How to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive

There are two steps involved in formatting magnetic media such as hard disk drives. In the first step, the actual structures are created on the magnetic surface. This means recording the tracks and marking the start of each sector on each track. Different IDs are assigned to each track and sector to prepare the hard disk drive for use. This is called low-level formatting, sometimes “true formatting” or “physical formatting” since it is physically recording the format that will be used to store data. Low-level formatting is done during the manufacturing process of hard disk drives and is mostly not available to end-users.

The second formatting step is called high-level formatting. This is the process of creating logical structures such as the file systems and root directory. The high-level format uses the structures created by the low-level format to prepare the disk to hold files using the chosen file system. Users can perform high-level formatting anytime they want, to rebuild the file system or to sanitize the hard drive for recycle.It is the formatting we normally refer to, which is an initialization process performed to a disk to make it available for data storage.

We can format the hard disk drive anytime we want by right clicking the drive and choose Format…, but be aware of the fact that all files will be cleared after formatting was actually performed to a hard drive. If you accidentally formatted hard drives, is it possible to recover the data stored on that drive?

To recover lost data from a formatted hard drive in Windows, we’d better turn to professional data recovery software for assistance. That is because professional data recovery software can securely scan the hard drive for lost data without causing secondary damage or introducing data corruption. H Data Recovery Software is highly recommended.  It is featured with 6 data recovery modules. Under different data loss situations, we should choose different data recovery modules. To perform data recovery on formatted hard drives, we should choose the “Formatted Hard Drive” module.

Step 1. Install and Launch H Data Recovery Software and select “Formatted Hard Drive Accidentally”

Step 2. Select the partition where your files used to be before they get deleted. Click Next to start the scan process.

Step 3. When scanning is done, you will be able to see all the files that can be recovered. Check the files you wish to recover and click next to start the recovering process. You can choose a safe directory to save the newly recovered files. It is advised that you don’t save them to the drive or partition where the data loss occurred to avoid potential overwriting.