Hello folks,

I am new to the forum and in a desperate fashion unfortunately. I was stupid and careless enough to quick format my major data drive thinking it was my new HDD I just purchased...

I have been searching for a proper tool to recover the data in the past 6 hours to no avail. Would you recommend the most powerful (in terms of digging) tool that i can possibly get at a reasonable price (<$100)? Free is good, but I know I have to pay for my mistake.

The only thing I did to the drive was to use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition to attempt recovery only because it was the top hit when I googled "recover from quick format"... I had a blood rushed into my head...

I aborted the process because I discovered that it only allow certain size of recovery as a free version. From there, I took off the hard drive from my computer and started deeper research.

So far I came across these tools that at least have some recommendations over the net:

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and EaseUS Partition Recovery (I don't know the difference between the two)
Recuva (free version)
Glory Undelete

Which one would you guys recommend?

I do understand that I should not easily expect to recover all the folders/structures and will have to re-organize all of the files manually. I just wish that I could recover as much data as possible. (They are basically everything that means to me since I started using computer a decade ago)

I have also come across DR services like Drivesavers and Ontrack Data Recovery. They are pricey to me. So they would be my second priority next to DIY attempt. I will, however, use them, if I fail at DIY. Drivesavers quoted me $700 to $2700 for their "economy" services, sigh...

I hope that my aborted first attempt using EaseUS did not ruin anything on the drive. Hopefully it was read only actions performed by the software, as I did not even reach the "restore" phase.

Also, I read that it is recommended to clone the drive and then restore from the cloned disk. How should I do this if the drive is seen as "empty" by the system? Is Acronis true image capable of this task?

So far these questions are all that are on top of my head. I'll see if I have anything to add or requested by you if you would kindly help me.

As I read a member's sig, daily backup keeps DR away. I hate to learn the lesson the hard way, but i surely did... I am sure that you guys are very experienced with data backup. So I would also greatly appreciate it if you guys could please offer some insights/recommendations as to the methods of data/system backup. I use True Image but my last backup is 6 months ago The TI exports its proprietary backup file which I am not very comfortable with. What software/techniques do you guys use to backup your valuable data? I prefer the convenience and efficiency of incremental backup, but I would also like to achieve the integrity of disk image method.

Sorry for my messy and unorganized writings. I'm still in the panic right now because I almost cannot afford to lose the data... I would really appreciate your help.

Regards,
Tony

If you have just quick formatted your drive, and written nothing to it then commercial software like "getdataback" or "rstudio" should easily be able to get it back for you.

Be sure to follow the instructions carefully, in particular to install the software on a good PC, scan the patient drive with it and recover any data to another (3rd) drive.

Either of those software packages are available as free demo versions so you can see what is recoverable before you purchase it.

Good luck

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http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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According to the Acronis True Image user guide ...

"If you elect to transfer information 'as is,' a new partition will be created for every old one with the same size and type, file system and label. The unused space will become unallocated. ... Using the 'as is' method, Acronis True Image also transfers unsupported and damaged file systems."

http://dl.acronis.com/u/pdf/trueimage7.0_ug.en.pdf

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

The clone took about 7 minutes, with 250GB of data previously stored (and got formatted) on the original hard drive. Is it too fast to be true? I wonder why it is that faster to clone after format than before the format?

A full clone should take about 2 hours. Which menu option did you choose?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I just made my first attempt using the recuva, on the cloned disk. And the result is captured and attached below. I don't know what it means, but it looks like 254GB is bad cluster? What should I do now? Please help. If recuva fails, I am going to use one of your suggested software. I am just afraid that this is not the issue of recuva.

Many thanks!

I chose "as is" option. And the unused space did become unallocated on the new drive.

It did take 2 hours when the patient drive had everything on it (when then new hard drive came in, I tried to immigrate everything onto the new drive from the patient drive). But now it's been formatted, the clone was that quick, hence why I asked the mechanisms for how this works because all the data is still supposed to be on there even though it shows the drive is empty now.

Thank you for your time

p.s., i also just posted the result of Recuva deep scan just now.

I then hit "recover" option, and chose a different external hard drive as the destination, and the results return as it shows in the attachment, saying all the access was denied

I am lost...

Try R-studio.
I Think the cloning has not happened properly.
(you can try ddrescue/ HDD raw copy)
Making a clone copy of the original drive and working with it is the best and safest way
for any recovery process. But as you dont have a proper clone copy and your original drive has only logical faults....

You can run good recovery tools (that don't write back to the same drive) on drives that are in good working condition and the problem is only logical(as is your case).

Acronis's documentation seems ambiguous. I suspect that the "as is" option only clones the entire drive "as is" if Acronis is unable to recognise the file system, or if some aspect of the file system is logically damaged, eg a bad $MFT or a bad FAT. If, OTOH, the file system passes an integrity check, then it appears that Acronis clones only the essential elements, leaving the free space untouched. In your case the quick formatted volume is logically OK, so Acronis clones the new file system structures but not your old ones. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

I would normally have suggested ddrescue, but that is a more difficult tool to use, and it is only really necessary when your drive has bad sectors or weak heads.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks! I just tried Raw Copy, it's much more simpler yet working better than Acronis TI. It took about 2 hours and it should be right. I'll try to recover this time and report back.

Thanks!

Just an update. What saved most of my data is still that outdated backup that I made back in July using Acronis True Image

I am still going to dig deep into all the files recovered by R-studio. (An operation that only performed to 50% already occupies 1TB of my external hard drive. So I had to abort the operation and start from 1TB of data...)

My next question is, what do you guys use to backup? Is a copy of image the best (maybe not the most efficient) way to do the backup?

When I restore from ATI, I found that the disk spaced being used now is much smaller than it was before (100GB vs 250GB). I am suspecting that some files are missing, but I can't be sure... It's understandable that the actual backup file is smaller because ATI might have compressed the backup. But I don't understand why files take less space after they have been restored from the backup ;(

Any insights and advices would be highly appreciated