Painful mistake resulted in data loss - help!

[Damon]

Hi gurus,

I have drive with os and data on FAT32. The partition has been dropped and put one with NTFS. Then did quick format and installed os. And then... my friend realised, that one small database was there that she didn't backup

Is it still any chance to recover this file? I didn't deal with such case so far, I have original PC3K but unfortunately without DE.

Could anyone from gurus put some light on this darkness?

Regards
Damon

[Cleanroom]

stop using that drive. clone it to another drive, then work on the clone (preferably in read only mode)and you can try different types of data recovery software to see if you can find the deleted file if it has not been overwritten yet.

[HDD Spaz]

Hi gurus,

I have original PC3K but unfortunately without DE.

what? you have original pc3k but cannot do software reocvery? This sounds a bit suss.

[Damon]

Thanks cleanroom for hint. I will try it. What if the data has been overwritten? It's finally lost or maybe there is any hope to recover it by pro?

To HDD Spaz:
You can believe or not, but I have original one. I can put my license numer on Your pm and You can check. It's a long story why I don't have DE, but generally I feel VERY dissapointed on Ace, because when I was buying PC3K, they promised new releases of software and free tech support. Now we all know reality, that there were no upgrades since v.2.26 and tech support (even read forum!) is not free anymore. Of course, when they want to sell me UDMA upgrade, they know my e-mail adress VERY WELL.

Can You add something useful for me with my case?

Damon

[HDD Spaz]

I can't believe you purchased Pc3k before performing software recovery. You should learn to walk before you attempt to run.

Clone the disk then run GetDataBack or R studio on the clone.

[r3712]

And do not forget it should be GDB for Fat.

[Damon]

Thanks guys, I will try!

[Damon]

It seems that I failed to recover this files.

Let put more facts:
The disk had 2 partitions. Only 1st one was reformatted from FAT32 on NTFS and then there was installed fresh OS. Unfortunately on this partition were DB files. It seems that this data is already overwritten

Is here any solid pro from Poland, who is still believing in chance of recover this files?

PM me with offers.

Thanks
Damon

[mediaman]

r studio or GDB will do a fine job on your case. The former is harder to use but generally gives more (but not always better) results. Don't be surprised to see the results quite fragmented and jumbled. Use either of the two's search functions to recover what you need, rather than everything. Its really quite easy, try again! I would guess you should be able to recover at least 80% of your files. Depends a lot how hard use the disk had before, and if you ever defagged it.

[dick]

You need to do a RAW recovery and select the database files to go into a specific folder. Then you have to try each file one by one and see if you get lucky.

That's the only option you have left, I think!

I find On Track data Recovery very good for this kind of raw recovery.

Good luck cos you will need it!