Post FORMAT - data recovery software

*Wesociety* · 20-09-2005

Today I formatted a client's harddrive before backing up his email data (Outlook 2003 .PST file). This is very very bad for all parties involved.
Over 1 years worth of email data lost.

There is now a fresh install of Windows XP SP2 running on this drive.

How can I recover this file?
I've tried data recovery and "unerase" utilities in the past but have never achieved good results.
Your suggestions are HIGHLY appreciated!

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*Gurm* · 20-09-2005

If the data was overwritten by the install of XP SP2... you can't get it back. Ever. At all. Period. Full stop.

If it WASN'T overwritten, you can get it back 100% with any of a dozen programs, although my personal favorite at the moment is called "Restorer 2000".

First of all, IMMEDIATELY stop using the drive. Writing more data to it will only make the situation worse.

But despite persistent conspiracy theories about the capabilities of government agencies, there exists no technology at this time which is capable of recovering data which has been overwritten even just once.

*Chriso* · 20-09-2005

GetDataBack (GDB) is a good one for this purpose.

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*phil_* · 20-09-2005

imho the best for data recovery are data rescue pc & easy recovery pro but the price of erp is insane , if the client didnt ask you to backup his emails at first and remembered only after you formatted you shouldnt feel bad , anyway as alredy said theres a big chance that the data has been overwritten and if thats the case its hopeless

*Gurm* · 21-09-2005

Easy Recovery Pro is good to a point, but I find Restorer 2000 is substantially better at "first pass" recovery. It can see more previous filesystems than ERP, and often will let you get the data back WITHOUT doing a "raw recovery".

Plus, ERP has the fatal flaw that it will NOT attempt recovery on:

1. SATA drives.
2. Drives with errors.

This makes it less than optimally useful. But it's still in my arsenal.

*Nemesys* · 21-09-2005

I have not had too many reasons to use this type of software but I've had great experience with Runtime GetDataBack.

I once blew away three partitions, created a single partition and loaded a Ghost image on it by accident.
The software was able to retrieve every single file (over 30GB) from the deleted partitions. The only problem I had was that some of the recovered .jpg images were corrupted.

I'm sure there will be other recommendations.

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*xtacydima* · 21-09-2005

GetBackData

Make sure to install it on a diff HDD and boot off that diff HDD, then use the HDD which needs datat recvovered as a slave.

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*Wesociety* · 21-09-2005

Thanks for all the suggestions!
Others are appreciated as well.

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*Gurm* · 21-09-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemesys

I have not had too many reasons to use this type of software but I've had great experience with Runtime GetDataBack.

I once blew away three partitions, created a single partition and loaded a Ghost image on it by accident.
The software was able to retrieve every single file (over 30GB) from the deleted partitions. The only problem I had was that some of the recovered .jpg images were corrupted.

I'm sure there will be other recommendations.

*ahem*

If some of the images were corrupted, then you didn't really get them back, did you?

I think this is a fine program, but it does have a tendency to recover files even if they've been overwritten and are thus useless. Others such as Restorer and ERP tell you when a file is lost for good.

*Nemesys* · 21-09-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gurm

*ahem*

If some of the images were corrupted, then you didn't really get them back, did you?

I think this is a fine program, but it does have a tendency to recover files even if they've been overwritten and are thus useless. Others such as Restorer and ERP tell you when a file is lost for good.

JPGs are delicate like that.
I've written .jpgs to CDRs and when copied back to the hard drive they were also corrupted.

Besides 2MB corrupted out of over 30MB is not bad. This includes over 17MB of MP3s.

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*Gurm* · 22-09-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemesys

JPGs are delicate like that.
I've written .jpgs to CDRs and when copied back to the hard drive they were also corrupted.

Me too. That's called a "bad burn". MP3's are pretty touchy too. You think the burn went ok, but they come back down with clicks.

petremure · 22-09-2005

RecoverMyFiles and Spinrite start from a floppy and have more chances of saving lost files.

Last edited by petremure; 22-09-2005 at 11:22. Reason: correcting

Post FORMAT - data recovery software

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