Recovering files from an accidentally formatted remote HD. Urgent advice pls.

I ran Pareto Logic all night and it seems to have scanned a quarter of it and doesn't yet show how I can copy the lot off.

But I read conflicting reports that it might be a trojan program or is going to ask for all of my monies when it finally completes. Any ideas?

 

It's an external HDD yes? Via USB?
If the laptop is still booting into vista won't all your files still be there and you can just copy them again or was it all stored on this?

I doubt you will be able to recover with free programs. Nearly all want some money before it let's you copy them.

 

Yes, external HDD via USB.

XP installed itself on the external HDD. I had it diconneted to start with, which is why the laptop couldn't find any partition tp put XP on, but I erroneously connected it on the second attenmpt with XP. Cue format when I accepted a partition it found.

So I'm now raking Google for alternate recovery programs whilst this Pareto Logic runs. It' been running all night and has scanned less than 25%.

 

Ah, I see.
Well the data wont be gone, Just the partition table.
Just dont put any files on the HDD as it will start to go over your old files.

A free recovery tool...

http://www.easeus-deletedrecovery.com/

 

I have some advanced recovery software that takes about 24 hours at times, it scans every single sector and eventually comes up with a list of what files can be recovered if that's of any use?

Hirens boot cd has lots of stuff on it too, not sure if you have that already?

 

R Studio is very good. Recently recovered a drives files after the file allocation table went to sh*t.

 

I've currently got EASEUS running - showing 34 hours to go. Had to pay some money to increase recovery over 1GB.

Also the Pareto Logic which was running all night, but seems not to be finding any more files - ~ 25% complete

And also Pandora which shows previewable files it can see in a windows-type menu, except I can tell it is finding/cataloguing images which are actually in videos That's showing 153 hours to go, but I think it is making life hard for itself by cataloguing video files

Not sure what to do... currently considering getting a spare External HDD from Maplin, as the formatted HDD is bigger than the laptop HD anyway.

And I guess this machine will crash sooner or later also, so the full-sweep programs aren't ideal, as I need to pick the files off in stages

There were masses of files on it, I think it's a terrabyte HDD. Seems to be >200,000 files. Last backup was a year ago [:^(]

 

Trouble is you really need to do a full sweep if any un-format progs won't work? As the File Allocation Tables will be gone so the only way to get whole files is to do a full sweep of every sector.

 

Agree with above. I think its taking that long becuase the laptop will be pretty slow.

The worse thing to do is use it so dont put anything else on it. Anything you put on now will go over the old files.

You could ship it to Matt for recovery, He doesnt seem to be doing much these days

 

Thanks Matt, up the sleeve option appreciated.

Current stats on EASEUS:

Elapsed time: 2:11 hrs
Remaining time: 31:11 hrs
NTFS File records: 205050
Files identified: 6982
Total files found: 212066

Any comments / thoughts?


Main thing is I'm using EASEUS because it claims it can retain filenames and folders. I do not fancy re-filing 200,000 files (or a hybrid compromise, using my year old backup).

 

Yep have a complete base unit here setup for this type of scenario, I did a drive for somebody a while back that was trashed but we managed to get 75% of the data back.

 

Yep sometimes though the long filenames will be hard to retain depending on what state the drive is in, if it's only been a quick format it should be easy to recover all the files intact.

 

It was a format, followed by XP being installed on it. I will definitely lose some files for sure.

 

Yeah you will definitely need a full scan of every sector and it will take a day or two depending size of drive etc. It's really the only way to recover anything from that sort of situation.

 

what was the outcome?

 

Most stuff is back I think, but because the first stuff I'd copied onto the remote HD when I bought it a year ago was the Reeves Mk1 footage at the 'Ring... some of it I think has gone walkabout

 

Damn, only copy i take it.

 

Unfortunately yes. Just did not anticipate the laptop formatting a remote HD!

 

I can vouch for R-Studio. I've recovered data from hard drives that have been formatted 3-4 times over.

 

need help myself now:

fujitsu siemens laptop with pre installed vista (no cd).

laptop got knocked about and then crashed, when booting up now i get the windows loading bar then a blue screen flash and 2 following options. start as normal or launch startup repair, tried the windows repair option but after a few tries it now goes straight to the fujitsu recovery screen offering a restore factory default which says the entire contents of the hard drive inc all partitions will be deleted? gutting