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mray77Flag for Afghanistan

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What is the best file recovery software to use to recover deleted pst files.

We recently had a computer that became corrupted with some sort of virus, spyware etc.  Running XP Pro, Office 2003.  Tried to repair using Eset, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Malwarebytes with no success.  Decided to reload OS on machine and reload installed software.  A full format was ran using the XP install CD.  Apparently there was an Outlook pst file that was stored on the local machine that is now missing for apparent reasons.  What is the best method of trying to recover this file?  Is there a recovery software that can be used to restore deleted files?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks
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loki_loki

Programs like Recuva are free and may get back some, or all of the file but it is not guaranteed.  Failing that there are companies that will do the same for a fee.  They will probably have a greater chance of getting the file back but again it is not definite.
Yes, there are lots of different programs that will do this. I had a situation exactly like this and used Recover My files from GetData (http://www.recovermyfiles.com/). There's a free trial that you can run on the hard drive to see if the .pst file is recoverable. As long as the physical sector wasn't overwritten during the re-install of the OS chances are it will be recoverable.

HTH,

-W
You can try these

Recuva - http://www.piriform.com/recuva
DiskDigger - http://diskdigger.org/

When you delete a file or format a disk it opens up the memory locations for writing new data. Unfortunately the problem is that if you reinstalled the entire OS there is a good chance that there will be segments of the original pst files overwritten. Best of luck
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doublestick
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Final data recovery :

http://www.finaldata.com/
Not to burst any bubbles, but if you did a "Full format" when you reinstalled Windows (not a "Quick Format"), the data is gone - the setup would have zeroed out the entire hard drive.

Your chances of success with a software data recovery tool are zero - they can't read data that isn't there.

Your chances of recovery using a professional (and very expensive) data recovery company who can analyze the disk for "ghost" remnants of the data are extremely slim, but I suppose not impossible.
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ASKER

Thanks for your help, your info and program suggestions have been a godsend.  Kudos to you!
Just wonder if you have recovered your Outlook data successfully.

If not, then for your case, you can try

Advanced Outlook Data Recovery

which is designed to scan a disk/drive and recover Outlook data that have been stored on that disk/drive, then output them as a fixed PST file. Make sure you output the fixed PST file in another disk/drive so that not to overwrite the original disk.