Recover Formatted Files, recover files from formatted drive

Home -> Data Recovery Articles -> Recover Formatted Files

Recover Formatted Files

Question:
Assuming that the Windows install did not write over the original location of the file needed is there a program that can retrieve it? I have tried a r-studio but it only lists the current files on the partition and no files before the format/install.

Answer:
The first issue is if the file record for the file is present. If the old partition originally was made using Windows 2000, the master file table would be in the beginning of the disk, where XP would put data, and there could be a large risk that the file record is lost. Then one have to search for the actual file content without use of file system structures. One way to figure out if the file record is present would be to use the "findntfs findfile" command of my FindNTFS tool. If recovery tools are run in Windows, the partitions on the problem disk should be made hidden to prevent further damage.

More Information:
By accident (or by a bug of new RH-6.1 installation procedure) my linux partition had been formatted. Because the inode map has been erased, I made a copy of the old home partition and edited this file using hexedit. In such a way I was able to recover some ascii files (email, ...), ... but I don't manage StarCalc documents.

Question:
It's been a while since I've done this....it's a lot easier with XP.

I'm reformating and partition a computer.

it's a 10GB HD and I want 7 GB and 3GB partitions.

So, reboot, with Win98 boot disk

then I run fdisk.

I deleted the existing partitions and I created a primary

So, now I

1: Create Dos par or log dos drive Then 1: Create prim dos part

I choose not to use the max drive space and type 7000

>>main menu

1: Create Dos par or log dos drive Then 1: Create extend dos part

I put 2753 as the part size cause fdisk shows 9758 disk space

So, now displaying partition info

I have

C: 1 PRI DOS [NO LABEL] 7005 FAT32 72% 2 EXT DOS [NO LABEL] 2753 28%

Shouldn't "2" read as D:? Or is that cause I haven't reformated anything yet

and what about setting an "Active" partition

Answer:
You need to create a logical volume "inside" of the extended. An extended partition is a special type that can hold logical drives/volumes chained together. The first logical will get the D: in this case.