AlanHo Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 It is too embarrassing to admit what I did to need to ask this question - but is there any way I can recover the files from an external USB hard drive that has been inadvertently reformatted when I used the express format option in Windows Explorer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark2 Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Have you tried pci file recovery http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm I've had a little success recovering mp3 files from a USB external drive, not tried it after a format though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Quick formats normally only remove the links to files without actually removing the files themselves. If this is the case, the files will still be there but not easily accessible.Try mark2's suggestion first. There are other file recovery programs available as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted December 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Thanks for the responses - unfortunately the suggested programme did not do the trick. It failed to find any files on the drive.Am now googling for other possible programmes - but few mention reformatting recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Alan try this program, I have used it several times on my hard drives but have not tried it on an external drive, and it is freeware.http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted December 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Thanks for your suggestions - I have spent many hours downloading and trying several freeware programmes overnight but none have worked.I eventually subscribed to QueTek Scavenger which has worked beautifully and recovered 20312 files on the disc. The scan took almost 2 hours plus a further hour recovering the selected files (I did not need them all).The only problem is that all the files are now in one folder - I have the task of rebuilding the folder tree and sorting them out. What a chore for Christmas !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Glad you got it sorted out, Alan. I'll bookmark the program for reference. :smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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