Another later post lists some recovery software not considered here.) (Note: later posts discuss the use of the Linux tools dd for byte-by-byte drive cloning and ddrescue for thorough byte-by-byte data recovery from a damaged drive. The remarks in this summary are explained more fully in the following discussion, with links to some relevant tools. Other sources may suggest superior tools or methods.

This post describes my exploration of methods for recovering data from a reformatted HDD. Trying Free File Recovery Tools on the Original HDDīetter-Structured Recovery from Clones and the Source HDD It goes without saying that I made multiple backups, at various points along the way, so as not to have to repeat steps already taken in the event of a mistake. Over a period of days and weeks, even when taking notes, it became difficult to retain perspective on where we were in the grand scheme. I found it entirely possible to get lost in the morass of files, especially when the numbers of files were so large that each step took hours. Beyond that, however, the discussion captures the situation of a user flailing around, trying to get his arms around a mass of data. This was a saga of approaching a massive number of recovered files and non-files from multiple perspectives, to develop a sense of the data source and of what I could get from it. I used this opportunity to explore some data recovery options - emphasis on “explore.” This was not a scientific analysis. (See also an earlier post addressing somewhat similiar issues.) So now the question was whether anything could be recovered.

That combination of steps apparently wrecked the previous partition and also failed to create a new partition.

It seemed that it had been accidentally reformatted - and then, before the format finished, realizing the error, the machine was powered down. Previously, it had been a bootable Windows XP drive. I had a screwed-up hard disk drive (HDD).

Glary duplicate cleaner tomshardware