Hi, does anybody know if it's possible for Recuva to retrieve .doc and .sib files that have been deleted using McAfee Shredder on the complete setting on a Windows XP hard drive which was then reformatted using the Windows setup utility? When I set up my daughter's new PC recently I was told I could clean the old hard drive and then was told that she was missing some files.
If Recuva doesn't work, is there another utility that might do it?
I think that your chances of any recovery are extremely thin...probably zero.
Sorry
Your best bet, absolutely best hope ever of getting anything at all would be mere fragments of files and then you'd be up for some way to 'stitch' them all back together.
You have run 2 processes that by their very nature are designed to destroy data.
It then sounds like you installed Windows on the same drive, or have at least used it for things, further destroying data.
Have you tried Recuva and any of the grave-robber programs yet?
You'll be up for hours, if not days, of scan time to only get back multiple, small, non-contiguous, unreferenced and un-openable piles of data.
In a nutshell, as @hazelnut has said, you have Buckley's chance.