, it begins to scan the media for the presence of destroyed files (both FAT and NSTS systems are suitable). Those files that can be 100% recovered will be highlighted in green. Red lighting means that they are destroyed irrevocably.

The procedure for using the Recuva program is as follows:

Take note of several preventive measures to avoid such problems:

• use high-quality antiviruses. Remember to keep them updated;
• Defragment your hard drive regularly;
• use utilities to treat the file system;

How to recover data after formatting a disk in R-Studio

This program is quite powerful as it uses efficient scanning methods. However, even he is not able to give 100% results. There is always a chance that the procedure will end unsuccessfully. For example, if clusters are damaged, it will be powerless.

However, negative results are still less common than positive ones. In most cases, superficial formatting takes place, which leaves the information cells untouched. If low-level formatting was applied, then the chances of saving the data are zero.

Tip: use the Victoria utility to check disks for defects. It provides the most detailed and accurate information.

The above-mentioned R Studio utility allows you to restore:

• data erased from the recycle bin;
• destroyed as a result of bypassing the recycle bin (key combination);
• damaged (partially) media. Of course, in this case the chances of success are much less;

However, the developers assure that in any case the chances of success are high.

The process of using this program is as follows:

What could not be saved, you can try to return it using other software. If this does not bring any fruit, you should take the disk to a service center. Specialists, having the right equipment, will be able to bring it back to life.

As you can see, there is nothing wrong with unexpected file deletion. With a little effort and patience, you can easily return everything to the way it was. To avoid such problems in the future, try to regularly diagnose your media.

Recovering information from formatted disks, USB flash drives and memory cards requires careful selection of data recovery tools. Using tools designed to solve different common problems can produce unpredictable results. In this article, we will explain the differences between some data recovery tools in the context of retrieving data from formatted drives.

Unformat

The first thing many PC users try to do after an accidental or thoughtless format is to simply deform the disk using one of the many “Unformat” tools widely available on the market today. It won’t be difficult to buy or simply download such programs for free, but attempts to recover lost data using them can be expensive... What do these tools do? Literally - they are trying to reconstruct, rebuild, or somehow recreate the original file system in their own way. Existed before the disk was formatted.

Of course, this approach may seem quite acceptable. Formatting a disk clears the original file system by overwriting at least some part of it (usually the initial part). But if you try to return it to its original state using brute force, you will, at best, only get a readable disk with some files written on it. Not all your files and not the most valuable ones (for example, documents, archives and photo albums), but only some randomly selected from the total number of files that were originally on your disk. So if you are thinking about this kind of “deformation”, just forget about it right away: at least some system files will be lost forever in this process, so even if you manage to boot the OS, you will never get a stable working system!

Undelete

Using recovery tools is the second step that many PC users will take. But! While such tools exist, and generally do a good job, they are simply not designed to work with drives with a destroyed file system. With some of the best data recovery tools like RS File Recovery, you will be able to get back at least some of the files you need... Note, however, not all of them.

Partition Recovery

Professional partition recovery tools like RS Partition Recovery are just what you are looking for. The utility is designed to recover repartitioned, formatted and damaged disks. This tool can analyze the entire surface of a disk or partition in order to recover everything it can. Even if the file system is empty or destroyed, such a tool gives a chance to recover most files of all types, in particular, documents, photos and videos based on their characteristic signatures.

But... there is always a "but". A good recovery tool doesn't come cheap! And if you are going to restore only one formatted disk and are not sure that the tool you purchased for this purpose will be useful to you again, it is simply a sin not to try to reduce the cost of purchasing it...

FAT and NTFS Recovery

Today, you can save up to 40% on the cost of RS Partition Recovery by choosing a tool that can only recover drives in FAT or NTFS. Please note that you need to buy a tool that matches exactly the original file system! If the source disk was NTFS, use RS NTFS Recovery. If you worked in FAT/FAT32, you need RS FAT Recovery! This way, you will be purchasing exactly the same quality tool as RS Partition Recovery, just limited to the ability to work in either FAT or NTFS. Ideal choice for one-time work.