how to retreive files from formated hard drive?

[sharxbyte]

hey, i know the feds can do it, but can the average techy? it would be helpful for me if i could get some stuff off of my harddrive, but i had to use the system restore... and i didnt have a chance to back up the drive first.(it was being a pain in the rear, and shut down automatically as soon as it said starting windows. i'm wondering if it was a virus or what, but back to the original topic)

is it possible to get stuff back off of it?

thanks guys!

[DaKahuna]

Re: how to retreive files from formated hard drive?

Yes, it is possible. We recently had an issue at work where one of the guys accidentally formatted the wrong drive when preparing to make an image of a hard drive. We were able to recover some of the files busing file carving. It is very time consuming but I believe both EnCase and Autopsy will both do it.

[Thorn]

Re: how to retreive files from formated hard drive?

hey, i know the feds can do it, but can the average techy? it would be helpful for me if i could get some stuff off of my harddrive, but i had to use the system restore... and i didnt have a chance to back up the drive first.(it was being a pain in the rear, and shut down automatically as soon as it said starting windows. i'm wondering if it was a virus or what, but back to the original topic)

is it possible to get stuff back off of it?

thanks guys!

The answer is "definitely maybe." The is a plethora of software out there that will do this ranging from freeware to specialized recovery suites costing thousand of dollars. How much you are able to retrieve will vary according to how much of the prior files were overwritten by the reformat and re-installation of the OS. To really do this properly, you will probably need a second PC to act as the rescue PC. You may also need some drive adapters (USB- IDE, IDE - SATA, 3.5" IDE - 2.5" IDE, etc.) depending on the drive to be recovered and the rescue PC.

Plugging "how to retrieve files from formatted hard drive"* into Google results in 1,800,000 hits and will probably help you get going in the right direction.

*Note that spelling "retrieve" and "formatted" correctly on Google helps get better answers.

[sharxbyte]

Re: how to retreive files from formated hard drive?

The answer is "definitely maybe." The is a plethora of software out there that will do this ranging from freeware to specialized recovery suites costing thousand of dollars. How much you are able to retrieve will vary according to how much of the prior files were overwritten by the reformat and re-installation of the OS. To really do this properly, you will probably need a second PC to act as the rescue PC. You may also need some drive adapters (USB- IDE, IDE - SATA, 3.5" IDE - 2.5" IDE, etc.) depending on the drive to be recovered and the rescue PC.

Plugging "how to retrieve files from formatted hard drive"* into Google results in 1,800,000 hits and will probably help you get going in the right direction.

*Note that spelling "retrieve" and "formatted" correctly on Google helps get better answers.

hey, thanx both of you. ill try, and if i have any more questions ill ask.