any way to retrieve data off formatted HDD?

[LOUISSSSS]

i'm looking to get all my data off of my formatted 640GB WD SATA HDD.

it looks like all the data is gone after i've changed MB's after i received my new one from RMA.
the hdd contained no OS files, only my music, movies and pictures taht i'd like to retrieve.

i have some of it backed up, but would like to have my latest files that were on it..


what can i do? the HDD is not broken or anything, just when i try to open it now in My Computer, it says "Drive is not formatted"

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Have you tried looking in Disk Management to see what the status of the drive is? A program like GetDataBack should be able to recover the files if they haven't been overwritten by anything.

 

[Modelworks]

Format under windows does not erase data. It just removes the table that tells windows where everything is on the disk, so to windows it appears blank. You need to restore the partition information and rebuild it.
Grab this software: http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm

Boot with it on a usb stick or cd .
Go to partition recovery
Should be able to get it all back.

One caveat is that I can't remember what the limitations of the trial version are so you may have to use something else if it limits what partition recovery can do under the trial.

 

[Blain]

Just about any good recovery program is going to cost you money.
My advice is to pony up. The time spent trying crap freeware will end up costing you.
Unless you're unemployed and have loads of free time on your hands. 😉

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: Blain
Just about any good recovery program is going to cost you money.
My advice is to pony up. The time spent trying crap freeware will end up costing you.
Unless you're unemployed and have loads of free time on your hands. 😉

Well, testdisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) is freeware, but it is in no way crap.
In fact, it is a very good program, and has saved many people's data.
If the data is still on the HD, then this program will recover the lost partitions, and rebuild them, so you can access the data. It can also do many other things.

Worth a try!

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Blain
Just about any good recovery program is going to cost you money.
My advice is to pony up. The time spent trying crap freeware will end up costing you.
Unless you're unemployed and have loads of free time on your hands. 😉

There is some programs that work but I agree that the majority isn't worth it.
I went with active boot disk because it was the same price as getdataback but offered lots of other stuff besides just disk software, web browser, ftp, explorer, password resetting, disk imaging , and uses the vista kernel do it all.
It also has a easy to use program where it will prepare a usb stick with everything with just a click. I hated having to use that HP bootable usb stick software.