I have a Sony Laptop that needs to have the data recovered. For some unknown reason, the client thought even if I did the OS reload his data would still be there. He brought back the laptop and wants his data. I don't know if a Sony OS reload is a quick format or a full format. Either way, I need some help with retrieving the data. What are some programs or methods that could work?

Thank you in advance.

quick format was done and some data is overwritten. R-Studio, Recover My Files, Easus , File Scavenger are all logical recovery programs.
Most likely file and folder structure will be gone. There is a chance partially some will remain. Mostly ull get raw recovery and success rate is depended on how heavy files been fragmented. The idea is connect the drive to a PC, run a full scan using any of the programs i mentioned, and then recover whatever the program found to another drive ( recovering the data to the same drive is a big NO NO ).

Thank you for your response and I am copying everything to an external hdd.

Oof. You can run any number of utilities for RAW data. Getdataback might be helpful in this situation. Obviously specify in the settings RAW, lost files, invalid dates etc.

You always want to explain to the client the result of any action. The average client thinks a hard drive is a battery.

Hi,

What operating system did you reinstall?

Dizi

If this was the built in Sony reload from the recovery partition some of them actually do save the data but its hidden and you can't see it unless you look at it with some recovery programs. I have used FTK Imager which is free at Access Data and add it as evidence and you can see the hidden data "if" it is there. I have done this many time for people that made the same mistake as your client they just don't get it even when you tell them its all gone. I digress