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How to recover folders from formatted drive

I accidentally erased my 500GB external hdd, and I desperately need to recover the data. If I read correctly, a quick format will only erase the partition scheme in the hard drive, so there is a chance to get my stuff back right?

My hard drive had only one partition, NTFS, and has been reformatted as FAT. When I realized I was formatting the wrong volume, I cancelled, and now a few gibberish files appear when I mount the 500GB hdd. If anyone knows any tools that can somehow re

Here is a hexdump of the first megabyte of the now dataless hdd. The asterisk has replaced lines of just 0's, and after just a little bit, it's all 0's the rest of the MB.

00000000  fa b8 00 10 8e d0 bc 00  b0 b8 00 00 8e d8 8e c0  |................|
00000010  fb be 00 7c bf 00 06 b9  00 02 f3 a4 ea 21 06 00  |...|.........!..|
00000020  00 be be 07 38 04 75 0b  83 c6 10 81 fe fe 07 75  |....8.u........u|
00000030  f3 eb 16 b4 02 b0 01 bb  00 7c b2 80 8a 74 01 8b  |.........|...t..|
00000040  4c 02 cd 13 ea 00 7c 00  00 eb fe 00 00 00 00 00  |L.....|.........|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  34 9a 08 00 00 00 80 01  |........4.......|
000001c0  01 00 0c fe ff ff 3f 00  00 00 02 4c 38 3a 00 00  |......?....L8:..|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00007e00  eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73  66 73 00 00 02 20 20 00  |.X.mkdosfs...  .|
00007e10  02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00  3f 00 ff 00 00 00 00 00  |........?.......|
00007e20  02 4c 38 3a 20 a3 03 00  00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  |.L8: ...........|
00007e30  01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00007e40  00 00 29 26 54 82 7d 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |..)&T.}         |
00007e50  20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20  20 20 0e 1f be 77 7c ac  |  FAT32   ...w|.|
00007e60  22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb  07 00 cd 10 5e eb f0 32  |".t.V.......^..2|
00007e70  e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 54  68 69 73 20 69 73 20 6e  |.......This is n|
00007e80  6f 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f  74 61 62 6c 65 20 64 69  |ot a bootable di|
00007e90  73 6b 2e 20 20 50 6c 65  61 73 65 20 69 6e 73 65  |sk.  Please inse|
00007ea0  72 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f  74 61 62 6c 65 20 66 6c  |rt a bootable fl|
00007eb0  6f 70 70 79 20 61 6e 64  0d 0a 70 72 65 73 73 20  |oppy and..press |
00007ec0  61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20  74 6f 20 74 72 79 20 61  |any key to try a|
00007ed0  67 61 69 6e 20 2e 2e 2e  20 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00  |gain ... .......|
00007ee0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00007ff0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00008000  52 52 61 41 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |RRaA............|
00008010  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000081e0  00 00 00 00 72 72 41 61  2c 88 d1 01 02 00 00 00  |....rrAa,.......|
000081f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00008200  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00008a00  eb 58 90 6d 6b 64 6f 73  66 73 00 00 02 20 20 00  |.X.mkdosfs...  .|
00008a10  02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00  3f 00 ff 00 00 00 00 00  |........?.......|
00008a20  02 4c 38 3a 20 a3 03 00  00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  |.L8: ...........|
00008a30  01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00008a40  00 00 29 26 54 82 7d 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |..)&T.}         |
00008a50  20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20  20 20 0e 1f be 77 7c ac  |  FAT32   ...w|.|
00008a60  22 c0 74 0b 56 b4 0e bb  07 00 cd 10 5e eb f0 32  |".t.V.......^..2|
00008a70  e4 cd 16 cd 19 eb fe 54  68 69 73 20 69 73 20 6e  |.......This is n|
00008a80  6f 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f  74 61 62 6c 65 20 64 69  |ot a bootable di|
00008a90  73 6b 2e 20 20 50 6c 65  61 73 65 20 69 6e 73 65  |sk.  Please inse|
00008aa0  72 74 20 61 20 62 6f 6f  74 61 62 6c 65 20 66 6c  |rt a bootable fl|
00008ab0  6f 70 70 79 20 61 6e 64  0d 0a 70 72 65 73 73 20  |oppy and..press |
00008ac0  61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20  74 6f 20 74 72 79 20 61  |any key to try a|
00008ad0  67 61 69 6e 20 2e 2e 2e  20 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00  |gain ... .......|
00008ae0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00008bf0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00008c00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
0000be00  f8 ff ff 0f ff ff ff 0f  f8 ff ff 0f 00 00 00 00  |................|
0000be10  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00100000

I tried using TestDisk to recover the hdd, but it only reads the partition as FAT, and I'm helpless at this point. Your help is much appreciated.

Community
  • 1
ladaghini
  • 324
  • Thes links might help you: http://www.dtidata.com/ntfs_partition_repair.htm (advanced, like what you were trying), http://www.pandorarecovery.com/ (recovers files, and keeps directory structure) and two favorites on these forums: http://www.piriform.com/recuva and http://diskdigger.org/ – KCotreau Jul 30 '11 at 17:58
  • 1
    In NTFS the most important meta information of the system $MFT or the Master File Table is normally located somewhere in the middle in the partition, so you have a great chance recovering all your files. However, the other system meta files, especially the root directory file may be at the very beginning. If those are overwritten, you may face problems getting your directory structure back. In which case it might not be worth trying. – billc.cn Jul 30 '11 at 18:11
  • @billc.cn what do you mean by other system meta files (emphasis on system). I didn't have windows installed on there. It was just for data storage. – ladaghini Jul 31 '11 at 03:04

0 Answers0