Good video Brian... Can you please show us how to completely Unformat the drive, like if it was a bootable partition, let's say? What I have is a quick formatted bootable external drive, and I need to bring it back to a bootable state with all the directories AND files intact. I unplugged it directly after the accidental formatting, and have not plugged it back in since I don't want windows writing anything else to it...I did view the drive with windows explorer (once), just after it completed formatting the drive and that's when I noticed it was the wrong drive. I had added a new drive to my system and confused the two because of a drive letter reallocation. I read somewhere that windows has a second copy of the fat table, and am hoping that if that version of the table is still present that maybe I can recover it? Here's the specifics: I have a portable 540Gb external drive that was quick formatted accidentally; It was a bootable drive with a second windows 10 image with my DJ software And all my music... The DJ software protection marries itself via my specific hardware, and I'm only allowed 1 license for my system, so I need the whole bootable drive restored.... Any ideas/solution? Sure I could ask testdisk to recover all the files one by one, but then I would have to rebuild all the directories of artist/album for 250,000+ songs... And I wouldn't even know where to begin to rebuild the DJ software... It could be storing the hardware fingerprint in a file, or in the registry, or perhaps even hide it in some hidden allocated area of the drive. So please show us how to recover a bootable partition😁 Many thanks, and you are a great resource of knowledge to the youtube community!!
After formatting my HDD i couldn't have access to recover my lost data untill i was recommended to Hackman_Walkerr on Instagram really he does a great job i was able to recover my files using the help of this recommended hacker thank you guys
After formatting my HDD i couldn't have access to recover my lost data untill i was recommended to Hackman_Walkerr on Instagram really he does a great job i was able to recover my files using the help of this recommended hacker thank you guys
You have no idea how much this video helped me. I had no idea what formatting a drive did, I formatted it for use on Linux for my Steam Deck and realized it got rid of hundreds of important family pictures. I’m backing up all of them onto my computer right now. Thank you.
This is the only 1 in the past 30 videos I have watched on this subject that worked and offered truly free advice. I am going to pay a good donation to the creator of the TestDisk software. Great to get advice from someone who is also easy to understand. Thank you very very much sir :-)
most of softwares for deleted files recovery are piece of crap including those expensive/payed ones which takes time and then they just recover names of folder and files without data in it !1 its shit
This is clear proof how unsafe our data can be even if we format our devices. So I highly recommend using a shredding software to shred your private files, so even after using recovery softwares, those cannot be recovered. Cheers!
Britec, thank you a lot! Just trying to recover 4TB of backups (that Windows restored partition deleting my new and old connected hard disks, using their official software to backup)... It says 13 hours, lets pray... but it already is returning a lot! :-) I will let you know how it ends...
@@bece3oo3ourvishrdesai12 No single software return anything useful… EaseUs bring back most of the stuff correctly placed in directories, but over 40% were “0” in size, and all other software return the same but mostly raw files and in one directory. I was happy to return only one song from probably 10-15 songs I’ve composed in past 2 months, so help was a time-waste. I backup stuff on DropBox (2tb), GoogleDrive, GooglePhotos, iCloud and external usb drives & hdds. My life is recovered thanks to all these media and only few files returned including one song and several psd files :)
I doubt it. A quick format just erases the file table, a full format actually zeroes out each byte of data. You can recover that sometimes--but it requires special hardware to find and read out of position data track remnants.
Nah bro when disk is filed with zeros no software or hardware that can help...for quick format is easy most of time but full wipe i don't think so but nothing is 100% 💁
Wow this is amazing I tried the CMD windows recovery never worked. This worked great. My friend had some GoPro video from the weekend ATV ride he accidentally formatted the sdcard. This worked perfectly. Thank you definitely donated.
I was just looking around at videos, if it's been covered about proper formatted drives. This is quick format, any data recovery tool will be able to recover information. It's a different kettle of fish, when it comes to a deep clean. No over written file can be brought back, at this point in time, with no software. Maybe soon that could change, but if someone has lost data, recover it as soon as possible, to avoid over write.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Watching from the Philippines. Accidentally delete and format Local Disk D: file... Important reports are there, now I am trying this. 🙏 hope it can help me.
Thank you that's awsome. Is there a way to somehow restore the folder structure of the (quick) formated drive? Because I think some of my deleted data might be super hard putting back together into the folders (and sub folders) it was - and without the folder structure some data recovered will be useless. Thank you very much!
Hi Brian. Thanks for the video. By the way, if you happen to format the disk with "Quick format" ticked, you can use TestDisk (NOT PhotoRec) to recover and rewrite "deleted" partitons back to the same disk. And voila, all data are back as they were before with all file hierarchy intact
Can we get back data from formatted C Drive😢 my Dell laptop has only C drive n my photos videos all lost due to formatting it (as it wont switch on i had to)
I’m having trouble trying to figure out what is the c drive and the d drive at 6:00. I have important files of the d drive and the software is also located in the d drive. How do I know which is which at this part of the video?
Thanks so much for this video. I am in the midst of using this utility by following along with your video. However, I seem to have reached a point where the files found has reached a point where they are no longer accumulating. The line (Pass 1) is still reading sectors but, again, the accumulation has stopped at 5462 files found (out of about 12,000), which has been at this accumulation number for the last 15 hrs. The line below says, estimated time to completion 305 hrs. The drive it's reading is a 16 TB drive so I do understand why this process would take so long. My question is, should I just "quit" now or let it keep reading sectors for what will be about 14 more days? Thank you for your time and contribution.
Thanks for the video. Having just suffered a problem with my old laptop HDD (now replaced with SDD) I wanted to recover files (documents & pictures). The drive had been stopped whilst undergoing a Lenovo recovery operation. I've tried Photorec but unfortunately it has not recovered anything. Do you think it may be worthwhile formatting the HDD then trying to recover?
This is awesome, I will have to give it a go. However as a side note, it would be useful if the hard drive is functional. Another words the platters spin up and heads properly function. The only other option if platters do not run is you would effectively have to find an exact match drive to carefully transfer current platters to the functional drive. Not as easy as it sounds and requires great care and patience. The major hurdle is finding an exact match drive. But it can be done. If all is done correctly and platters are not damaged you stand a chance of recovery. Their are risks involved with this procedure.
thank you so much to you and the dev of this software i was being a dummy and formatting unused usb sticks, then of course i go to my sd card inserted in my laptop and wipe that too with all my kids pics and my cv lol thanks brian ! this still works in 2022
I tried this and it recovered my files.. but then the files that are recovered can't be read. Especially MSoffice. It coverted the files text. Pls help me 😢
I bought some cheap BDR discs a few years ago, then all of them became unreadable a few months later. Like almost at the same time. Do you know any way that I can recover data for unreadable recorded discs? Thanks.
You might try some data recovery software but the odds are not good. "Burnable" discs normally burn pits in a thin layer of dye. If water gets in or the dye breaks down from aging, the data is physically gone. Recovery software *might* still be able to access some parts of it. Oddly enough, the US Library of Congress has tested media for archival storage life. You might find their choices on the web.
Dear Brian, Given that Data can be Recovered after a format (I presume that the same applies to a "slow" format) What would you recommend doing before disposing of an old PC or Laptop? Cheers!
@@redangrybird7564 I have lived in England for a short time(in the North to be precise), and I remember hearing that there! When you are taught English as a Foreign language unfortunately they do not teach such things. So, thanks for explaining that! Had I not lived in England, I would not know it's meaning.
@@ionamygdalon2263 I have lived in Australia for many years but originally I am from Latin America and before I came to live here I didn't know many of the language expressions people use here in OZ. Take care.
thats great! im confused tho because surely a drive only has so much space? so when we actually delete something, is it secretely sitting on a hidden area of space that we didnt know was on the drive?
I was about to ask how they compare also lol no time like the present to find out first hand. Plus thatll give me more data for the testing ive been conducting on my i9. Trying to see real world benefits of HT considering 9th gen i7s gained 2 cores but no more HT.. otherwise it seems like a 9900k is just a 9th gen i7 with HT turned on lol
thanks for your interesting video. I was wondering if it's possible to restore the FAT in order to restore the directory structure and thus keep the order in the recovered files. Thanks for your advice! Greetings Herman
So I followed your directions and completed the file scan with the same result however the recovery file folders are not here. Any idea what is going on? Thank you!
Didn't work for me, neither did Recusa. I accidentally formatted my 2 TB external drive with a TB of movies, music, and photos. What a bummer! I don't understand why it worked for everybody else and not me. I was using disc management to format. Does that make a difference?
I have an SD card that I need to recover the audio files from, but TestDisk kept saying I needed to "enlarge the terminal". I'm on Windows 11 now, and I've searched online for a solution but nothing found. The documentation didn't talk about this. I'm wondering, how to enlarge the "terminal"? Thanks!
hello, will this help me recover my data files from a sdd/hdd even though it was formatted twice? I am trying to recover my games folder from my sdd that was on it originally and accidently reformatted it.
Wondered if this will work on an a 2Tbyte SSD drive with TRIM activated? Also, I'm getting a lot of malware warnings from AVAST while running Testdisk?
At the beginning you show us that drive New Volume (E:) has movies and images, but when you go back a page before you format the drive it shows that New Volume (E:) has 114gb free of 114gb, WHY ?
Hope this video helps you out and gets your data back for free. Please LIKE the video. 👍
Good video Brian... Can you please show us how to completely Unformat the drive, like if it was a bootable partition, let's say?
What I have is a quick formatted bootable external drive, and I need to bring it back to a bootable state with all the directories AND files intact.
I unplugged it directly after the accidental formatting, and have not plugged it back in since I don't want windows writing anything else to it...I did view the drive with windows explorer (once), just after it completed formatting the drive and that's when I noticed it was the wrong drive. I had added a new drive to my system and confused the two because of a drive letter reallocation.
I read somewhere that windows has a second copy of the fat table, and am hoping that if that version of the table is still present that maybe I can recover it? Here's the specifics:
I have a portable 540Gb external drive that was quick formatted accidentally; It was a bootable drive with a second windows 10 image with my DJ software And all my music... The DJ software protection marries itself via my specific hardware, and I'm only allowed 1 license for my system, so I need the whole bootable drive restored.... Any ideas/solution?
Sure I could ask testdisk to recover all the files one by one, but then I would have to rebuild all the directories of artist/album for 250,000+ songs... And I wouldn't even know where to begin to rebuild the DJ software... It could be storing the hardware fingerprint in a file, or in the registry, or perhaps even hide it in some hidden allocated area of the drive.
So please show us how to recover a bootable partition😁
Many thanks, and you are a great resource of knowledge to the youtube community!!
Hackman_Walkerr on Instagram does it better my files are restored successfully
Hackman_Walkerr on Instagram does it better my files are restored successfully
After formatting my HDD i couldn't have access to recover my lost data untill i was recommended to Hackman_Walkerr on Instagram really he does a great job i was able to recover my files using the help of this recommended hacker thank you guys
After formatting my HDD i couldn't have access to recover my lost data untill i was recommended to Hackman_Walkerr on Instagram really he does a great job i was able to recover my files using the help of this recommended hacker thank you guys
You have no idea how much this video helped me. I had no idea what formatting a drive did, I formatted it for use on Linux for my Steam Deck and realized it got rid of hundreds of important family pictures. I’m backing up all of them onto my computer right now. Thank you.
This is the only 1 in the past 30 videos I have watched on this subject that worked and offered truly free advice. I am going to pay a good donation to the creator of the TestDisk software. Great to get advice from someone who is also easy to understand. Thank you very very much sir :-)
based
I actually formatted because of 🥴, I was a bit sleepy and diskpart clean command he didn't warn
Update: Just used this technique again after finding the video again. Now its bookmarked and I am subscribed. Double thumbs up again 1 year later 🙂
most of softwares for deleted files recovery are piece of crap including those expensive/payed ones which takes time and then they just recover names of folder and files without data in it !1 its shit
Same 😢 have you recovered your data ??@@telugu6982
This channel have been helping me on my computer troubles until now. Very useful. Definitely recommending this to my friends.
Worked for me. Deleted our daughters first year pics and videos. Thank you for this video! I got them back.
This is clear proof how unsafe our data can be even if we format our devices. So I highly recommend using a shredding software to shred your private files, so even after using recovery softwares, those cannot be recovered. Cheers!
The proof is already clear in the format process. No one was hiding the fact that the information is destroyed.
Thanks for posting. This is excellent software for recovery. Amazing that it is free. The developer deserves a donation for this.
I remember a guy cloned the empty SSD to the HDD and this software recovered all the files 😇
Britec, thank you a lot! Just trying to recover 4TB of backups (that Windows restored partition deleting my new and old connected hard disks, using their official software to backup)... It says 13 hours, lets pray... but it already is returning a lot! :-) I will let you know how it ends...
all data Recover ?
@@bece3oo3ourvishrdesai12 No single software return anything useful… EaseUs bring back most of the stuff correctly placed in directories, but over 40% were “0” in size, and all other software return the same but mostly raw files and in one directory. I was happy to return only one song from probably 10-15 songs I’ve composed in past 2 months, so help was a time-waste. I backup stuff on DropBox (2tb), GoogleDrive, GooglePhotos, iCloud and external usb drives & hdds. My life is recovered thanks to all these media and only few files returned including one song and several psd files :)
This is a huge help! Thank you!
Brian, You only did a quick format of your USB drive. If you had done a full one would you still be able to recover your data?
Good question!
I doubt it. A quick format just erases the file table, a full format actually zeroes out each byte of data. You can recover that sometimes--but it requires special hardware to find and read out of position data track remnants.
@@lyfandeth Thanks very much - that makes sense.
Nah bro when disk is filed with zeros no software or hardware that can help...for quick format is easy most of time but full wipe i don't think so but nothing is 100% 💁
Big thanks to you brother ❤
Thank you for your great and helpful videos. Keep doing great jobs :)
Thanks, will do!
Thank you very much for posting this video I wish I have seen it before I tried other recovery software. It is so amazing. You are a very awesome.
Wow this is amazing I tried the CMD windows recovery never worked. This worked great. My friend had some GoPro video from the weekend ATV ride he accidentally formatted the sdcard. This worked perfectly. Thank you definitely donated.
Been using this for years! Great little bit of software!!
Thanks Alot man.
2 repair shops failed to recover data and THIS DID IT FOR FREEE
Thank you so much sir. You are a life saver. Very very helpful video. God bless you.
I was just looking around at videos, if it's been covered about proper formatted drives. This is quick format, any data recovery tool will be able to recover information. It's a different kettle of fish, when it comes to a deep clean. No over written file can be brought back, at this point in time, with no software. Maybe soon that could change, but if someone has lost data, recover it as soon as possible, to avoid over write.
It definitely helps me as always
You always post a video when i need it
I successfully recovered my HDD'S data!!!
Thanks 😊😊😊😊
you haven't had time
@@An.Individual probably
Thank you.. Its working good
This is very much helpful....
We are very much greatfull to you...
Brilliant brian as allways ,thanku
Thanks for watching Stephen
Very helpful 👍 thanks a lot
you are a life saver man
I have been using this programmer for a few years now. Thanks for the video, cheers from Canada.
You are welcome!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Watching from the Philippines. Accidentally delete and format Local Disk D: file... Important reports are there, now I am trying this. 🙏 hope it can help me.
Did it help?
Thank you that's awsome.
Is there a way to somehow restore the folder structure of the (quick) formated drive?
Because I think some of my deleted data might be super hard putting back together into the folders (and sub folders) it was - and without the folder structure some data recovered will be useless.
Thank you very much!
Hi man! Thanks a lot! this video is really amazing, im very gratful!!! 🌹
This is perfect. Tks
Thanks, BT! Informative . . .
Thanks Bri, awesome share and tutorial! Cheers mate.
My pleasure!
Hi Brian. Thanks for the video. By the way, if you happen to format the disk with "Quick format" ticked, you can use TestDisk (NOT PhotoRec) to recover and rewrite "deleted" partitons back to the same disk. And voila, all data are back as they were before with all file hierarchy intact
Hi, any instructions to do it this way, thanks
@@GoonManz same here, wondering how it works
what about non quick format? OR did the reset this PC and fully wipe from windows 10 reset wizard thing? (vs the keep files etc)
THANK YOU BRO YOU ARE THE BEST!
Can we get back data from formatted C Drive😢 my Dell laptop has only C drive n my photos videos all lost due to formatting it (as it wont switch on i had to)
I’m having trouble trying to figure out what is the c drive and the d drive at 6:00. I have important files of the d drive and the software is also located in the d drive. How do I know which is which at this part of the video?
Broo I love you man. Thank you soo much
Thank you so much, it was 1000% helpfull and works perfectly, great work, thank you.
Thanks for a great tutorial 😊💯👍🏻
My pleasure 😊
@@Britec09hi, can test disk recover moved files from the USB drive to somewhere else? Thank you.
Thank You. This worked great and it was FREE.
Thank you so much, worked for me.
Thanks man very helpful
Extreme and powerful Test disk. I've Magpi it away for that rainy day. Probably should backup to the cloud if it's that important. Thanks.
You are a savior mate :)
Thanks man you saved my life.
Thanks so much for this video. I am in the midst of using this utility by following along with your video. However, I seem to have reached a point where the files found has reached a point where they are no longer accumulating. The line (Pass 1) is still reading sectors but, again, the accumulation has stopped at 5462 files found (out of about 12,000), which has been at this accumulation number for the last 15 hrs. The line below says, estimated time to completion 305 hrs. The drive it's reading is a 16 TB drive so I do understand why this process would take so long. My question is, should I just "quit" now or let it keep reading sectors for what will be about 14 more days? Thank you for your time and contribution.
But just quick format. how about full format?
helpful tool, thanks for sharing!
thanks for the video.very useful piece of software
You are welcome
Life saver the ❤ thank you
ThankYou👍 Sir
Welcome
tysm man❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks for the video. Having just suffered a problem with my old laptop HDD (now replaced with SDD) I wanted to recover files (documents & pictures). The drive had been stopped whilst undergoing a Lenovo recovery operation. I've tried Photorec but unfortunately it has not recovered anything. Do you think it may be worthwhile formatting the HDD then trying to recover?
If you had unticked the quick format box when you formated, it would have all been lost, right?
Thank you really much
thanks for all sir, still works
It's just a pity the filenames aren't left intact.
Some programs also recover the names. And exactly on the drive. I recover my 100gb of data after format.
@@Lordosvk such as?
what key did he hit at 6:00 sorry i cant follow im confuse
This makes me want to start a forensic company for legal cases because that has to be a super easy way to make stupid money.
This is awesome, I will have to give it a go. However as a side note, it would be useful if the hard drive is functional. Another words the platters spin up and heads properly function.
The only other option if platters do not run is you would effectively have to find an exact match drive to carefully transfer current platters to the functional drive. Not as easy as it sounds and requires great care and patience.
The major hurdle is finding an exact match drive. But it can be done. If all is done correctly and platters are not damaged you stand a chance of recovery. Their are risks involved with this procedure.
Hi there, it was very useful and interesting tutorial video. Thnx
Glad it was helpful!
brian i hope your not a liar and these arent botted comments im gonna go check it out
thank you so much to you and the dev of this software i was being a dummy and formatting unused usb sticks, then of course i go to my sd card inserted in my laptop and wipe that too with all my kids pics and my cv lol thanks brian ! this still works in 2022
a fine step wise tutorial on how to recover deleted files.
Thanks
What if it is not a quick format? I know some people who prefer to do a full format.
That's because a standard format only removes the table. You should format with a system that writes to every cell.
love you. great tool
I tried this and it recovered my files.. but then the files that are recovered can't be read. Especially MSoffice. It coverted the files text. Pls help me 😢
Thanks Brian.
You bet!
What software can recover after Dban ?
I bought some cheap BDR discs a few years ago, then all of them became unreadable a few months later. Like almost at the same time. Do you know any way that I can recover data for unreadable recorded discs? Thanks.
You might try some data recovery software but the odds are not good. "Burnable" discs normally burn pits in a thin layer of dye. If water gets in or the dye breaks down from aging, the data is physically gone. Recovery software *might* still be able to access some parts of it. Oddly enough, the US Library of Congress has tested media for archival storage life. You might find their choices on the web.
Dear Brian,
Given that Data can be Recovered after a format (I presume that the same applies to a "slow" format)
What would you recommend doing before disposing of an old PC or Laptop?
Cheers!
Slow format really cleans the disk, no way to recover the data, while a quick format just "hides" the files but does not delete them.
@@redangrybird7564
Many thanks 🤗
@@ionamygdalon2263 no worries (Australian way to say you are welcome or no problem) 😎✌️
@@redangrybird7564
I have lived in England for a short time(in the North to be precise), and I remember hearing that there! When you are taught English as a Foreign language unfortunately they do not teach such things. So, thanks for explaining that! Had I not lived in England, I would not know it's meaning.
@@ionamygdalon2263 I have lived in Australia for many years but originally I am from Latin America and before I came to live here I didn't know many of the language expressions people use here in OZ. Take care.
It restores files but get pretty disorganised
Thank you so much
formatted the hard drive on sannce cctv would that file work for the cctv
KUDUS to *CYTRO44* on Instagram who got all my files that I accidentally deleted from my 💻 laptop, he's soo legit and reliable..
Cytro44 on Instagram got mine fixed
I remember how good the old norton disk doctor used to be before win9x came out - it would even pull data off of floppies with holes in them -
I love disc doctor. Another good one from that era is diskpatch
thats great! im confused tho because surely a drive only has so much space? so when we actually delete something, is it secretely sitting on a hidden area of space that we didnt know was on the drive?
THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
I was so excited, but 0 files recovered...from 200+ GB...
Is this product more effective than Piriform's Recuva?
I was about to ask how they compare also lol no time like the present to find out first hand. Plus thatll give me more data for the testing ive been conducting on my i9. Trying to see real world benefits of HT considering 9th gen i7s gained 2 cores but no more HT.. otherwise it seems like a 9900k is just a 9th gen i7 with HT turned on lol
This one can be better because it supports a large amount of different hard drives and storage mediums recuva is very picky with its storage mediums.
Can I also use this for rest android phone?
What about directories (folders)? Without structure recovering would be a massive mess. Is there a way to retain folder/file structure?
I also have the same problem. How to retain data as previous folder structure?
@@pratigyagyawali3323 It's like throwing a thousand puzzle pieces on the floor and then try to find just that right piece of pic of a blue sky.
You chose a "quick" format for your USB, does this work for a "full" format of a drive?
I want it to search for .WAV files, but it’s not selectable
Another handy piece of software
Thanks
almost all mine is coming back in text files is this normal while it is running? Says it has 13 hours left?
thanks for your interesting video. I was wondering if it's possible to restore the FAT in order to restore the directory structure and thus keep the order in the recovered files. Thanks for your advice! Greetings Herman
Is it possible to recover files after using a USB to reformating my computer from windows 10 to windows 11?
omg thank you so much! this actually work I was about to lose it!
You're welcome!
So I followed your directions and completed the file scan with the same result however the recovery file folders are not here. Any idea what is going on? Thank you!
You're an Angel!
Didn't work for me, neither did Recusa. I accidentally formatted my 2 TB external drive with a TB of movies, music, and photos. What a bummer! I don't understand why it worked for everybody else and not me. I was using disc management to format. Does that make a difference?
I have an SD card that I need to recover the audio files from, but TestDisk kept saying I needed to "enlarge the terminal". I'm on Windows 11 now, and I've searched online for a solution but nothing found. The documentation didn't talk about this. I'm wondering, how to enlarge the "terminal"?
Thanks!
I think it might mean to run the program in full screen mode, instead of a window.
Thank you! Every other video is just trying to sell you software that doesn't even work.
hello, will this help me recover my data files from a sdd/hdd even though it was formatted twice? I am trying to recover my games folder from my sdd that was on it originally and accidently reformatted it.
Thank you
Wondered if this will work on an a 2Tbyte SSD drive with TRIM activated? Also, I'm getting a lot of malware warnings from AVAST while running Testdisk?
At the beginning you show us that drive New Volume (E:) has movies and images, but when you go back a page before you format the drive it shows that New Volume (E:) has 114gb free of 114gb, WHY ?
hey mate, just accidentally full format my hard drive, can the data be recovered?
So we do not use this USB again? Because it lost files?