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Is there any way to recover data from this hard drive?!

Discussion in 'Storage and Networking' started by technix, Sep 28, 2002.

  1. technix Newcomer, in training Posts: 16

    Hi.

    Earlier today I clean re-installed Windows XP Professional. I backed up alot of useful data on my second hard drive, and proceeded with the reinstallation. Everything went smooth, but when I double clicked my second hard drive in My Computer, it gave the message:

    "The disk in drive D is not formatted.

    Do you want to format it now?"

    If i proceed with this, all the data on that hard drive will be wiped out.

    Is there any possible way to recover the date from the hard drive?:mad:
    technix, Sep 28, 2002
    #1

  2. stevecool67 Newcomer, in training

    what File System are you using? ie: Fat32 or NTFS?
    Make sure that both hd's have the same file system, otherwise you're going to have to reinstall on the same fs.
    stevecool67, Sep 29, 2002
    #2

  3. Mictlantecuhtli TS Special Forces Posts: 4,916   +9

    Try reading it in Linux or BeOS.
    Mictlantecuhtli, Sep 30, 2002
    #3

  4. Vehementi TechSpot Paladin Posts: 3,199

    ...or DOS. Do you have Partition Magic?
    Vehementi, Sep 30, 2002
    #4

  5. technix Newcomer, in training Posts: 16

    I discovered the problem.... I accidentally deleted the FAT32 partition on the second hard drive while trying to delete the NTFS partition on my main hard drive (but I realized i needed DELPART.EXE to do so). :mad:

    Thanks for all your help everyone, but the data on that HDD is long gone.
    technix, Oct 3, 2002
    #5

  6. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT Posts: 4,745

    Sorry to hear that, but at least you figured out what you did.
    poertner_1274, Oct 3, 2002
    #6
     

  7. Per Hansson TS Server Guru Posts: 1,796   +66

    You can still use an unerase wizard to recover some of the data, remember, the FAT table is just a list to where the files are, so the files are still on your harddrive...

    I know Symantec has one such utill...
    Per Hansson, Oct 3, 2002
    #7

  8. Vehementi TechSpot Paladin Posts: 3,199

    If he formatted over the partition he deleted it wouldn't work :stickout:

    If you just deleted it, then yeah, it will.
    Vehementi, Oct 3, 2002
    #8

  9. Per Hansson TS Server Guru Posts: 1,796   +66

    A full format only deletes the FAT and runs a scandisk on all sectors, it doesn't remove the data...

    To do that you will either have to do a "secure format" (offered in PartitionMagic for example)

    Or use a program which low level formats the harddrive (writes zeroes to all sectors...)

    (Note: The "usual" format program is a so called "high-level" format program)

    For more information about this click this link:

    http://www.storagereview.com/welcom...00/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/techCapacity.html
    Per Hansson, Oct 4, 2002
    #9
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