Performing a hard drive data recovery after format is made relatively easy using modern data recovery applications. In this article I’ll show you how to use freeware applications to scan your drive and locate lost files.
Reinstalling the operating system after formatting the drive will actually make your computer startup faster and help workaround severe program issues you are experiencing. However, there is always the danger of you forgetting to backup specific data. This is where data recovery tools become very useful.
The process/steps involved in data recovery are quite standard:
Download and install a data recovery tool (e.g. Recuva). Do not install the program on the formatted drive as this could overwrite your files.- Start up the application and select the formatted disk for analysis. If the drive is quite large then I’d recommend filtering the results based on file size or type to speed up the process.
- The application will attempt to do a data recovery after format by locating clusters belonging to lost files and consolidating them into a found files list.
- Review the list of documents it locates and copy the ones you need onto a secondary partition.
One of the major difficulties doing a data recovery after format is the fact that the list of found files will not include the user-friendly filenames you will recognize. This is a direct result of the formatting process clearing down the file allocation table which contains the user-friendly names. The workaround you can use is to locate files according to file type/file extension, copying these to a new partition and then searching through them for specific documents you need.
It is also important to realize that reinstalling the operating system on a formatted disk will have overwritten a large amount of files. Any ongoing usage of the PC will cause additional files to be overwritten (e.g. by storing new files or installing applications).