Can I still retrieve files from a formatted hard disk drive?

Question

I want to retrieve files like:

".jpg" files for photos

".nbu" and ".arc" files for nokia phone backups

Chat logs in Yahoo Messenger

MS Word files

MS Excel files

MS Powerpoint files

from a formatted hard disk. If a fresh copy of Windows is installed, can I still recover such files? Please help me.

Answer 1

You can try installing a hard disk recovery utility and seeing what it can find. If you formatted in Windows Setup, it may not have overwritten sectors of the disk that wasn't used during the setup. It's a hit-or-miss, because the sectors may have been used by Windows to store its own files, overwriting what used to be there. However, if you formatted using a 3rd-party utility that writes zeroes (overwrites every bit of the hard drive with all zeroes), then all the data is lost.

Answer 2

There are recovery software (free and bought)  that say they can retrive files after a format check around

Answer 3

Hello mate. There is a free disk utility you can download called pci file recovery. its fairly self explainatory when you use it. Wouldnt pay too much attention to the other replies mate. Hope you sort it.

Answer 4

The data is almost impossible to recover. A specialist data recovery agency might be able to retrieve some of it, but they'll charge you a small fortune just for making the attempt.