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buckeyebrewer · 08-13-2009, 11:45 PM

I think I am going to have a heart attack. I can't believe I did this.
I was at my brothers house reinstalling windows on his computer for him. Before I formatted his drive and reinstalled XP we went through all his files and backed up them up onto my external hard drive. Said hard drive contains years of music, photos, tax records, everything!!!!....etc. I had the hard drive plugged into his USB plug and while deleting the partitions and formatting his hard drive it said c: and d: drives. I think I may have done both drives.....we were interrupted in the middle of the project and I forgot it was plugged in. I'm such a retard....son of a @#$&.... Mother@^*@$%#$. Long story short, this was the only copy of the files I have. I just bought a new laptop and wasa going to transfer everything back this weekend. I can't believe this happened....SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THIS CAN BE RESTORED SOMEHOW.....

david_42 · 08-13-2009, 11:48 PM

There are companies that can restore a formatted drive, as long as it wasn't a low-level format. If it was just erased, there are recovery programs that will do the trick.

**Yuri_Rage** · 08-13-2009, 11:51 PM

I give you 50/50 odds that you get most of the data back.

10% chance that you get everything you want.

75% chance that you pay a third party to restore the data for you.

Odds are nearly 100% that you don't relax, but have a homebrew while contemplating the mistake.

**ThickHead** · 08-14-2009, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuri_Rage

I give you 50/50 odds that you get most of the data back.

10% chance that you get everything you want.

75% chance that you pay a third party to restore the data for you.

Odds are nearly 100% that you don't relax, but have a homebrew while contemplating the mistake.

"Never tell me the odds..." -Han Solo

RDWHAHB

TwoHeadsBrewing · 08-14-2009, 12:08 AM

There are programs that can get most of your data back, but it will be hard to get all of it back. Whatever you do, DO NOT write to that disk any more! Have someone put that drive in their own computer, and run this software:

File Rescue Plus - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

I used it once for a friend and we were able to get almost everything back, but it took over 12 hours to complete the scan. It helps if you can search for specific file types (jpg, mp3, doc, etc). This program is not free, but you can scan your formatted drive for free to see what it finds. To restore the data, you'll have to buy the software. If you google around, you may find a free one that will work just as good. Good luck!

buckeyebrewer · 08-14-2009, 12:09 AM

I put the Windows XP disk in the drive and restarted. Booted from the disk and ran the format from there. I know I deleted the partition, but I'm not sure if I formatted both drives. All I know is the external drive won't show up in My computer and my new Apple laptop says the drive is unreadable. I assume erasing the partition without formatting the drive is better. What is the recommended next step? Anyone used a particular program or company? Damn it all to hell....I have to get another beer.

buckeyebrewer · 08-14-2009, 12:11 AM

I'm trying to remember exactly what I did during the reformat step....If I reformatted the drive wouldn't my PC still be able to "see" it. It's weird that it won't find the drive at all. That's what leads me to believe I just erased the partition and not the info on it......I will make sure not to write anything to that disk.

**weirdboy** · 08-14-2009, 12:15 AM

If you did a quick format, then the data is still there and probably 100% recoverable. But you will still need recovery software, etc. to get that done. If it's not a quick format, it's still recoverable but not nearly as painless.