Check Out This Way To Recover Files From Formatted

Hard Drive

Content:

Classification of Hard Drive Formatting

How to Format a Drive

Recover Files from Formatted Hard Drive

Common Reasons You May Need to Format a Drive

Related Articles

User Comments

Formatting refers to an initialization operation performed to disk to make it available for

data storage. The implication is that if a disk has not been formatted yet, it can’t be used to

save data.

However, users can also choose to format the disk drive anytime they want after data had

been saved to that drive. They only need to be aware of the fact that all files in the target

disk drive will be cleared after formatting was actually performed to hard drive.

Reading here, some users may want to ask what if a drive has been formatted

unintentionally. It’s reasonable that seeking ways to recover files from formatted hard

drive becomes users’ top priority. But unfortunately, file recovery from damaged drive is

not always practical.

For instance, if the formatted hard drive is logically damaged or has been sent to

manufactures for low-level formatting, files in it will be gone forever. Therefore, we feel it’s

very necessary to talk about the hard drive formatting types before we get done to

recovering formatted hard drive.

Classification of Hard Drive Formatting

In general, formatting is divided into two types: low-level formatting and high-level

formatting. If there is no special instruction, the hard drive formatting usually refers to

high-level formatting process while the floppy disk formatting often includes both

formatting types. Read the following paragraphs to know clearly about low-level formatting

and high-level formatting.

Low-level formatting: low-level formatting is also known as physical formatting and

it is considered as initialization to some hard drive manufacturers. At early times,

encoding schemes like CHS addressing, frequency modulation (FM) and modified

frequency modulation (MFM) are used in disk. And low-level formatting was used to

refer to the operation of dividing cylinders, tracks and sectors. But currently, this kind of

formatting generally refers to the zero-fill operation of hard drive.

Strictly speaking, low-level formatting includes those steps – dive a disk into several

cylinders and tracks; divide each track into several sectors; divide each sector into

several parts, such as identification section, GAP area and DATA area. As a preliminary

job for high-level formatting, low-level formatting can only be done in DOS environment

and its object is a whole disk.

In fact, the low-level formatting work has been performed to each hard drive by

manufacturers when it leaves the factory, so users are no longer required to do such

thing. It should be noted that the low-level formatting is a loss operation, which has a

negative impact on the service life of hard drive. As a result, lots of manufacturers

recommend that this low-level formatting should be users’ last resort.

When the magnetic recording on hard drive platter is partially lost due to the impact of

strong external magnet, the effect of strong magnetic field or the long-term use, a large

number of “bad sectors” will appear. And users have no choice but to carry out low-level

formatting to hard drive provided that no physical damage like scratches can be found

on the surface of platter.

Besides, if certain hard drive parameters related to low-level formatting have been

attacked and destroyed by virus unfortunately, users have to re-establish these

parameters by resorting to low-level formatting.

The CMOS of many motherboards provides the low-level formatting function and it is

usually embedded in HDD Low Level Format option. If users have this option on their

motherboard, they can directly choose Hard Disk Low Level Format Utility for low-level

formatting.

Of course, there’re many motherboards which have no such feature. In this case, users

had better make use of the hard drive management/low-level formatting program

provided by their hard drive manufacturers, instead.

What’s more, if users’ hard drive is a standard one, they can also turn to third-party

tools when low-level formatting is needed.

High-level formatting: high-level formatting is also known as logical formatting. It

writes specific data into specific area of the disk according to the file system users have

selected, in order to achieve the effect of disk/disk partition initialization and file

deletion.

High-level formatting includes the following operations: rewriting the corresponding

region of partition table in Master Boot Record (MBR) and dividing certain disk partition

space to store information that is used for file management, like file allocation table and

file directory table, according to users’ selection on file system.

In other words, high-level formatting refers to removing data on hard drive, generating

boot sector information, initializing FAT and marking logical bad sectors. This kind of

formatting is generally involved in the OS reinstallation process; since MBR is not going

to be rewritten, there is great possibility that virus exists. But don’t worry, the MBR virus

can be completely cleared by using antivirus software or executing fdisk/mbr in DOS.

In the MS-DOS environment, we can make use of the FORMAT command to format

hard drive. However, the formatting operation is executed by Explorer in Windows OS.

To put it in a very simple way, low-level formatting is operating system-related while

high-level formatting is not. After reading above content, we guess most users have

known clearly about what high-level formatting is and the difference between a high-level

and low-level formatting. So now, we’re going to talk about how to format a drive

successfully and how to recover files from formatted hard drive

How to Format a Drive

Since only high-level formatting is involved in the case where data lost and need to be

recovered from hard drive, we’ll focus on how to complete high-level formatting in this

part.

Here we’ll introduce 3 common ways users usually adopt to format a drive in Windows.

1.Format in Windows Explorer

First of all, click on the “Computer” icon on desktop to enter.

Then, users should select the drive they plan to format. Afterwards, right click on it

and choose “Format…” from the pop-up menu to enter corresponding formatting

window.

Here, users can set a file system for the drive waiting to be formatted. What’s

more, they are able to change the allocation unit size (but we recommend users should

keep the default value if there’s no special need). Also, they can choose to create a

label for this drive or just skip this part. At last, users can click “Start” button to get

formatting process begun.

A prompt window will appear at this time, warning users that the formatting

operation will erase all data. If users are sure they want to format the drive, please click

“OK” to continue. Then, at the end of formatting, users can close the window to put it to

an end.

However, this method is only helpful when users want to reformat a drive which has

already been formatted for data storage. If users need to create a new drive by using

certain unallocated space and format it or initialize a new disk, they’d better using the

following two ways.

2.Format in Windows Disk Management

Choose one way to open the Disk Management: click on the “Computer” icon on

desktop and choose “Manage” option from pop-up menu; click on “Start” button in the

lower left corner of desktop, find “Computer” option, right click on it and choose

“Manage”. Now, choose “Disk Management” under “Storage”.

Then, right click on the unallocated space and choose “New Simple Volume…” to

start. A “New Simple Volume Wizard” window will appear and users just need to click

“Next” in each interface to continue. In this process, they can set volume size, drive

letter, file system, allocation unit size and volume label. At last, click “Finish” and users

will see the following interface which indicates the formatting has been completed.

Now, this drive created by using unallocated space can be used to store data. In

fact, this method can also be applied to initialize the new disk for data storage. Besides,

Disk Management tool can also help users format the drive which has already been put

into use.

3.Format with Third-party Tool

Many disk management tools can be found on current software and almost all of them

provide the formatting function. Here, we’ll show users how to format drive with a powerful

free program named MiniTool Partition Wizard.

First of all, launch MiniTool Partition Wizard, select the drive which needs to be

reformatted and choose “Format Partition” function in left action panel. Then, above

“Format Partition” window will appear and users can input a partition label and choose a

file system and cluster size for drive. After that, click “OK” to go back to main interface.

And then, click “Apply” button in the upper left corner and press “Yes” in the pop-up

warning window to confirm changes.

If users need to create a new drive and format it by using unallocated space, they

should select the space and then choose “Create Partition” function from left action

panel. Then, users can choose to set partition label, partition type, drive letter, file

system, cluster size, and partition size & location according to their needs. After that,

click on “OK” to return to main interface. At last, click “Apply” button in the upper left

corner and press “Yes” in the pop-up warning window to confirm changes.

Well, some users would ask what if they have formatted a drive by mistake. Can the files

lost from formatted drive be recovered? Our answer is positive. Users can recover

formatted hard drive files as long as they’re not overwritten by new data. As for how to get

file recovery from damaged drive done easily, please refer to the following content.

Recover Files from Formatted Hard Drive

Imagine this, one of your drive saves very important files, but when you try to open it and

access files, you failed. The system prompts that this drive needs to be formatted for

further use. At this critical moment, you can’t just agree to “Format disk” in order to use the

drive as usual. It will do harm to files in that disk. Unfortunately, if you do format the drive

and lose some important files, what should you do to recover formatted drive?

Our advice is installing MiniTool Power Data Recovery – an easy data recovery program

for even green hands to recover files from normal/lost/damaged drive and removable

devices. Then, users can open the software to enter following main interface so as to start

recovering formatted hard drive.

Now, please click on the “Damaged Partition Recovery” function to enter.

By the way, users can download the free edition of MiniTool Power Data Recovery and

use it to recover no more than 1GB data. If they need to recover more, they should buy a

license and click on “Register” button to activate. If users want to recover files from

removable formatted drive, they should connect it to computer before opening the

software.

Now, please select the formatted drive and click on “Full Scan” to continue. Of course,

users can set specific file system and file type to scan by clicking on “Settings” button. At

the end of the full scan, a lot of found files will be listed in order. Users need to find and

check the files they needed to recover by pressing “Save”, setting storage path and

clicking on “OK”.

After all files were recovered successfully to the appointed place, users can go to see

them there. And if users have got all they need, they can quit the software.

Common Reasons You May Need to Format a Drive

Initialize drive: a new disk drive can’t be put into use before formatting. So if users

want to use a new drive to store and manage data, they need to format it.

Kill virus: since computer virus spread widely through the internet, users can get

easily attacked by it. If users want to kill virus in certain drive and make it clean, they’d

better format the drive rather than just using antivirus software.

Change file system/drive size: once a drive is set, its file system and size are

determined. When users need to change any of them, they have to format the drive

again. However, we’d like to share the good news with them – they can achieve those

easy purposes by using MiniTool Partition Wizard we mentioned before without

reformatting.

Format inaccessible drive: the commonest case is that users open a drive, only to

find it can’t be accessed. To further use it, users have no choice but to format this drive.

All in all, please think twice before you finally decide to format your drive which saves

business/personal files. Once the formatting is done, all files can be lost forever. And no

matter how regretful you’re, they just disappear. Remember, though you may be able to

recover files from formatted hard drive, it’s not a 100% sure thing. Protection is always

more important than recovery.