Recovering my Data

[dante10k]

Hello I have a few problems one problem is more specific than the other but related to recovering data

#1 Im trying to recover my data on one of my hardrives but i reformmated one other time. what happened was I installed a much older version of Windows XP with no SP update and my data for most of my hardrives like disappeared and my hardrives couldnt read more than about 150 gigs of total space (my space was about 250 for one partitition which was really a 500gb hd in other words i had two partitions) anyway I cant recover my data from any of thoes hds except for whats already on the hardrive.

#2 Im using a old IDE as my current C:\ Drive and Im trying to recover a few files that were stored in the my documents directory. problem is before I formatted the drive the file system was FAT32 and now I have NTFS on it. i scanned the HD with a FAT32 recover software and nothing came up. is it possible for me to recover the files even if i reformat it with the FAT32 File system again.

the data for all these was lost either october, november, or december

Help would be appricated
              - Thanks in advance

[patio]

I simply do not understand how you can keep formatting drives and expect to be able to retrieve data from them...

Do you understand what formatting does ? ?

[dante10k]

yes i understand what formatting does it whipes all files data and the filesystem and then re writes an operating system with the file system that is used with that installation.

#1 I only reformatted one time with the one I am trying to recover from My Documents


#2 I havent reformatted my other drives its just that when I formmated the other drive it whiped my other drives apparently the Operating system was to old it couldnt read that big of a Hardrive so it decided to whipe the data and decrease the hardrive capacity.

[patio]

That makes no sense...when you format it only affects the drive/partition you have selected...
It cannot touch another drive/partition...Period.

This is a case of operator error i'm afraid.

[dante10k]

i know it doesnt make any sense it shouldnt have effected my other drive or partitions i have on the hd's but that doesnt change the fact it did happen. The most logical answer I can see here is the OS couldnt handle that big enough HD Space.

[patio]

Nope...that's not it.

[dante10k]

So what you cant help me out here?  my data is gone for good I havent even reformatted 7 times which is the usual time the data whipes itself out.

[Allan]

So what you cant help me out here?  my data is gone for good I havent even reformatted 7 times which is the usual time the data whipes itself out.

Huh?

[BC_Programmer]

For some reason this reminds me of a person I know who had a older Mac (system 7). I was using it for one reason or another, and emptied the trash because it was nearly 50% of the drive.

THe guy comes back, and asks me "what did you do" and I said... "well, not much... I emptied the trash."

"NOOO!"

"What? what's wrong?"

"that's where I keep my documents!"

Apparently, this person thought that storing things in the trash can would cause that space to be magically freed. basically, you could put an infinite number of files into it of any size.

An analogous situation also occured with somebody using DOS 6 and Delete Sentry, which copied deleted files to a hidden folder. I foolishly purged the data for one reason or another  (I think I did something that purged automatically). And of course this other guy also stored his important data in the hidden folder.

Another case was even worse, and far more similar to the case we have here in this thread.

The person would literally delete the files, and then use a recovery program to recovery them when needed. Apparently this followed the same logic above- that is, the deleted files didn't use up space, so it was better  this way. Remembering the first letter of the filename was a small price to pay.

Anyway, when he installed windows 95, for some reason all of the files were no longer recoverable, them being overwritten was a likely cause.

So what you cant help me out here?  my data is gone for good I havent even reformatted 7 times which is the usual time the data whipes itself out.

Oh, I'm sure the data is recoverable.

If you have a spare 1500$ for a forensics team.

[jkolak]

Oh, I'm sure the data is recoverable.

If you have a spare 1500$ for a forensics team.

Sometimes the downloadable HDD recovery programs can get certain recognizable file types back. The free ones usually have restrictions that limit the ability to recover catastrophic losses like this. They do invite you to pay for the full version if your case needs it.

[BC_Programmer]

Sometimes the downloadable HDD recovery programs can get certain recognizable file types back. The free ones usually have restrictions that limit the ability to recover catastrophic losses like this. They do invite you to pay for the full version if your case needs it.

After three formats and a change of file system, there is no publicly "tool" that you can use that can recover the data. the only type of tool that can be used would be one that is specially designed to read data slightly off track, in the hopes of finding the remnants of older data.

Guess who has these types of apps?

Expert Data Recovery. Recuva and similar publicly available tools- including "commercial" data recovery software doesn't come CLOSE to the meticulousness of the in-house (read: not publicly available, free or otherwise) applications and tools used by them.

Now, Recuva would work fine if you only reformatted once- and then tried to recover right away, but formatting three times, and then expecting to recover data after 3 months of use is nothing short of completely ludicrous.