format wiped my info on my drive! need help!

Spade · Aug 2, 2003

OK sorry guys i know i should know this already...

doing a ROUTINE install of windows 2k, it decided to format and WIPE the slave drive as well as the master..
now im faced with 0 data (phone numbers, mp3's, video's "personal" pictures, etc.

)

i dont know why it did this, i never once asked it to remove any slave partitions or format the slave etc..
it just screwed me.
anyways, what data recovery tools/software should i use?
i KNOW ya'll have gone thru something like this before.. any help?
thank you MUCHLY

~~sp4de~~

DarkDraco · Aug 3, 2003

um....

"it decided to format and WIPE the slave drive as well as the master.."

by the looks of things, you wanted to format and wipe your drives.

if you have not noticed by now, formating means erasing all files or any other information on the drive and testing it for bad sectors and marks them. Basically it format mean erase EVERYTHING that ever existed on your harddrive or disk leaving no trace of what was on it.

How the windows OS is still on the harddrive, i dont know. But i believe you got one of those cds that came with your computer which formats and reinstalls windows.

Im probably way off topic by now but formatting is erasing all existing data.

KraziKid · Aug 3, 2003

You can try a data recovery tool. Many can be found for free on google. Good luck.

DarkDraco · Aug 3, 2003

u can recover data from a format??

bigfoot · Aug 3, 2003

It depends on what you did... Did you do a low level format (the one that takes a long time) or the fast one, the fast one would just write in the file system that "there is no data here" and actually leave the actual data intact, but if you used the low level format, your data is history because it writes over everything w/ ALL 0's or ALL 1's

which did you do...

Cowboy Shane · Aug 4, 2003

You are going to need a data recovery tool as has been suggested.

Short of physically destroying a drive with high heat, it is still possible to recover data if extreme measures are needed. Even if 0's or 1's are written to the drive, it is possible to get the data back. The bits on a platter don't exist in a true digital realm, and thus have to convert analog readings to digital. What this means is that the heads will read anything sufficiently close to zero as zero and anything sufficiently close to one as one. When you write zeroes to the drive, it pushes the reading on those bits closer to zero, but not all the way. An anylisis of the drive could determine that a reading above a certain threshold (but not high enough to be considered a one) had once been written as a one. It is then possible to toggle all the bits and see what you get. This really is drifitng from the main topic, but I don't want anyone to think their data is really gone just because he or she wrote ones or zeroes to the drive.

RedDeathDrinker · Aug 4, 2003

What he said!

But you may well have to cough up a fair wad of cash. Data recovery the proper way costs........

mbentley · Aug 5, 2003

well for data recovery, i have a program called r-studio. they have a fat version and a ntfs version. here is their website: http://www.r-tt.com/ it costs money, but does a very good job. it was able to read some files from 4 formats back and when i accidently deleted my mp3 and movie collection, it got back about 95% of them

verbatim · Aug 5, 2003

Just about anything can be recovered as peeps have said.
A little bit of trivia 4 u. NSA puts a bullet through old hdd's when finished with them as they dont want people recovering their data and thats the only way they are happy with.

stool · Aug 7, 2003

You can also try Recover It All. Here's a link to the site where you can find a free downloadable demo;

http://www.dtidata.com/

Spade · Aug 7, 2003

ok, first off, apologies if i double post. the submit functions acting up on me.
to make myself more clear:
(qoute)
"it decided to format and WIPE the slave drive as well as the master.."

by the looks of things, you wanted to format and wipe your drives.
(end-qoute)
DRIVE being singular, yes thats what i wanted to format.
NOT the slave, which win2k decided to go ahead and do anyways.
even though i did not ask it to in any of the install options.
I believe it did so when it asked if i wanted to convert to NTFS.
also, i didnt want to be negative to the above postee, just let
him know i had a bit of an idea what i was doing

thanks to all the people who supplied linky's and idea's.
this place rocks!
so much brainpower and fresh creative thinking...
that i can plunder for my own use!
mwhu ha-ha-ha-ha...

just kidding, love the crowd here.
peace

Beast Of Blight · Aug 7, 2003

verbatim said:
Just about anything can be recovered as peeps have said.
A little bit of trivia 4 u. NSA puts a bullet through old hdd's when finished with them as they dont want people recovering their data and thats the only way they are happy with.

There is a government, I believe its the british government, that pulverizes their old harddrives into LITERAL dust, then keeps the dust in containers in a specially protected storage room.

I don't think your going to recover data from THAT!

Hawker-rider · Aug 7, 2003

I know that there are companies sprouting up here and there that een melt your harddrive into something like an ashtray or a book-weight. So that your data would be really gone, but you ca still "enjoy" your drive LOL

Anything to hide people......

nahmus · Aug 8, 2003

Spade said:
OK sorry guys i know i should know this already...

doing a ROUTINE install of windows 2k, it decided to format and WIPE the slave drive as well as the master..
now im faced with 0 data (phone numbers, mp3's, video's "personal" pictures, etc. )

i dont know why it did this, i never once asked it to remove any slave partitions or format the slave etc..
it just screwed me.
anyways, what data recovery tools/software should i use?
i KNOW ya'll have gone thru something like this before.. any help?
thank you MUCHLY

~~sp4de~~

I don't know if you have resolved this but if not I have some good computer forensics tools and would be happy to have a go at recovering whatever I can free of charge. you just gotta mail it to me.

nahmus · Aug 8, 2003

Hawker-rider said:
I know that there are companies sprouting up here and there that een melt your harddrive into something like an ashtray or a book-weight. So that your data would be really gone, but you ca still "enjoy" your drive LOL

Anything to hide people......

just as an FYI if you need to destroy a CDrom ( I get asked this alot) and its a factory made one (aluminum in the middle not dye) 1 min in a microwave will destry it (it will also smell so don't use a good microwave, its also cool to watch the aluminum vaporize)

for CDR's and CDRW's the dye layer will not be completely destroyed. High heat will make the dye layer spread out (removing the pits that make up the data) but that is not 100% A lighter will work but a CD shreadder will work as well.

RZA · Aug 9, 2003

One more great tool is Easy Recovery Pro (ex-Tiramisu). It did help me when I occasionally reformatted.

Yellie · Aug 9, 2003

yeah if I ever discuss a murder with those involved on the internet.. and actually go through with it... im totally destroying my harddrives... *waves bye bye*

-yellie

CrystalMethod · Aug 9, 2003

You can also try this file recovery program. It's free.

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

Spade · Aug 11, 2003

hey thanks alot to everyone who replied, im sorry i havent kept up more tab on this thread, im going to try the free recovery tools first then, if i cant make it work ill mail it off to you nahmus.
heh, yeah one time (at band camp!

) i also nuke-o-waved
a cd rom just to see what it would do.

it made little tiny bolts of green lightning crackle on the surface of the cd for a few brief seconds.. and the aluminum that holds the data became broken up into little flakes on the surface..
it was fun

nahmus · Aug 11, 2003

glad you liked the CDrom show!

I hope that the freeware works for you. The absolute safest way to preserve the drive integrity is to make an image of it. Every time you do anything on that drive you run the risk of overwriting data that could be recovered.

good luck!!

remember... be a nerd... amaze your friends

format wiped my info on my drive! need help!

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