Hi All,

I have a laptop with a 500GB HDD running Windows 8.1. I accidentally formatted the hard disk while trying to install Ubuntu Linux - I was looking at options to install Ubuntu side-by-side, but accidentally chose format hard disk. When I realized that, I immediately turned off my laptop (bad idea I guess). Now, the laptop won't boot at all. I tried running testdisk from a Linux live CD. It shows a 450 GB LVM partition. When I try to run a deep scan, it shows some NTFS partition and Linux partitions. However, there doesn't seem to be an option to restore them. What other options do I have? I was thinking of trying some software like ZAR or Easy Recovery, but can't because I can't boot to Windows. Any suggestions?

Regards,
Adityan

There is no way to "recover" the old Windows installation.

If you have a laptop where Windows 8.1 was (legally) preinstalled, than you
can use a Windows 8.1 oem DVD (which is obtainable from laptop manufacturer
for a small amount - or just ask your computer dealer to assist).

The driver dvd should be included with the laptop when you baught it.

**
If you look to retrieve data - you might connect the hdd on to a sata port of
another pc - and have the recovery software installed on that other pc to
surch on your 2,5" hdd for your data. When this is done, store the data on
to the hdd of this other pc - disconnect the 2,5" hdd, install Windows 8.1,
install drivers, then put this 2,5" back to the other pc and copy the previously
retrieved data to the 2,5". I recommend to copy it totally into a folder of the
root - and then remount 2,5" into laptop, start windows - and copy the files
into those folders you like to have them.

+++

Not necessary, some time is only recovery partition without recovery CD.

About your problem if you want try to do it your self first of all do a copy 1:1 of your hard drive if you have an important data on him. When you try to make some recovery data without any experience you do more damage to your data.

guessing you have some data you want recovered.
you can get any hard disk, no matter what size.. pick one up from a computer recycler or a friend.. even a 40GB one, doesn't matter.

Take your hard drive out, put in the temporary one and install any OS, XP, 7, 8.1 .. whatever you have a license for. install data recovery software on it. put your hard disk in, and try recover the files you want.

If at all possible, get a disk larger than your dodgy one, and instead, take an image of your hard disk and do the recovery on the image, not the disk.

after you have your data, you can reformat/re-install Windows on your original disk

Thanks a lot guys for your quick reply. Appreciate it.

I guess I wasn't very clear with my earlier post. I am not so concerned about recovering my Windows. It's just that I have a lot of important files (mostly photos ) that I want to recover. I guess HaQue's suggestion would be most appropriate. The problem is that it's a laptop, so, it wouldn't be possible to attach a secondary HDD. I have other laptops which I can use to install recovery software. Considering this scenario, I have the following additional questions:

1. Is there a quick and cheap way of attaching the HDD to another laptop? What accessories do I need?
2. The file system is messed up (shows Linux VFM or something). Will the recovery software still be able to recover files that were originally in the NTFS file system?
3. Any suggestions for a good software?

Thanks in advance.
Adityan

1. yes, very easy and cheap. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/261390234101?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=107&chn=ps
something like this will do, I will not get into which brands are better, I think unless you want it for a long term thing, such as using an internal hard disk with an adapter in place of a regular external disk for backing up or whatever - just get whatever is available.

2. you would use a raw scan, tell the software in the setting to do a "full" scan or "ignore filesystem" or whatever your chosen software calkls it.

3. I would recommend both RTT R-Studio and GetDataBack.
personally I think both are very good, R-Studio may be a bit ahead, but I like GDB interface, a bit less confusing for first time users.
If you buy a licence for either, then you have it for any other mistakes or issues, it would be a good purchase. There are other free options but I don't think these will be as good. DMDE is free, and you can recover files from it.. but a license for this is $20 and a very good tool to add to your toolbox for that price. a license lets you recover whole disk at once, but the free allows you to recover a selected current pane only, and is time consuming to recover because you would need to keep selecting different parts of the tree.

Thanks HaQue for your quick reply. On doing some google research, I came across "hard drive enclosure", but your suggestion is even simplier and cheaper!

I shall have a look at the 2 software that you mentioned. I don't mind spending a little money to recover my data. Besides, it would work out a lot cheaper than taking it to a professional recovery company (I don't trust them to keep my data safe).

Shall keep you posted!

Hi All,

I purchased R Studio, attached the HDD using a SATA USB adaptor and ran the application. As you can see from the BeforeScan.jpg file, it shows Hitachi... After I ran a scan at the "Hitachi" level, it shows me so many "recognized" disks (see AfterScan.jpg). When I tried running a scan at "HardDiskVolume" level, again it is starting to list many "recognized" disks. Can someone tell me how to go about it? At which level should I be running the scan? The help manual isn't very helpful.

Thanks.

If you had only one partition on the disk, you may look into the Recognized4 partition.

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R-Studio Data Recovery Software

Thanks. I had 2 partitions previously - (1) HP recovery partition and (2) C drive.

Yes, and R-Studio found the recovery partition (the green one, Recognized5). I think Recognized4 was your working logical disk.

_________________
R-Studio Data Recovery Software

In this case, would get the better recovery chance if he creates region in R-Studio?

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My firmware database:
https://mega.nz/folder/O01DkBRI

Harddiskvolume19 showed some green coloured Recognized partitions. And I managed to recover some files from that. But not all. Also, a lot of the photos that I recovered are showing in thumbnail view but when I try to open, it appears grey. One more thing. R Studio doesn't seem to preserve folder names and files names. All files are in the same folder and just have a serial number as file name. I tried using another software EaseUS which preserved folder paths and file names, but not all files are opening

@adityan, I wonder if you could satisfy my curiosity by showing us DMDE's Partitions window.

http://dmde.com/

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

R-Studio does preserve file and folder names when it recovers files by analysing the remnants of a file system. And simply cannot preserve them when it finds lost files using scan for Known File Types (raw file recovery), and no file recovery programs can. You may read more about specifics of those file recovery methods in this article: File Recovery Basics: How Data Recovery Works.
For your case, I'd rather look at partition's size and position on the disk rather than its colour. And I'd also look at Extra Found Files, both inside and outside an inspected recognized partition(s).

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R-Studio Data Recovery Software