Data recovery after fresh OS install

buffalobill · 1 Feb 2010 at 11:37

I installed a fresh version of Windows 7 onto a mates laptop the other day, deleting the existing partitions (without performing a format). If the installation process performed a quick format would there be any chance of recovering the old data? What software could I use?

Any help would be appreciated.

davethe11 · 1 Feb 2010 at 12:04

can't suggest any software for recovery I'm afraid, not used anything like that for some time. But just for your information, the only difference between a quick format and a normal format is that a normal format includes a scan for bad sectors (chkdsk), whereas a quick format does not. If the data hasn't been overwritten by the new install, there is a good chance of recovery.

bledd · 1 Feb 2010 at 12:05

deleting partitions = formatting, as it has to create new ones and format them

buffalobill · 1 Feb 2010 at 15:23

I realise that about the formatting. I just didn't choose to format as part of the usual windows installation. i.e. quick which will just flag all the clusters as being overwritable vs deep format which will overwrite all data. So I presumed a quick format was done.

Any ideas on the software to use to see what I can recover?

derkaderka · 1 Feb 2010 at 16:28

spinrite

BUT your chances of success are very slim , odds on the OS has over written
the "free" space were the data was.

RobH · 1 Feb 2010 at 16:33

derkaderka said:
spinrite

Spinrite isn't really a data recovery tool for this situation, it's more useful if you have a drive that you know has data on but cannot be read by windows or you can't boot the OS. You need a tool designed to recover data that has been deleted.

bledd · 1 Feb 2010 at 17:39

Recuva.com (Freeware)
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

Chances of recovery aren't good mind..

subbass · 1 Feb 2010 at 17:55

Try GetDataBack. You can just download the demo and see what files show up.

As already said above, once data is overwritten on that drive, recovery is slim. I once recovered a lot of stuff when I accidentally formatted the wrong partition but the key thing is that I didn't write anything on that drive. On another occasion

, I again formatted the wrong partition on my ext hdd and wrote data over it and wasn't able to recover anything.

buffalobill · 2 Feb 2010 at 13:49

Cheers for the suggestions - I'll see what comes up for recovery.