A while back, I formatted my Seagate hard drive by mistake and regretted it instantly. This got me looking for various tools to recover data from a hard drive. Thankfully, after doing a bit of research, I was able to perform hard drive data recovery and retrieve my lost files.
Therefore, if you are also looking for ways to recover formatted hard drives, then simply get to know about a tried-and-tested solution here.
Part 1: Possible Reasons for Losing Data from a Hard Drive
Ideally, there could be all kinds of reasons for losing your data from an internal or external hard drive. Before we discuss a hard drive data recovery solution, let’s quickly consider some of these common scenarios that you could be facing.
- Your hard drive could have suffered from a bad sector or partition.
- Chances are that you could have deleted some files from your hard disk by mistake.
- At times, users format their hard disks to troubleshoot an issue (without having its backup).
- Any malware or other malicious entity could have corrupted your hard disk as well.
- Apart from deleting some files, you could have formatted your hard disk by mistake too.
- Your files might be moved to any other location or the system could have corrupted them due to any other reason.
- At times, we end up overwriting our files by mistake that leads to an unwanted data loss.
- The location where your data is stored on the hard drive might be missing, unavailable, or corrupted.
Part 2: Is it Possible To Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive?
When I was looking for tools to recover data from a hard drive, I discovered that a lot of people are not aware of how data recovery works. Therefore, if you want to recover formatted hard drives, then consider getting a dedicated data recovery application.
Mostly, when we delete something from our hard drive, the data isn’t wiped from it right away. Instead, the address (memory) that was allocated to it becomes available to be overwritten. If you are not using your hard drive, then your data would remain intact, but it won’t be accessible anymore. That’s why we use a hard drive data recovery application to retrieve this inaccessible data before it gets overwritten by something else.
Part 3: How to Use Recoverit Data Recovery: The Best Hard Drive Data Recovery Tool
When I formatted my hard drive by mistake, I stumbled upon Recoverit Data Recovery and it helped me retrieve most of my deleted files. One of the best tools to recover data from a hard drive, it has a high recovery rate and is extremely easy to use. The hard drive data recovery application supports all kinds of file types and would even let you preview your data beforehand.
- Recoverit Data Recovery supports the retrieval of data from all kinds of internal and external hard drives. This includes hard drives from popular manufacturers like Seagate, Sony, HP, Lenovo, WD, and more.
- Users can select the particular folder from where they lost their data or scan the entire hard drive or partition as well.
- Recoverit also supports all the major hard drive file formats such as NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, APFS, HFS, and more.
- It supports the recovery of all the common data types, such as your photos, videos, music, documents, compressed files, etc.
- You can even preview your extracted data on the native interface of Recoverit, make use of its inbuilt filters, and select what you wish to recover.
The best part is that the basic version of Recoverit Data Recovery is available for free and it will also let you preview your files. Here’s how you can use Recoverit hard drive data recovery to recover a formatted hard drive’s data.
Step 1: Select the Hard Drive from where you Lost your Data
To start with, you can just install and launch Recoverit hard drive data recovery application on your computer. If you want to recover data from an external hard disk, then make sure it is connected to your system beforehand. Now, you can select any partition, external disk, or any other source from where you wish to recover your data.
Step 2: Start the Hard Drive Data Recovery Operation
Once you click on the “Start” button, Recoverit Data Recovery would start scanning the selected source for any lost or deleted content. You can view the progress from an on-screen indicator and even halt/stop the process from here.
Step 3: Preview your Data and Restore it to any Location
Now, you can just check the files that Recoverit Data Recovery was able to extract from your hard disk. You can look for specific files from the search option or even filter the results based on the data type, size, modified date, and so on.
Lastly, you can get a preview of your photos, videos, documents, etc. on the native interface of Recoverit. You can now select what you wish to get back and click on the “Recover” button to save them at any desired location.
I would recommend saving your recovered files to any other location so that you won’t end up losing them again.
Part 4: Other Hard Drive Data Recovery Tips to Follow
Furthermore, if you want to recover formatted hard drive data in a better way, then consider following these suggestions.
Tip 1: Make Sure you Check the Recycle Bin
At times when we delete something from our computer, it isn’t wiped right away and is moved to the Recycle Bin instead. Therefore, before you take any drastic measures, just visit the Recycle Bin to check your lost files. You can directly restore your data from the Recycle Bin to its original location.
Tip 2: Take Immediate Measures and Stop Using your Hard Disk
In case you have formatted your hard drive by mistake, then avoid using it right away and don’t restart your computer. This will make sure that your data won’t get overwritten, and you can later recover formatted hard drive content easily. That’s why it is recommended to take immediate measures and keep some reliable tools to recover data from a hard drive handy.
Tip 3: Check the Previous Versions of your File
As I have mentioned above, a lot of users complain about losing their data since it gets overwritten. In this case, you can check the version history of the file that is maintained by most of the applications like MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and so on. For instance, you can just launch any modified version of the document on MS Office and go to its File > Info to check its previous version.
There you go! Now when you know about one of the best tools to recover data from a hard drive, you can easily retrieve your lost files. While there are a few hard drive data recovery tools out there, I have tried Recoverit Data Recovery and was pretty satisfied with its results. The data recovery tool is extremely easy to use, supports all kinds of hard drives, and is known to yield one of the highest recovery results in the industry. If you want, you can also try it for free and even preview your files before getting its premium version.
