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Thread ID: 150043 2021-08-17 20:17:00 Format Recovery blanco (11336) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1479588 2021-08-17 20:17:00 I quick formatted by mistake my external hard drive and wish to recover
folders of large music and picture files. I see many recovery software
options available for download but would welcome any suggestions
based upon user experience - preferably Free software and user friendly.
Windows 7.
blanco (11336)
1479589 2021-08-17 20:52:00 Recuva might, I have used it with limited success gary67 (56)
1479590 2021-08-17 21:16:00 Google " Recover formatted External HDD". There are several sites. Look at www.easeus.com Bryan (147)
1479591 2021-08-17 22:38:00 preferably Free software and user friendly.
Windows 7.

most of the 'free' software isnt actually free . They say its free but then you have to pay to actually recover the files it finds.
1101 (13337)
1479592 2021-08-17 23:04:00 Thanks for replies. I've downloaded 5 recovery progs including those suggested and will give them a try.
Nothing has been written to the drive since formatting so I should have a chance of recovering the files needed,
mostly MP3 music and pics/photos/docs.
blanco (11336)
1479593 2021-08-18 01:12:00 To get on a soapbox for a second, this is why you always have a backup of important files yes?

Good luck, MP3's are probably easy to replace but photo's not so much. I keep my important photo's on onedrive myself as well as locally.
dugimodo (138)
1479594 2021-08-18 01:20:00 If you are serious about recovering your data, SPEND money on an application that will do this for you....

Personally, I use EaseUS's Data Recovery Wizard.... have a look at here (www.easeus.com)

Cheers,
chiefnz (545)
1479595 2021-08-18 04:49:00 Just adding in my :2cents: worth :D


preferably Free software Get what you pay for, as mentioned very few of tehn are really free.

The One Program I usually always end up falling back to is Get Data Back. Been using it for years, it will often recover data the others cant even see, including formatted and damaged drives. Sometimes the scans can take a long time as it scans the complete drive. The version I use is quite old ( over 10 years) and they have changed the Interface.

Its Not Free, but well worth it. www.runtime.org

Theres a link near the bottom of that page that allows a trial, which will scan and show what it can recover Before purchasing.

It all depends on just how "important" the data is. The amount of times people say they "HAVE" to have things back and then find out its going to cost them some $$ all of a sudden its not so important.
wainuitech (129)
1479596 2021-08-18 09:59:00 Thanks for all comments and pointing out the limitations of "free" recovery programs.
Dugimodo, I absolutely concur with you regarding Backup strategy, in fact that was
what I was doing when I mistakenly formatted the target drive, not the destination drive.
Having acquired a used spare 1Tb hdd, I decided to format it before cloning my 1TB
expansion drive where I stored a large collection of music, docs, pics and all setup files
of installed programs transferred from my 'C' drive to give it good free space. It also
contained a Macrium backup of 'C', refreshed weekly.
My 'C' drive has been cloned and the clone is installed internally along side it so that if
any problems arise with the OS or whatever, I can switch over to the clone.
The lesson learned is that whenever dealing with disk management, always double check
the correct boxes are ticked before execution. I will probably seek to recover the lost music
files (105GB) which go all the way back to 1950 and took me a couple of years to compile,
sound level, tag and arrange in folders chronologically. I still have 20GB of music on my
'C' drive and it's clone.
Thanks again for replies.
blanco (11336)
1479597 2021-08-18 11:20:00 www.cgsecurity.org fred_fish (15241)
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