Unformat ? Does that work ? Please, need help!

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puricele7e

683
Hi guys,

unfortunately my dad had a huge mishap yesterday, he told me to format his laptop and install the English version XP (he had German one till now) because it was pretty old (his installation). I told him like 5 times to backup his work (some VERY important files, 4-5 months of work) on something so that I can format it..........he told me ok, I go ahead, format it, he comes upstairs with his backup-DVD and............:scared: it was empty.......

Now.......please don't swear my dad because he isn't able to burn a DVD properly (I did that already :dunce: :sly: ) !!

The HDD had 2 x 53GB partitions before, with WIN XP. I booted it with the XP CD and did a quick format and windows install, and now there's one partition of 106 gb (or something like that.......)

The huge problem is that his files are apparently gone, and it drove him crazy........now.........

IS there a way to do a un-format ? I tried a couple of tools, but they only showed up what I have on my current drive ! Given my situation, is it possible to recover the files ?

I'd be very grateful for every answer as it's worth $$$$ ........:ouch:

Thanks again!
Vlad
 
If it's worth a lot of money, you can always let a professional firm retrieve the information.

edit: or you can do it yourself with data recovery software, like this: link
 
Thanks for the tip, I also tried with that tool, but am I doing something wrong, because it only shows actual files, not the ones I would want back :-| ..... There's something fishy goin on........
 
Ring a computer technician and see if he will recover the data for you, it will cost but if it's 4-5 months work then it's probably well worth it. As long as yo don't overwrite the data segments your dads work is on, the data will still be there. so until you have it sorted, if I was you I'd refrain from installing and downloading anything onto that hard drive.
 
It will probably cost more than that ^^^^^^ and since the partition map changed (1 partition instead of 2) and then a new install (i.e. lots of writing) I'd be astonished if anything useful could be recovered.

The normal "un-format" utilities are for right after the format, before any new writing has been done. Re-partitioning and installing counts as writing. . . .

That said, if the actual sectors containing the files have not been overwritten, it IS possible to recover, but it's gonna be more than a couple hunnert bucks. If you're gonna try it, shut the machine down, DO NOT USE IT ANY MORE to minimize new writes.

And, um, check backup media before needing it. . . . . . I know you know that now, but I thought I'd throw that in just to be sure.
 
Data recovery services should be able to get all the data back, but you're talking £1,000, not $100. Repair utilities can sometimes help, but probably not if the drive is formatted. Because of the way hard drives work, a forensic recovery service can probably get data back that is not retrievable by a downloadable application. Try not to use the drive in the interim.

Your father is doubtless annoyed at the loss of the data, but if he did actually ask you to format it, he'll be mad at himself, just taking it out on you. When considering whether to send the drive off for professional repair, just ask whether the data is worth the repair cost. Few people consider the value of their data, and you will either find your dad willing to pay the money, or that he's suddenly less unhappy about the loss of the data.

You may be able to recover some of the repair cost as accidental damage on your house insurance.
 
Hi guys,

sorry for the late response. My dad had a talk with some IT experts from his firm and they said that the data type he'd been working with (Catia V5, 3D design) has a pretty ****ty file structure that can't really stay together (or something like that) in case of a HDD recovery job. He also found some older backups (very little better than nothing), so decided to work from there. I also had a go doing the recovery and used like 3-4 programmes, which showed SOME of the things I had on the old partitions, I mean.....quite lots of stuff, but these .cat files were nowhere to be seen :ouch: . So.....that's it.....

I'd like to thank you for all your support and......take it from me :

CHECK YOUR BACKUPS :sly:

PS: funny thing I mention backups......you're gonna ROFL at my dad......the "backup" was a DVD-RW, onto which he simply drag-and-dropped the files, but without actually burning them :dunce: :dunce: When you double click on the dvd-drive, it shows all the files, but he DIDN'T read the "ready to be burned" part :grumpy: double clicking worked, so he thought that'll do :lol::guilty: Oh well, his mistake and fortunately it's not THAT very tragic as it first seemed, but a project for a 4-seater airplane will be delayed some time :ill: **** happens......
 

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