My harddisk got crashed. While I was not around my brother formatted it and reinstalled. But I need to recover something from that disk. Wud it be possible if so tell me how I cud recover it and how to do it.

My harddisk got crashed. While I was not around my brother formatted it and reinstalled. But I need to recover something from that disk. Wud it be possible if so tell me how I cud recover it and how to do it. i need it very urgently

heya, now that it has been formatted i do not think that you will be able to retrieve any data that was previously on the disk, did you not make a backup of your important files?

NO i didn't. It was formated before I got returned. Seems I have to do every work all over again. thanks for the info

i know how you feel, just had the same kind of happen to me... except i might have a backup somewhere (i hope)

sorry for the bad news
Jack

I found something on google that might work. Its says it can recover data of disk that is formated and reinstalled windows.

http://www.recovermyfiles.com

there should be some softwares that might be able to do that. though i didn't do extensive research on it and such. google around.

If he had only reformatted the drive, then removed it and stuck it on a shelf, you may have had a chance of recovering some of your data. But, since he then reinstalled files on that drive, your chances immediately dropped to nearly, if not completely, impossible.

That said, what is needed to recover any data is a forensic analysis, and that can only be done by folks at specialized data recovery labs - like those at the FBI, CIA, or other big budget crime labs - and highly specialized technicians using very sophisticated and expensive scanning equipment - and even then, the chances of recovery are only marginal.

Time to thump your brother upside the head. Next time that drive crashes (and it will - sooner than later, if it crashed last time due to HW failure), or next time you run into something like this, the best thing to do is to install the failing drive into another machine as a Slave, then copy off the data.

As can be seen here or here, recovery programs are available, but not cheap - but again, since data was stored on that drive after the format, your chances of success bottomed out. Many programs, such as Restorer 2000 allow you to run the program in demo mode - but will not let you actually recover anything until you pay. But, as noted on the Restorer 2000 page (their bold), "NEVER INSTALL ANY APPLICATION (including Data Recovery Software), WRITE THE IMAGE FILE OR RESTORE FILES TO THE SAME LOGICAL DISK WHERE LOST FILES RESIDE. OTHERWISE YOU MAY OVERWRITE YOUR DATA ON THE DISK AND LOST THEM IRRETRIEVABLY."

That said, shame on you for not backing up your critical data!

I never thought of backing up data. Now that this has happened I think I will do it. Whats the best day. Should I just copy the file or like some people should I use windows backup tool.

There are many ways. For me, I save all my data files, pictures, tunes, favorites/bookmarks, email, etc. in folders under My Documents - then for a simple backup, I drag a copy of the entire My Documents folder over to a networked drive. I also use a RAID1 array so I always have a mirrored copy of my disk on hand.

Many people prefer to use an imaging program such as Norton Ghost. Others use the simple but effective backup tools included with Windows.