Rommeo Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Dear Friends, I have just formatted the wrong harddisk that keeps all my backups of the websites,databases and userinfos and accounts, personal programs, all my documents, mail backups, e-books, and everything. Actually I was trying to format the usb device, but I did not notice that program asking me to format E: instead of F:, it was just one second. So I m looking for something that ll recover my 2TB harddisk back. I really need good advices. I have heard about the firms that recovers files etc, but I think I can not trust them since my mails, documents,databases keeps personal infos about me and people including money transfers and accounts. Is there any way? any program that can take my harddisk back? ( now harddisk is empty without anything in it and working well) would be glad if you share your experiences also edit : is it possible to restore everything folder by folder? cause it was well organized 2TB hard disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulRyan Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Try this program: http://www.piriform.com/recuva I've used it a few times, although it won't recover 100% of files, it does a pretty good job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManiacDan Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Googling produced this company with a data recovery suite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 If this is critical data and you have to have the best possible chance of getting it back, you need to send the drive to a company that specializes in data recovery, not try to do it yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rommeo Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 @PaulRyan : Thank you, I m checking the program now @ManiacDan : Have you used that program before? or just found? @Pikachu2000 : In the country I m living in there is no such big firms, and I m sure they are giving disks to the interns to fix it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 So you're just making assumptions, then? It's either send it somewhere that has experience with data recovery, or take your chances doing it yourself. Those are the only options, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rommeo Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 So you're just making assumptions, then? It's either send it somewhere that has experience with data recovery, or take your chances doing it yourself. Those are the only options, really. I really would like you to see the website of the "biggest firm" here. I m not making any assumptions really. I m just saying that I have no option of sending the disk to anywhere, and I m just looking for a way or program for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rommeo Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 @maniacdan : this program looks good, but is it possible to recover folder by folder instead of file by file? it was well organized harddisk.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManiacDan Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Based on the way filesystems work, no you can't. You can only recover "whatever we can find," you cannot recover specific files or folders, because you deleted all the names of all the files and folders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
premiso Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Try this program: http://www.piriform.com/recuva ++; I used it a few times, this is one of the best programs out there. As far as filenames / folders, recuva has the option for folder structure and names, I am not sure how it works, but it did work for me, it is not 100% (nothing will be) but as long as you didn't overwrite the files etc, it should do just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rommeo Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Based on the way filesystems work, no you can't. You can only recover "whatever we can find," you cannot recover specific files or folders, because you deleted all the names of all the files and folders. if I send the harddisk to a firm abroad, it s also not possible to take the filenames back right? no folders and filenames? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManiacDan Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 It depends on so many factors. What you did was destroy the file system tables, which include the folder and file names, but that data may be recoverable and it may exist elsewhere on the disk. Those data recovery firms charge tens of thousands of dollars though. You should try these backup/restore programs until either you find one that works, or you give up and go to a firm. Also, I bet you'll start backing up your data for real from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwell Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 this is why i often advise people to never have such large drives, i personally never have a drive over 500gb good luck with your recovery! it sounds quite painful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 this is why i often advise people to never have such large drives, i personally never have a drive over 500gb No reason for the advice if they are doing proper backups (onsite AND offsite) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scootstah Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 this is why i often advise people to never have such large drives, i personally never have a drive over 500gb good luck with your recovery! it sounds quite painful You have more chances of a drive failing if you have four than you do with one. Disk quantity really has nothing to do with data security. Even if you have four 500gb drives, any of them could fail losing all of that data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 But if you have an array of 4 500 gb drives in a RAID5 array you're in pretty good shape, as long as 2 drives don't fail at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwell Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 this is why i often advise people to never have such large drives, i personally never have a drive over 500gb No reason for the advice if they are doing proper backups (onsite AND offsite) I hear what you are saying but this is usually advice to friends, not professional environments, and not many home users do backups, they see 2TB drive only £70, think I'll have some of that, fill it with data, and when(if) it fails lose everything in 1 shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnoTheDev Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 and not many home users do backups Not just home users, even companies fail to do proper backups. When I worked in the IT industry doing server / network installations I used to implement backup solutions such as DAT drives / NAS / DLT etc. You would be amazed when visiting a site after a server had a complete failure i.e hard disk gone that the company had failed to change the backup tape for months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scootstah Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 But if you have an array of 4 500 gb drives in a RAID5 array you're in pretty good shape, as long as 2 drives don't fail at the same time. RAID IS NOT an alternative to proper backups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikachu2000 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Where did I say it was an alternative to backups? I didn't. In fact, I even specifically pointed out a scenario in which it's no better than a single drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManiacDan Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 RAID is not an alternative to backups, but his argument of "you have more chance of a drive failing if you have 4" is countered by "not if it's raid." A proper setup is a RAID array with a separate backup drive. If you're really paranoid then you need the backup drive to be off-site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scootstah Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Where did I say it was an alternative to backups? I didn't. In fact, I even specifically pointed out a scenario in which it's no better than a single drive. Fair enough. It's just that there is a very big misconception that a mirrored array is all you need to keep your data safe. RAID is not an alternative to backups, but his argument of "you have more chance of a drive failing if you have 4" is countered by "not if it's raid." True, the redundancy from a mirrored array is still better than relying on a single drive (or multiple standalone disks). A proper setup is a RAID array with a separate backup drive. If you're really paranoid then you need the backup drive to be off-site. Preferably to a backup drive that's in another machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnoTheDev Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 It's just that there is a very big misconception that a mirrored array is all you need to keep your data safe. Really? My answer to that would be, "OK, what if there was a fire and your server / computer melted?". Preferably to a backup drive that's in another machine. If it is a hard disk i.e NAS then it would be better off-site i.e in the cloud for a desktop pc. If it is just anothert computer on your network or a local NAS device then if you had a fire, chances are that will be toast too! If you have a tape or media backup then it doesn't matter where the drive sits as long as you take the previous nights media away with you or keep it in a fire-proof safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scootstah Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Preferably to a backup drive that's in another machine. If it is a hard disk i.e NAS then it would be better off-site i.e in the cloud for a desktop pc. If it is just anothert computer on your network or a local NAS device then if you had a fire, chances are that will be toast too! If you have a tape or media backup then it doesn't matter where the drive sits as long as you take the previous nights media away with you or keep it in a fire-proof safe. I agree. For home use though, I don't think too many people go to this extreme. Personally, I have my sensitive data (passwords and such) on multiple systems in my home, as well as my phone. The files for my local dev server throws partial backups on my main PC daily, and full backups weekly. I may look into some cloud storage in the future, but I don't have any spare money for it right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnoTheDev Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I may look into some cloud storage in the future, but I don't have any spare money for it right now. There are plenty of free services out there or at least trial periods: http://www.justcloud.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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