Recover Formatted Files
The possibility of losing potentially all of your critical data in one fell swoop probably sends shivers up your spine, as it should. Can this massive a loss really occur? Modern hard drives boast incredible amounts of storage space and ever quicker access times. With such advancement, surely the probability of a hard drive failure is much lower these days? While reliability has improved, it still is not at the point that users should be implicitly trusting their machines with crucial data. This kind of trust can easily leave you feeling burnt. Making regular backups is a preventive and effective measure to take, but sometimes even the most cautious of us let our guard down.
What can be done if a vital file is lost to hard drive failure or accidental formatting? We are talking about more than simply deleting a file by accident. This is a more serious situation. Hard drive failures due to software problems, such as corrupt data, or an accidental formatting, occur more frequently than you might suppose. Luckily, these situations do not spell absolute disaster. With the help of some very powerful utilities, you can recover formatted files. Utilities exist today that can pull data back from the very brink of destruction, all with a few mouse clicks.
Surely such tools must cost an arm and a leg? Unlike most things, this level of power and flexibility actually comes for free. Although there are very expensive computer recovery tools out there, some of the best tools do not cost a dime. TestDisk is one such very powerful tool, and as an open source project, enjoys a comprehensive feature set. The utility also happens to be completely free. TestDisk is capable of advanced file recovery, including the ability to recover formatted files.
When a drive is accidentally formatted, the files may seem completely beyond reach. This is indeed a tough situation. With a tool like TestDisk, however, the prospects are better. Capable of scanning a hard drive and rebuilding lost partitions, TestDisk can bring back files without any help from the operating system. Standard file scans must rely on the operating system to provide a guide or map as to where files begin and end. An advanced tool like TestDisk can perform what is known as a RAW recovery. In RAW recovery mode, TestDisk scans the entire drive without a map or guide, and reconstructs these maps based on what it finds. This process is time consuming, but it is very thorough and can find even badly damaged files.
TestDisk stands a good chance of being able to recover formatted files in RAW recovery mode. Giving TestDisk time to run through an entire drive should turn up large quantities of lost data, usually in a perfectly usable state.
Filed under: Recover Formatted Files