How to Recover Data and Files from Formatted Hard Drive?

"How do I recover formatted hard drive? Oops! This morning, the hard drive was not working, so I've formatted it. But I didn't back up. Now, how to recover the important data?"


Formatting has become a quick and direct approach to fix various hard drive problems or errors. But formatting whole hard drive will wipe everything on it. Can you recover files from a formatted hard drive?


Sure! You are a lucky guy. Follow this post, we will show you how to recover formatted hard drives.

Part 1. Is It Possible to Recover Files from Formatted Hard Drive?

Part 2. Best Way to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive

Part 3. Why You Need to Format Hard Drive

Part 4. Two Ways of Hard Drive Formatting

Part 1. Is It Possible to Recover Files from Formatted Hard Drive?

Wrongly or accidentally formatted a hard drive? It's obvious that formatting your hard drive will trap yourself into a serious catastrophe. So, is it in God's hand to do nothing with the formatted hard drive?


In fact, it is possible. The formatting process only labels the existing data as "blank" so that the computer cannot detect the locations of the file. But the files still stay in your hard drive.


Based on this, it's promising for us to recover formatted disk/drive by professional software. Taking efficiency, price, and operations into consideration, we have picked up an awesome software for you.



Part 2. Best Way to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive

Asking professional recovery software for help would be the first thing we will consider, however, the aspects of expensive cost, potential privacy leakage, and complicated operations may shrink us back to anxiety and endless software-searching.


NO NEED TO WASTE YOUR TIME NOW!


AnyRecover is a wonderful tool for recovering data from formatted hard drive, SD Card, USB flash drive etc. capturing the merits of reasonable price, easy operations, and high recovery rate.


download on Win    download on Mac


Eye-catching points of AnyRecover:


1. Most scenarios where you have formatted your files are covered.

2. Can recover deleted files from hard drive (internal and external)

3. Support most file types, like recover photos from hard drive

4. It also can be used to recover when the hard drive is RAW, crashed, and corrupted etc.


So, let's see how to recover or restore formatted hard drive:


Step 1. Download and launch AnyRecover on your PC, then you will have 6 modes. In the case of recovering formatted hard drive, we will choose the third one "Formatted Disk Recovery".

click on formatted disk recovery


Step 2. Tick the name of the hard drive you want to recover and click on "Next" to continue.

select the formatted drive to scan


Step 3. Then it's the turn to choose the specific file types you want the software to detect. Click on the "Scan" button after you make your choices.

check the file types to scan


Step 4. Scan progress will be conducted automatically and once the progress finishes, you can preview the result by double-clicking the detected files. Then choose the files and click on "Recover".

files recovery completed from formatted hard drive


(Choose "External Device Recovery if you need to recover deleted files from hard drive after formatting.)


download on Win    download on Mac


Note: You Should Pay Attention to for Format Drive Recovery

1. Save the recovered files in other locations.

2. Do not proceed with any other operations on the formatted hard drive to avoid data overwritten.

3. If you have formatted your hard drive once, do not format it again.

4. Do not try CHKDSK channel because this will really get your data lost.

5. Do not use the hard drive or install additional software on it to keep the existing data still.

6. Stop running any programs or software that has access to the formatted hard drive.

7. Use the recovery tool in time to maintain your important data as soon as possible.



Part 3. Why You Need to Format Hard Drive

It's not recommended to format hard drive frequently in particular that you have stored important files in it. But things are different if you are facing the following stark scenarios:


1. Sudden Circuit Interruption - the dropout of power supply will cause a sudden termination on the working hard drive.

 

2. Bad Ventilation - a closed space where you place the host will make it hard for thermal dissipation and fail the hard drive.


3. Virus Attack - virus intrusion will affect the internal system of your hard drive and further damage your hard drive.


4. Internal Error - accident deletion of some systematic files will also result in the failure of the hard drive.


5. Improper Installation - install software from unknown sources will download bundled software along, which may get your hard drive stuck.


6. Bad Ventilation - a closed space where you place the host will make it hard for thermal dissipation and fail the hard drive.



Part 4. Two Ways of Hard Drive Formatting

You can recover data from formatted drive, but can you get all the files back? It is up to what formatted way you adopted and how soon you perform a recovery.


1. Quick Formatting

Quick formatting takes very little time. In this mode, the computer just deletes the files on the drive, but this deletion does not really delete the files and it is possible to retrieve files from formatted hard drive, which means that the computer is tempted to think that there is no data on the hard drive by clearing the FAT table.

format hard drive with quick format


2. Full Formatting

In addition to clearing data, full formatting will detect the hard drive, so it takes a long time. If your hard drive gets damaged, there would be a prompt reminding you to format it. If you didn't check the "Quick Format" option, you have adopted full formatting. But be careful that in this mode, because not all the data can be recovered from a formatted hard drive.



The Bottom Line

How to recover data from formatted hard drive on Mac or PC is a concern. And it is the patience and attention that are needed for hard drive running. Moreover, even if the ever-advancing technology makes a great contribution to the recovery after formatting hard drive, we should form a habit of backing up data.


Finally, if you think this post help you, don't forget to share it. And you are welcome to leave the message on the below if you have any question or suggestion. We greatly appreciate it.


Last Updated: February 27, 2019

Author: Elio G. M  /     

A smartphone geek who perseveres in generating esay-to-follow solutions to various Android and iPhone issues.


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