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Re: [LUG] Recovering Files from a Windows Formatted Disk

 

Gordon Henderson wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Jan 2009, Brown Richard wrote:
>
>   
>> Thanks for all the replies. Unfortunately we can't go back to the 
>> company, they went bust. What actually happened, is that there were two 
>> drives on the second drive lay all this guys photos. He assumed that the 
>> shop would not format the second drive, in fact he didn't want him to 
>> format and reinstall the first drive but when he did he thought the 
>> second drive would be safe. It wasn't and now a couple of years later he 
>> is hoping I might be able to help. There has hardly been any data 
>> written to the drive and he has some important family photos he hopes to 
>> recover, so any help would be hugely helpful. The drive is formatted for 
>> xp.
>>     
>
> There are 2 ways to format a drive under XP: Standard and quick. A 
> standard format zeros the drive (AIUI), and a quick format just writes new 
> empty directorys, and filesystem meta-data, etc.
>
> If it's been quick formatted, then there is a chance of recovery, but it 
> won't be easy, and some data sectors may still have been overwritten.
>
> However, you're looking at expensive recovery, as someone will have to try 
> to go through the old filesystem at the disk sector/block level and try to 
> piece together the files. It's a long hard job, error prone and no 
> guarantee of success, even with automated tools to do it.
>
> So why don't you just restore from backup? (I know, rhetorical question, 
> he didn't have one. Bet he has one now, and if not, why not?
>
> Gordon
>
>   
hi where are you based im in sidmouth but can go to exeter,my friend has 
a computer shop and has done this sort of thing before,using his very 
secret software the rascal,if you want him to have a go at recovering 
the data im sure he will oblige if i ask him nicely.
his success rate is quite high but i wont promise any thing give me a 
call on 07775853983 cheers alex the noob.

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