jatinderbhui
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Retrieving Lost data`
I have formatted my hard drive by mistake. I didnt do the back up of data. Could any body please tell me if there is any program to retrieve the lost data? I had Windows XP home on it before I formatted it.
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Download GetDataback -- it is the best recovery software for this type of situation, because it makes NO changes to the disk structure itself. Use only passive recovery programs like get data back in such a situation.
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
it works!
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
it works!
First comment: Remove the drive from the computer and don't use it except to recover data. From this point until you are "done", it can ONLY be installed as a SECOND drive, and NEVER written to, also never accessed by ANY application other than a data recovery application.
There is no guarantee that anything can be recovered, but at the same time, recovery is possible. There are a LOT of variables here, you didn't tell us anything about the disc or the program used to format it (NTFS, FAT, FAT32? 98, XP, FDisk, Disk Management, Windows Installation ?????), and we don't know what you have done SINCE you did this [ANY disk activity makes recovery progressively less likely].
The first thing I'd try would be Norton Utilities (part of Norton Systemworks), it has an Unformat program. However, it may be limited to FAT and FAT32 partitions, and by no means does it work 100% of the time (or maybe even half of the time). It's just something worth trying.
There are hundreds of other data recovery programs, I'd do a search. Ontrack is a real contender here, also.
If the data is REALLY important, you might consider a data recovery service (which is also offered by Ontrack). It will be expensive, probably $300 to $2,000, but it's your best hope of getting your data back. And even that may not be -- almost certainly won't be -- 100%.
Finally, get out a pad of paper and write 5,000 times:
I will back up my data.
I will back up my data.
I will back up my data.
.
.
.
No joke here. Even if you yourself did absolutely nothing, at any moment, for any of a hundred reasons, ALL of the data stored on a hard drive can instantly be gone forever. As a consultant, I see this all the time:
-Company loses it's accounting data (including it's accounts receivable data)
-Graduate student loses his Ph.D. Thesis on which he's been working for years
-Parents lose all of the "baby" pictures of their children.
Data loss causes real, genuine, unrecoverable grief, and sometimes there is NOTHING that can be done, no matter how much the person is willing to spend. There is just no substitute for backups of data. And your backup plan needs to provide for "off-site" backup, because sometimes the "loss" is due to fire or theft of the hardware, rather than device failure. So backup on CD or DVD, and keep a set at work or in a safe deposit box.