How to Recover Files from Formatted and Overwritten Drive?

[riyad202]

My hard disk drive was formatted, but data was not saved. It was hijacked by the fraud people under an unequal fraudulent exchange offer. During hand over my hard disk to them, I formatted all of my videos because of privacy. But when I see they did not give me copy of my documents because of low disk space of their given laptop, then I return back their laptop and get back my hard disk.

If my hard disk was only formatted, it was possible for recover the documents by "Recover My Files" software. But now it is not possible, because they used my formatted hard disk and they have gathered 7 GB games and other documents in my E Drive, where all of my videos were stored. That means, my videos has been overwritten by their files and programs. How I can recover my videos from this drive, which has been overwritten after format?

[hhddrec]

I data is overwriten you can not get data from this drive.

but u can test with your favorite software as "Recover My Files", because if you got lot of data in HDD and only overwrites about 7GB mayba you will be lucky and get some of your files

[michael chiklis]

I think in this case will be useful to try a carving tool as Photorec to copy carved files into another drive.
Let's see if a pro will confirm that it is the appropriate move.

What is very important it's to not save output files into the same drive which has been formatted!

[HARD RECOVER]

i think u can use ontrack data recovery software and use raw recovery option is possible recover your all data best of luck..

[hhddrec]

i think u can use ontrack data recovery software and use raw recovery option is possible recover your all data best of luck..

full data is not popsible, but we can recover a part of data.

[sashok07]

I'm a little confused... what do you mean by you formatted the videos from your hard drive prior to giving your hard drive to these people? Did you format the partition that the videos were on or did you just delete them? What did they do to your hard drive, did they completely reformat the drive and put the information back on it minus the videos?

[hhddrec]

I'm a little confused... what do you mean by you formatted the videos from your hard drive prior to giving your hard drive to these people? Did you format the partition that the videos were on or did you just delete them? What did they do to your hard drive, did they completely reformat the drive and put the information back on it minus the videos?

this is a good thinking, maybe we are no untherstandin well

[shahij]

OVERWRITTEN DATA LOST PERMANENTLY. According to your statement, if there are 7GB overwritten then you have left space to get data back, but it depends how much amount of data you had before formatting & if the 7GB data were overwritten at once or random copy/paste/delete etc.

Use photorec or recover my files.

& don't overwrite anymore data to the drive... & don't save files after/during recovery (if some amount of data were found)

[riyad202]

Story doesn't look well told.
You formated the videos ? What do you mean by that ? And if you have done so, why didn't you back them up first ?

You can try to get data back using R-Studio but overwritten data is gone for good and you will not be able to recover it.

I was copied the videos from my hard disk to their given computer and then format the "Drive E", where the videos were located. I thought that, all of my videos has been copied to new computer and it is not necessary to keep the videos in previous location. As my old hard disk will be gone to other people, so I formatted the drive. But after return home, I see only one fifth data has been copied. Because, my hard disk space was 150 GB, including 40 GB space was in E Drive, where the videos were located. But their given computer's hard disk only 37 GB total space. In order to hide the fact, they did not allow me to do the copying in my own hand by the excuse of computer security and virus protection.

In one word, the condition of my "E Drive" is that, it was formatted, then used and probably overwitten by new documents.

[microsoftengineer]

"E Drive" is that, it was formatted, then used and probably overwitten by new documents.

Kiss Good bye to Video File if you use same Volume to Copy New Data after Reformatting it will overwrite of-course ..........

[warnerr]

you may well have used QUICK format option- it does not delete data. Those files overwritten later are damaged or gone. It will be like a shotgun blast threw the data areas. Use photorec (or rstudio) and serch- you may get lucky and have little to lose. If full format used, and its unlikely you did as it takes quite some time, then data is all overwritten. Good luck.

[shahij]

I would like to gather more info regarding your case.

What is partition/volume size of this one?
How much amount of data did you have before the format?
Which OS did you use for Format? XP or 7? If Win7 did you try Quick or Full?

I see Remo Recover show some of my video files, but I have no credit card to buy the version. How can I get the serial number?

We don't discuss about piracy here.

[alexblare]

I feel like an idiot at the time, so I went to delete the partition on my computer and for some reason a hard rive removed Snow Leopard on it and my other newly installed Lion with all my data. formatted lot, and I feel like myself kicked to the data is necessary there is no way I can restore formatted hard drive.

[Andrew LB]

OVERWRITTEN DATA LOST PERMANENTLY.

This is not entirely accurate. Because if it were true, all you'd need is a single pass to securely erase an HDD. There is a reason why it takes 4-6 random data wipe passes to properly do a government wipe. Btw... "government" wipe is a misnomer. Drives with classified , Secret, or Top secret data on them are not erased using traditional methods, they are put into a "degausser", which pretty much destroys any and all data stored on the HDD, as well as the controller, bios, and firmware chips. It's quick and very effective. It's kinda like a mini-EMP for your HDD.

I've been able to recovery data from drives that had the partition deleted, repartitioned, formatted, and had a new OS installed. I've had great luck with active@Partition recovery active@data recovery, ontrack, and R-studio.

[Dmitry Postrigan]

OVERWRITTEN DATA LOST PERMANENTLY.

This is not entirely accurate. Because if it were true, all you'd need is a single pass to securely erase an HDD. There is a reason why it takes 4-6 random data wipe passes to properly do a government wipe. Btw... "government" wipe is a misnomer. Drives with classified , Secret, or Top secret data on them are not erased using traditional methods, they are put into a "degausser", which pretty much destroys any and all data stored on the HDD, as well as the controller, bios, and firmware chips. It's quick and very effective. It's kinda like a mini-EMP for your HDD.

I've been able to recovery data from drives that had the partition deleted, repartitioned, formatted, and had a new OS installed. I've had great luck with active@Partition recovery active@data recovery, ontrack, and R-studio.

A single pass is enough to completely and securely wipe all data on modern rotating hard drives. The DoD document you are most likely referring to is way too obsolete and "multiple pass wiping" was actually removed from subsequent versions of that document a long time ago.

NIST also clearly states in their sanitization recommendations that a single pass is enough.

Repartitioning, formatting or OS reinstall procedures do not really delete much from the disk, that is why you were able to recover data.

[fzabkar]

... a "degausser" ... pretty much destroys ... the controller, bios, and firmware chips.

I very much doubt it.

[Dmitri]

... a "degausser" ... pretty much destroys ... the controller, bios, and firmware chips.

I very much doubt it.

It just doesn't.
We have been performing tests for a powerful demagnetizer, targeted to be certified for government use. Besides demagnetized platters the only thing damaged were heads, which have been broken physically due to the impact.

EDIT: Oops, looks like the previous post was deleted, so I'm the archeologist now.