accidental format

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard Drive and my External are 250gb, and I accidentally chose the wrong one to format. Now, I haven't really done anything else with it and I've seen mention of programs that can save your old data even if you've apparently formatted as long as you haven't used the space you opened up. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what would be the best program to use for this? This is quite depressing, and I'm in such a state of shock I can't even grasp the immensity of what I have done, possibly wiping away 4 years and 250gb worth of files stored over that time..

ninjaschooner wrote:

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard

You'll have to recover from your backups I think.
It's possible to recover from deleted files but recovering from a reformat is a specialist job. You could try one of the data recovery companies such as ontrack.
Tony

R-Tools, http://www.r-tt.com/BuyOnLine.shtml is an excellent data recovery tool. I have used it on several occasions and it's pretty effective.
ninjaschooner wrote:

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard Drive and my External are 250gb, and I accidentally chose the wrong one to format. Now, I haven't really done anything else with it and I've seen mention of programs that can save your old data even if you've apparently formatted as long as you haven't used the space you opened up. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what would be the best program to use for this? This is quite depressing, and I'm in such a state of shock I can't even grasp the immensity of what I have done, possibly wiping away 4 years and 250gb worth of files stored over that time..

ninjaschooner wrote:

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard Drive and my External are 250gb, and I accidentally chose the wrong one to format. Now, I haven't really done anything else with it and I've seen mention of programs that can save your old data even if you've apparently formatted as long as you haven't used the space you opened up. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what would be the best program to use for this? This is quite depressing, and I'm in such a state of shock I can't even grasp the immensity of what I have done, possibly wiping away 4 years and 250gb worth of files stored over that time..

If you're in the UK try Odie at:
http://www.retrodata.co.uk/
excellent service
Charlie

I lost about 30gb of data once, and I managed to save about 10gig. That's life. If something is important to you, back it up.
"ninjaschooner" wrote in message

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard Drive and my External are 250gb, and I accidentally chose the wrong one to format. Now, I haven't really done anything else with it and I've seen mention of programs that can save your old data even if you've apparently formatted as long as you haven't used the space you opened up. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what would be the best program to use for this? This is quite depressing, and I'm in such a state of shock I can't even grasp the immensity of what I have done, possibly wiping away 4 years and 250gb worth of files stored over that time..

Heh, that's the thing, I did back it up. Onto the hard drive I accidentally erased. Oh well.
I tried the tools listed here and none of them really worked (the way I wanted them to, most didn't recognize my hard drive to begin with), but one on Download.com called Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Professional 3.0 showed my files I was looking for in the demo. I've not heard of them and apparently not many others have either, but it worked so I guess I'll give it a shot. They do say they have a 30 day money back guarantee..
"Steve" wrote:

I lost about 30gb of data once, and I managed to save about 10gig. That's life. If something is important to you, back it up.

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard Drive and my External are 250gb, and I accidentally chose the wrong one to format. Now, I haven't really done anything else with it and I've seen mention of programs that can save your old data even if you've apparently formatted as long as you haven't used the space you opened up. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what would be the best program to use for this? This is quite depressing, and I'm in such a state of shock I can't even grasp the immensity of what I have done, possibly wiping away 4 years and 250gb worth of files stored over that time..

My apologies, the site told me there was an error and the post wasn't sent..

You can try R-Studio or Stellar Phoenix NTFS recovery.... they have trial ver. The trials won't let you recover the data but if you can see it all or most then you could purchase a key.
"ninjaschooner" wrote in message

When I tried to install Vista, I had my external hard drive connected to the computer. It had all of my important files. Unfortunately, both my main Hard Drive and my External are 250gb, and I accidentally chose the wrong one to format. Now, I haven't really done anything else with it and I've seen mention of programs that can save your old data even if you've apparently formatted as long as you haven't used the space you opened up. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what would be the best program to use for this? This is quite depressing, and I'm in such a state of shock I can't even grasp the immensity of what I have done, possibly wiping away 4 years and 250gb worth of files stored over that time..