Unformat a hard drive?

[karolpl2004]

I was reinstalling windows and accidentally "quick format" the wrong hard drive which contained all my music. is there anyway i can unformat it and retreive some of that music? what program do i use?

 

[randomperson21]

unformat? hm.

theres no way to completely "unformat" a drive. there are, however, ways to recover lost data.

Firstly, make sure you don't access the drive you formatted. don't put any data on it or anything. Then, try using a freeware data recovery program on it. that may help.

if it doesn't, then you're most likely screwed...sorry......

 

[karolpl2004]

well im gonna give PC Inspector File Recovery since it got a pretty decent rating by PC MAG.

 

[randomperson21]

i wish you the best of luck.

 

[magibeg]

Take it to your local military base and have them use their data recovery programs, you can format the drive completely 7 times and still rip the data off it . (yea you may go to jail for trying to steal their programs though)

 

[randomperson21]

wow they'd just let you walk in and use their stuff? thats pretty impressive, for a military base.

 

[ktr]

The best recovery is Active File Recovery for Windows, it is cheap and can pull more data than Easy Recovery by Ontrack (but ER has a nicer and easier interface)...

 

[magibeg]

Only reason i can use the stuff at the base is because i work as a systems tech at the base, actually have to drill old harddrives to nothing when they're being replaced.

 

[ex_reven]

Only reason i can use the stuff at the base is because i work as a systems tech at the base, actually have to drill old harddrives to nothing when they're being replaced.

incinerators are funner
that, or take it out on the live fire range whenre they practice using Javelins

 

[randomperson21]

Only reason i can use the stuff at the base is because i work as a systems tech at the base, actually have to drill old harddrives to nothing when they're being replaced.

aaah i see. that makes sense.

 

[Batou1986]

actually drilling is excessive but much faster theres a prgm that will blind write zero's across the whole drive multiple times which im mostly sure is un recoverable since the disk has been blanked so many times

then theres the microwave which is faster than a drill

 

[randomperson21]

i'm pretty sure that some of those rewriting programs aren't completely secure.... plus, they take freaking forever. drills, however, take about 1 minute.....heh.

and would microwaves affect magnetic data? i'm sure it would arc a ton tho...

one interesting way i did hear of is using extremely powerful magnets to completely pull the data off of a drive. apparently, to do this, you'd need a magnet powerful enough to pull the iron out of your blood... that would be scary (if i'm not making things up...heh)

 

[aximbigfan]

i'm pretty sure that some of those rewriting programs aren't completely secure.... plus, they take freaking forever. drills, however, take about 1 minute.....heh.

and would microwaves affect magnetic data? i'm sure it would arc a ton tho...

one interesting way i did hear of is using extremely powerful magnets to completely pull the data off of a drive. apparently, to do this, you'd need a magnet powerful enough to pull the iron out of your blood... that would be scary (if i'm not making things up...heh)

i use a very specialized method to get rid of hdds... its called the high powered 17cal adult airgun...

keep in mind i am saying airgun, not airSOFT. airsoft guns are toys, an airgun can easly pucture metal at 75+ft.... i have also dystroyed old cds with my airugn at 150ft, the poor cd cant stand up the the furry of a hallow point lead round traveling at the speed of sound....


chris

 

[Chewy]

Drills are safe how about a jackhammer though I like the super magnet idea that kills people lol.

 

[ex_reven]

explode the cd and serve it as a topping on pizza hut pizzas

 

[karolpl2004]

com on dammit this is not a post about how to destroy a hard drive. its how to recover data.. i am trying active file recovery right now ill let u know how it works..

 

[m3lisk]

That may be.... but who cares? Since a hard drive is written with magnets couldn't you just open it up and wipe a magnet over it a few times? Then again, thats not fun... Wait! We could design a hard disc gun, then ship hard discs over seas with the guns(after being magnet wiped) and use them to kill people. That way the whole boring magnet thing gets balanced out with the violence. Those things could go through walls and rip trough a few enemies at a time....

 

[TLH]

Yeah,back on topic maybe this will help.Did'nt read it all but looks promisingly helpful.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1139