i recently backed up my files on to an external hard drive. then i formatted my old hard drive and reloaded the files from the external HD to the old Hd. then i formatted the external. but now my HD broke so i called up dell to see if they could recover the files from the broken HD, and they could but it would cost $4000. i need those files, so i want to know if there is anyway i could get the fiels from the external HD, even though i formatted it? thanks
Well there might still be info on the External drive (especially if you only quick-formatted it) but... Hey I bet the Cops could get your data back from the external - I read a tech article about their forensic software, about how it intercepts any data the system tries to write to said disk (actually fools the system into thinking the write was successful) to keep the disk pristine for 'recovery'. Maybe you could make them think you have something illegal on the external disk... (LoL - bad plan.) Dunno if there is some software that can help you, probably there is ;-) I will bet (money) DrChips knows just how to get the data! But seriously we must all diligently backup our files, especially RAID people, because these things are prone to happening. (Sorry not much help) Regards
Hiya, Depending on the following: How you formatted it, What you have tried already, Your skill level/understanding of how Windows filesystems work, etc. etc. One of the following may help: http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/~tkuurstra/irecoverpe.htm It is also possible using Linux and mounting the disk as read-only etc... Knoppix is particularly good for that, though many Linux Distros support it.. Good Luck..
i right clicked the drive and hit format (not quickformat) ive tried some free programs such as r-undelete, resotrer 2000 but all they found were some files that i didnt even recognize my skill with computers is good, with winodws file system not so good but if i have steps i can follow them fine
Ahhh... I would guess the following: 1 - you kept the drive in the external box and tried to recover from there (should not be doing that on usb/firewire connection as it is not a true controller connection, most/all recovery software expects the drive to be connected to a normal controller)... 2 - you had problems identifying/scanning the disk in question... 3 - you tried to access/work with the disk directly instead of imaging it and working with the image... 4 - you tried the program out before you read the manual/helpfile/instructions... If you have already had a go, you may have already overwritten critical structures. You may have to just accept the fact that you probably won't get the data back now. That is one of the reasons data recovery is so expensive, if it was easy, anyone could do it Hard drives are cheap, might I take this opportunity to suggest raid-1 to you...
i am trying to do it through the usb as i plan on returning the external as i just needed it as a backup for a few days and as the the hd, dell is supplying a new one for free thanks for ur help
Ok, Raid-1 is worth looking at, that way if a drive goes down you can continue working/recover your files etc.. Good luck with your new drive (Dell)..
actaully thanks a lot when i made those last two posts i was in the middle of running irecover, the program u suggest and it was able to find all my files i think the problem was that my computer lists the drive as ntfs so i was always using ntfs programs but irecover showed it as fat32 and was able to recover all the files the only problem is that when i am recovering the files i can only recover 1 folder at a time and each time i have to run a new scan which takes about an hour or more any ideas for this? anyway...i only have abouy 6-7 folders to move so it wont be that bad but thanks agin for your help
Glad it is working for you.. I would still recommend you read up about raid-1. It is a horrible feeling when you lose a lot of data due to a drive failure. Have Fun...
