How to Recover Files From A Formatted Partition

Formatting is the process of wiping out old data from storage media in order to store new data. In other words formatting is done so as to make space for new data by erasing or deleting older data. Although formatting is done intentionally, but at times accidental formatting may also take place. This leads to data loss from the storage media which has been formatted. And if the storage media turns out to be the hard disk drive, then you are in deep trouble. As the hard disk drive stores all the data of your system, accidental formatting of a single or all the partitions can prove to be the worst data disaster you will ever encounter.

Partitions In Hard Drive

A logical drive or partition in a hard disk drive mainly comprised of data area and system area. The region where data is stored in the form of clusters is termed as data area. Boot sector that stores information regarding size of clusters comprises system area. The boot sector also stores information like total number of sectors, starting and ending sectors of the partition.

Formatting Of Hard Disk Drive

Format command in Windows system is done in order to prepare a logical drive for getting vacated in order to store new data, installation of a new program or installation of a new operating system for making your system a multi-boot system. The format command was formerly available as a separate DOS command before integrating in Windows. When the hard disk is formatted, the operating system erases all the information on the disk, mark all the bad sectors and an address table is created which is used to locate information for future use. All the references related to the files in system area get erased or deleted. Also a new file is created, indicating that all the sectors present in the data area are available and can be overwritten

Is Data In Formatted Partition Recoverable?

Before moving on to the query- How to recover files from a formatted Partition, let us first discover whether it is possible to recover data from formatted partition or not.

When a hard drive is formatted, only the file name from the root directory and file allocation table gets deleted. All the information is not wiped out. Therefore, there exists a chance to recover data from formatted partition. But a key point that has to be kept in mind is to avoid adding any information or writing anything in the formatted partition as it may lead to overwriting of the blank spaces created after formatting. Overwriting reduces the chance of data recovery from formatted partition and no solution or technique will be able to recover the lost data.

Technique To Recover Files From A Formatted Partition

Whenever a disk is accidentally formatted, the first query that strikes is- How to recover files from a formatted partition? There basically exists no manual method with the help of which data from formatted partition can be retrieved.  Also handing over the task to data recovery specialists implies spending thousands of bucks and there exists no assurance that all the data will be recovered. Therefore files from a formatted hard drive are retrieved with the help of data recovery tools such as NTFS Data Recovery Software. The software recovers the permanently deleted files from the hard drive and saves them. It supports recovery of files from both NTFS and FAT partition formatting. It automatically scans all the formatted partitions and saves the recovered files at desired location.