Recover Data Lost by Format Command
Yesterday I followed an online tutorial on how to use format /q command to clear the contents of E drive on my Windows 10 computer. But I made some mistake and formatted the wrong drive, I lost quite a large amount of very important data on D drive. Does data recovery software work in this case? If yes, what should be the best choice if I want to completely recover data lost due to format command?
The format command is a Command Prompt command used to format a specified partition on an internal or external hard drive, USB flash drive, or floppy disk to a specified file system. To format a hard drive means to delete all information on the storage medium and set up a filesystem. Although we can perform the format easily using Disk Management, the format command serves better purposes by offering more options.
Command format /q will perform a quick format on your chosen hard drive. It will only remove the file table from the filesystem. The operating system will not locate any files without their index so when you look at the hard drive you would not see any data and assume the drive is erased. But in fact, the data are still there untouched and can be accessed and recovered with the right data recovery software. So if data security is not your primary concern when formatting a hard drive, format /q is a good choice because it is fast and convenient.
On the other hand, format /p:count will perform a full format. It will write zero to every sector of the drive to overwrite old data. This write-zero process is also known as erasing. As a Full Format would wipe your drives clean, the data stored on them will likely be unrecoverable. This is very useful when you are disposing of or recycling your hard drives containing sensitive or personal information. Beginning in Windows Vista, by default the format drive_letter: command equals to format drive_letter: /p, which writes zeros to the whole disk once, unless you specifically use the quick format command format drive: /q.
Other format command parameters include /x. which means the hard drive will dismount before the format; /fs, which specifies the filesystem you want to format the drive to; /v, which will assign a volume label to the formatted drive…For example, format d: /fs:NTFS /v:Things /p:3 will zero-fill the D: drive 3 times and set the file system to NTFS with the volume label Things.
Recover Data Lost by Format Command
The quick format (format /q) doesn’t overwrite any actual data so you can successfully recover the deleted files with data recovery software like H Data Recovery Software‘s format recovery module. What’s more, if you act quickly, it is very much likely that you can completely recover all the files lost due to format.
To recover formatted files, free download and install H Data Recovery and launch the software. Choose the format recovery module and select the partition you wish to recover files from. Let the scanning process run on its own and when it is done, browse through the listed results. You can also search for the files you want by using the search bar to filter file names or file extensions. When you have pinned down your files, save these files to the safe directory of your choice.