UNformat HD

[johnrobert]

I accidentally formatted my 2TB USB HD you would think there would be an unformat tool as it only took 15 sec in Disk MGM
I guess I will have to use recovery software, seems to me in the old days there was an unformat command.


Having a bad day spent 4 hours replacing the digitizer on iPad mini I have done many Androids non like this

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yes this is the realm of data recovery software. All a quick format does is wipe the partition table, tools exist to rebuild it.

 

[frase]

Partition Magic or Gparted can do it. I accidently erased my HDD a while ago lol, instantly removed it and recovered data and partitions 100%.

 

[Markverhyden]

There never was a unformat command. Years ago MS OS's regularly made copies of the partition table. Test Disk was the go to back then. Recovered many a drive. Lately though I've not had to much luck getting the partition back from a backup. But tools like R-Studio do an awesome job of getting files. As long as the drive was not FDE.

 

[Blues]

I would never bother to rebuild the partition to restore unless there was some application that I would be unable to easily reinstall but I would always recover and backup the data first.

 

[Philippe]

There never was a unformat command.

MS-DOS 5.0 had one

 

[labtech]

DMDE could rebuild partition tables, but, of course, it is recommended cloning the data first.
2TB USB HD? Photo or link? Have a PN (Part Number off the back label)? Asking because, some of the new models support TRIM, which would prevent data access after a format. Data recovery software will not be able to recover the old target files.

 

[britechguy]

2TB USB HD?

You bring up a good question, as if I read HD I instantly go to HDD, not SSD, although SSDs are a form of hard drive.

I instantly presumed "spinner HDD" not SSD. And which it is makes a huge difference, as you've noted.

 

[labtech]

You bring up a good question, as if I read HD I instantly go to HDD, not SSD, although SSDs are a form of hard drive.

I instantly presumed "spinner HDD" not SSD. And which it is makes a huge difference, as you've noted.

Right, I suspect it is an HDD based external drive. But what model?
For example, most WD and Seagate portable drives support TRIM, which is a problem to recover with basic tools.

 

[britechguy]

For example, most WD and Seagate portable drives support TRIM, which is a problem to recover with basic tools.

I never knew that any HDD supported TRIM. I thought that was an SSD-specific technology. You learn something new, constantly, in this business.

You'll get no argument from me on the make/model front. I am constantly harping on the need to present this information as part of any query on venues where I moderate. I try to get people to put their computer's make/model and Windows version and build in their signatures, where possible, so that data is always around, and only the "situation specific" information need be added.

 

[Markverhyden]

MS-DOS 5.0 had one

After using the MS DOS 5.0 FORMAT command. Might take a while to run on a 2TB drive...........

 

[Philippe]

Might take a while to run on a 2TB drive...

Nah, try with the "quick" option:
> format x: /q

 

[johnrobert]

You bring up a good question, as if I read HD I instantly go to HDD, not SSD, although SSDs are a form of hard drive.

I instantly presumed "spinner HDD" not SSD. And which it is makes a huge difference, as you've noted.

Yes a spinner a 3 tb formatted to 2 will have a look at it today

 

[lcoughey]

Ad we don't know the model of drive, we can hope that it isn't one that had TRIM enabled.

NEVER do an action that writes to a drive from which you need to recover the data. If you don't care about making it permanent data loss, go for it. Otherwise, always clone (sector-by-sector) first.