How to recover files from formatted hard drives?

What is format?

Format is the process of repairing a storage medium, usually a disk, for reading and writing. When you format a disk, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (that is, those that are scratched), and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. You must format a disk before you use it.

Files can be recovered after partition format

Formatting a partition only erases the address table, not the data itself. Do not be panic if you accidentally format a partition containing useful data. A computer specialist should be able to recover most, if not all, of the information on the partition.

Format commands

The Format commands are typically used to prepare a new logical drives after Fdisked hard drive - enabling the installation of an operating system, application programs & eventual user data. The format command has been around for a long time; formerly they were stand alone DOS programs before being integrated into Windows.

How to recover files from formatted drives?

EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition provides Complete Recovery module, which will search the formatted partition and unformat files from it. The following steps illustrate how to recover files by the Complete Recovery module.

1. Run EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition.

2. Run "Complete Recovery" module, where you'll find all existing partitions on your hard disks, select the one you want to recover data from and click "Next".

Tips: If the volume does not have a drive letter, then the volume will be listed at the hindmost and the drive letter, it will be displayed as "*".

3. The Intelligent Search will scan the selected volume, collect and analyze every byte, then present a list of possible volumes.

4. As default, the program will choose one partition with the most possibility and display in green. Or you can choose other partitions that are similar with your original one according to capacity, file system, etc. You are allowed to choose 4 partitions at most to recover.

5. After selecting the partition, Partition Recovery Wizard will build directory to search the files.

6. Select the files and click "File Preview" to preview.

Tips: If you want to wipe the data on a partition completely to protect your privacy, please refer to How to delete and wipe partition?

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