A friend had a computer problem and the Gateway helpdesk told her to restore her computer to the factory image but did not tell her that all her files would be lost during the reformat. I am trying to help her recover 20+ years of photographs and other files. I have the disk drive (320-GB Seagate SATA) mounted in a USB disk caddy and connected to my computer.
I assumed that PhotoRec is the appropriate tool but should I use TestDisk instead?
Should I scan the whole partition or just the unallocated space?
recover files from reformatted drive
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When asking for technical support:
- Search for posts on the same topic before posting a new question.
- Give clear, specific information in the title of your post.
- Include as many details as you can, MOST POSTS WILL GET ONLY ONE OR TWO ANSWERS.
- Post a follow up with a "Thank you" or "This worked!"
- When you learn something, use that knowledge to HELP ANOTHER USER LATER.
Before posting, please read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Re: recover files from reformatted drive
I have not heard back from anyone so I decided to just try PhotoRec. It ran for 4 hours and did recover several thousand jpg files; however, over 99% of them are tiny thumbnail images.
I hope to receive replies with other suggestions.
I hope to receive replies with other suggestions.
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cgrenier
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Re: recover files from reformatted drive
Run TestDisk, Advanced, select the partition, List. If you can see your files, copy them and/or try "chkdsk /f d:"
If it doesn't work, run PhotoRec, be carefull to choose [Whole] instead of [Free]
If it doesn't work, run PhotoRec, be carefull to choose [Whole] instead of [Free]