Formatting Hard Drives.

[wm460]

I have a portable hard drive that I have been going through Saving what I want and deleting the rest.
I have cleared out what I want, there is a lot of stuff on it that I don't have any Idea of what it is and where it came from.
I as wondering what will happen it I format this hard drive?

 

[Lons]

Hi Mark

If you format the HDD you'll lose everything currently on it. Whatever you want saved needs to be copied on to another HDD, USB stick, memory card, DVDs etc. first so make sure there's nothing left on there you might not want to lose.

You could temporarily transfer to your computer then put it back later on to your cleaned HDD.

 

[bassethound]

What Bob said!

 

[silver]

Yep, another for what Bob said..

 

[donwatson]

Again for what Bob said

 

[bigbob]

I am a Bob and agree with the first Bob

 

[wm460]

I Did it but OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Lons]

I Did it but OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!

Why? What happened Mark? Nothing to go wrong.

 

[wm460]

Why? What happened Mark? Nothing to go wrong.

Want a bet, I formatted the portable HHD OK but some how it formatted my desktop computer HD as f....king well.:mad:
Not a happy chappy now.
Any way of recovering the lost stuff.

 

[Lons]

Want a bet, I formatted the portable HHD OK but some how it formatted my desktop computer HD as f....king well.:mad:
Not a happy chappy now.
Any way of recovering the lost stuff.

Ooops.

It can't do it on its' own Mark. Is it a partition on your main drive that's formatted or the whole drive? The system always asks "are you sure you want to format?" and it's not easy to format the whole system as the pc uses windows to carry the process out.

Are you sure it's your leg that's knackered and not your fingers. :wink:

As far as recovering your data: Technically yes it's possible as basic formatting just removes the start of each file if it's done a "quick format" process but in your case it means paying for a specialist company to do it. I'm certainly not going to tell you how or I'll get the blame when you fry your computer.

 

[wm460]

Ooops.

It can't do it on its' own Mark. Is it a partition on your main drive that's formatted or the whole drive? The system always asks "are you sure you want to format?" and it's not easy to format the whole system as the pc uses windows to carry the process out.

No idea, all the file that I used to have gone all the ones that I removed from the portable HHD gone.

Are you sure it's your leg that's knackered and not your fingers. :wink:

Both, I have been spent a lot of time while I am off work sorting out every thing on my computer getting it all organised now gone.

As far as recovering your data: Technically yes it's possible as basic formatting just removes the start of each file if it's done a "quick format" process but in your case it means paying for a specialist company to do it. I'm certainly not going to tell you how or I'll get the blame when you fry your computer.

Nearest is 500 km away.

 

[Lons]

That's a shame Mark, I feel for you. It certainly isn't a simple process recovering a hard drive and often can't get the whole lot back anyway. there is software that can help but not for the inexperienced unfortunately.

 

[Phil Dart]

There is free software out there that may help you Mark. Do a google search for data recovery software. Two that I have installed are Recuva and iCare Data Recovery. I've used them with success before now to recover stuff that has been deleted by mistake on a flash stick - I'm not sure if they would do the same job for a formatted hard drive, but possibly worth a go.

And incidentally, although this advice is probably far, far to late, don't turn off or reboot your computer if you haven't already done so. If you haven't, the data will be more easily recovered - if you have, the data is more likely to have been purged.

Not sure why you would ever want to format a hard drive in the first place, unless it had a major fault. For deletion of data or freeing up of space, there are processes that are far more appropriate. Easy to say after the event eh?

 

[Lons]

Not sure why you would ever want to format a hard drive in the first place, unless it had a major fault. For deletion of data or freeing up of space, there are processes that are far more appropriate. Easy to say after the event eh?

I'm not at all sure how Mark managed to format his HDD in the first place which is why I asked if it was a partition rather than his " C " drive. Assuming he has a PC running windows it's not an easy thing to do as the system operates the process of formatting and it won't delete itself! There are dire warnings if you try to do it which would scare off anyone without experience. Mark clearly isn't sure or comfortable around the systems or he wouldn't have asked for advice in the first place.

There's no problem formatting a HDD Phil and something I do on a regular basis. For back up drives of all kinds it's a quick and efficient process which saves any need to defragment and leaves a "factory fresh", full capacity storage medium.
I also on a roughly annual basis, format my PCs and reinstall everything from scratch. Not quick and a pita but the results can be compared to shoving a stent into a blocked artery and well worth the time spent, - or I could do what many others do and just buy a new one.