Fossicker Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 My grandson went to print files from his flash drive and printer asked him to format the drive with inevitable result. Am I right in saying the formatted drive is irrecoverable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted December 6, 2017 Moderators Share Posted December 6, 2017 Hi Fossicker. Depends on how he formatted the drive really. If it was a quick format, and the drive shows up in Windows with a drive letter, then it's well worth scanning the drive with Recuva as a quick format simply configures the drive to tell Windows that the space on it is available to be overwritten. It doesn't actually delete any files. If it was a full format, then I'm not sure, as I've read conflicting reports as to whether a full format on post Vista systems actually overwrites all data. If it's got a drive letter give it a try and make sure you select "Scan for non deleted files". And tell your grandson not to beat himself up as that instruction from the printer suggests that there was already something wrong with the drive, and a quick format is one of the recognized pre scan and recovery operations to reinitialize the file system on a faulty drive to enable Windows to recognize it. Good luck with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Augeas Posted December 6, 2017 Moderators Share Posted December 6, 2017 I agree that if the drive can be seen then by all means run Recuva, it won't damage anything. I'm not sure what Scan for Non-deleted files does on a FAT32 volume (which the drive probably is), but leave it checked anyway. I would also do a deep scan. A format on a FAT volume has to clear the FAT tables to zero, so all extent and file length information will be lost. I suspect that the root directory will be cleared out too, so a deep scan is your best hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted December 6, 2017 Moderators Share Posted December 6, 2017 15 minutes ago, Augeas said: I'm not sure what Scan for Non-deleted files does on a FAT32 volume .... I don't profess to being an expert, simply go by the developers recommendations ... Quote Recuva can also recover files from disks that may have become corrupt or damaged physically or through software. The process is the same as running Recuva generally, but first you must tell Recuva to scan for non-deleted files: http://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/using-recuva/recovering-files-from-damaged-or-reformatted-disks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackAnt Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Thank you, DENNISD, for you informative response to FOSSICKER. However, CCleaner has an option to wipe a drive clean using one to several passes. I no longer use it for such purpose as I often just use the Windows 10 formatter which also takes quite a bit of time to wipe the disk clean and format it. Even so, the Quick Format option is very fast and your information has helped me to realize that the pre-existing information was NOT scrambled and the space made available by returning it to the available space heap. Again, thank you for the useful response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted December 11, 2017 Moderators Share Posted December 11, 2017 2 hours ago, JackAnt said: Touched the wrong button sending the message to the POST server! Reponse was VERY incomplete!!! You just have to look at the buttons on this version of the forum and something strange will happen. But, glad to have helped in that roundabout way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackAnt Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 On 12/6/2017 at 15:03, DennisD said: I don't profess to being an expert, simply go by the developers recommendations ... http://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/using-recuva/recovering-files-from-damaged-or-reformatted-disks Hi, DennisD. Thank you for addressing my problem BUT I searched the site and looked for a means of editing an incomplete but POSTED response and found NONE. Hence, nothing addresses the issue of being able to correct or edit an already posted message AFTER the fact. JackAnt Woops! I just FOUND IT, as this post may evidence. There IS an "Edit" link to the same message allowing correction OR editions to be made AFTER the fact!!! THANKS VERY MUCH AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS, DennisD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mta Posted December 18, 2017 Moderators Share Posted December 18, 2017 @AlanL I have split your post into its own thread here; https://forum.piriform.com/topic/49315-help-recovering-files/?tab=comments#comment-289639 as it was not related to this ongoing thread. I also deleted your duplicate post in those other non-related threads (please do not double or triple post your questions - they will be seen in the first post) Backup now & backup often.It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted December 20, 2017 Moderators Share Posted December 20, 2017 On 2017-12-17 at 01:29, JackAnt said: THANKS VERY MUCH AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS, DennisD! Same to you Jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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