Recovering data after reformat

[Westyfield2]

Hi guys,

Before I start, a) this isn't for me (I'm not stupid enough to save anything important on a single LocalDisk, and only decide a week later that you want it ) and b) I'm not sure yet how critical this data actually is.

The hard drive's physical health is fine, but the user had spoon'ed Windows a fair bit. Did a format of the hard-drive with the format utility on the XP installation CD (I think it was a "quick" format, but would need to check) and have reinstalled Windows and Apps and everything on the newly formatted drive, but not filled up the disc 100%.

Is there any way of recovering files from the previous format/installation? I guess the pro's have a way (else why would we DBAN old drives?) but is there any way I can?

I'm sure I read that reformatting is simply marking that area as available?...


Cheers,

 

[Ziggy4]

I'm sure I read that reformatting is simply marking that area as available?...

Yes for a quick format but...

and have reinstalled Windows and Apps and everything on the newly formatted drive

Ouch!

You may as well go ahead and try a recovery utility if the data is valuable but doubtful if you ... erm ... I mean your friend will get all of it back. In future if and when this happens (and many of us have, no shame in it) leave well alone until you can throw a recovery utility at the drive, which should be able to restore 100% of your data provided it was not written to after the event.