How to Restore Data From a Formatted HDD in XP
If you have worked on or around computers enough, you know that things happen. Accidentally formatting a hard drive is one of those things. You might have been upgrading to a new operating system. Maybe you meant to be formatting that massive new hard drive you just bought. Might even be that you were trying to image your old hard drive onto a new one, but instead imaged the blank onto the original. Regardless of how it happened, it happened. Well, do not panic, recovering that data is much easier than you might think.
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Things You'll Need
- Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro
- Existing PC with enough hard drive space to hold recovered data
Instructions
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Installation and Recovery
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Install EasyRecovery Pro (see link in Resources) onto a working PC in the home.
Shut the PC down once installation is complete, and remove the side panel. -
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Install the formatted hard drive on a separate cable. An easy way to do this is to unplug the CD/DVD drive and use its data cable. Turn the PC back on. Once the computer is at the desktop, run EasyRecovery Pro. Select "FormatRecovery" under Data Recovery.
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Select the appropriate drive letter of the drive to be recovered. If there are only the two hard drives, then the formatted drive is likely to be "D:\."
Select the appropriate file system from the drop down. If you were running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or 7, then NTFS is the correct option. If you were running Windows 98, FAT32 would likely be appropriate.
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Click "Next." EasyRecovery will begin scanning the drive for recoverable files, directories and partitions on the formatted drive. Depending on the size of the hard drive, this may take up to an hour or more. When the scan has completed, EasyRecovery will present you with a list of files and directories it has found.
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Check the box next to every file in the list that has a G in the condition column. These files are the ones that will be of use to you. All other condition files are just old, damaged files that were still on your old hard drive that EasyRecovery was able to read, and they will serve you no purpose except making the data recovery take longer. Pay attention to the total amount of data to be recovered after selection is done.
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Create a folder somewhere on the computer on which you are doing the recovery. This folder will receive all the recovered data. Make sure you have enough free space on the existing drive to hold all of the recovered data as well.
Click "Next" once you have selected every drive and directory to recover. Select "to Recover to Local Drive," then click "Browse." Navigate to, and select, the folder you created to hold the recovered files.
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Click "Next." EasyRecovery will begin copying the recovered files from the formatted drive to the folder you specified. Just like the search process, this step may take an hour or longer. When it is complete, EasyRecovery will present you with a printable or savable log of all files, directories and partitions found and recovered.
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