Every disk must be formatted before it can actually be used. The actual process of reformatting doesn’t erase any data on the disk, it only erases the data form the “address tables”. These address tables however make the other data on the disk readable, so therefore the other data is “lost” as well, unless of course you backed it up before hand. If you accidentally reformatted a disk that has important information on it, you should know that the info is not permanently lost.
There are many programs that will help you recover information from the disk, and if you don’t feel like doing it yourself you could also help the help of a computer repairman. When a disk us formatted, the operating system automatically tests the disk, erases any “bookkeeping” information, marks any dysfunctional sectors, and creates new internal address tables that it later uses to locate information.
Signs that indicate that the drive may have been re-formatted may include messages that say: “ Invalid command.com”, “Operating System not found”, “Invalid or corrupt FAT”,“Cannot find file or program”, “Primary/Secondary Hard disk failure”, “Non system disk”, and “Disk error”.
If you are experiencing any of these problems, then you have probably suffered some sort of data loss. To recover data from a formatted drive follow the steps below:
1. Open the Data Recovery Wizard and then click “Complete Recovery” located in the main window.
2. Now you should see a list of drives on your computer. You will need to select the drive that was formatted and then click on “NEXT” to begin searching for files in this drive.
3. Now the program will scan for any data. Once the scan is complete the Data Recovery Wizard will let you choose up to 6 volumes to recover data. Once you have made your selection(s), click “NEXT”. Now the Building Directory feature will begin searching through the files.
4. Finally, once the scan is complete, you should see a list of files and folders. Select the desired file or folder and then click “Next”
Now should have recovered all of the information from the formatted drive. In some cases, this procedure will not be enough to recover all of the data. If this is the case then you should seek the help of a professional computer repairman, or browse through additional tutorials for further information.
