How to Recover Files from a Formatted Hard Drive (2024)

To recover formatted hard drive data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, it takes three simple steps: choose the drive to scan, preview the data, and recover the data. It’s worth spending a few minutes to learn how to securely protect important digital data, and how to avoid future data loss in case you format a hard drive by error.

How to recover a formatted hard drive?

1. 1. Download and install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.
2. 2. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and scan the hard drive.
3. 3. Select the lost files and preview. 
4. 4. Click Recover and specify a suitable recovery location.
5. More items...

Why Do You Format a Hard Drive

There are several reasons why you may need to format a disk. When you format a disk, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors, and creates internal address tables that will be used later to locate information. In a word, you need to format a disk before you can use it.

This can be useful in a number of situations:

1. - If you're selling or giving away your computer, you'll want to format the hard drive first to ensure all of your personal data is erased.
2. - If you're upgrading to a new hard drive, you can format your old one and use it as extra storage space.
3. - If you're upgrading to a new system, you need to format a disk to be compatible with a new computer system or device.
4. - If your hard drive has become corrupted, formatting it may fix the problem.

Of course, formatting a hard drive also means that you'll lose any and all data that was on the drive, so be sure to back up anything important before proceeding.

Can a Formatted Hard Disk Be Recovered

Can a formatted hard disk be recovered? The short answer is yes - it is possible to recover data from a formatted hard disk using specialized formatted hard drive data recovery software. Formatting the hard disk erases all existing files and other data stored on the disk, but it does not completely overwrite or remove this information. Instead, it simply reorganizes the location of this data and leaves it in a state that most data recovery tools can read.

Several factors can affect the success of recovering data after formatting a hard disk, including:

🚫HDD formatting types	Some formats may offer better recovery results than others, and if you perform frequent backups of your important information, you may be able to restore files lost due to formatting.
✅Ways to recover data from a formatted disk	There are several tools and techniques that you can use depending on the circumstances of your situation. Some options include using dedicated data recovery software, working with professional data recovery services, or attempting to restore the information yourself by rebuilding the partition table on your hard disk.

Ultimately, whether or not it is possible to recover data after formatting depends on many different factors - so if you have lost important information due to a formatted hard disk, it is best to use a data recovery tool or consult with a data recovery expert for advice specific to your situation.

How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive with Data Recovery Software

Many users do not back up data before formatting the disk, so you must know how to restore the formatted disk without a backup. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard helps restore data from formatted hard drives on Windows and Mac computers. 

It's also good at other data recovery cases, such as recovering formatted SD cards, restoring Recycle Bin, and retrieving deleted files in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, and other OSs. 

With constant data recovery research and development, EaseUS data recovery software has been helping users worldwide with deleted, formatted, and inaccessible data recovery for over 10 years. It's known to be the top-notch data recovery program in terms of ease of use, deep scan speed, high data recovery success rate, and quick customer support.

To perform formatted data recovery with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, follow the three-step guide below:

Steps to recover formatted hard drive On Windows 11/10/8/7:

Note: To guarantee a high data recovery chance, install EaseUS data recovery software on another disk instead of the formatted disk. 

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Choose the hard drive partition which you've accidentally formatted and click "Scan".

Step 2. This formatted hard drive recovery software will start scanning for all the lost data and files. After scanning, you can click "Filter" to filter a specific file type to quickly find files you need. Or click Search files or folders to select data that you want to recover.

Step 3. Preview the scanned files. Then, select the ones that you wish to recover and click "Recover". Choose a new location to store the files and click "OK".

Share this powerful data recovery software with your friends to help them restore files from formatted hard drive easily.

Steps for formatted Mac hard drive recovery:

Here are the short steps to recover a formatted hard drive on a Mac, . 

Step 1. Search for lost files

Select the disk location to search for lost files (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or an external hard drive) where you lost data and files. Click the "Search for lost files" button.

Note: Before data recovery, you'd better click "Disk Backup" from the left sidebar to create a backup of your HDD/SSD to avoid further data loss. After backing up, the software can recover data from your disk backup, and you can use the HDD or SSD again.

Step 2. Go through the scanning results

This software will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display pictures, documents, audio, videos, and emails on the left pane.

Step 3. Select the file(s) and recover

Click the data to preview, and click the "Recover" button to have them back.

How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive with Data Recovery Services

If the formatted recovery software can't restore files from a formatted hard drive, don't panic! There are data recovery services that can help you recover the unformatted partition. You can also consult with a data recovery expert from EaseUS to get started. You can recover your data and return to work with professional assistance.

How Was a Hard Drive Formatted

The first step in formatting a hard drive is to open up your computer's settings and access the disk management tool. This will allow you to view all of the drives connected to your computer, including any internal or external storage devices. Depending on your operating system, you may have several different tools available for managing your disks and partitions.

Once you've identified the drive that needs to be formatted, you'll need to select it and choose a format type. Most modern systems support multiple file formats, such as FAT32 or NTFS. It's important to choose a format compatible with your existing computer system and any new devices you may want to connect to in the future. Microsoft offers the full guide to help you create and format a hard disk partition, and read it if necessary. 

Whether you're formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or other types of storage media, the basic steps are generally the same: connect the disk to your computer, open any necessary formatting software, and follow the prompts to complete the process.

Conclusion

There are a few different ways that you can recover files from a formatted hard drive. If you have a backup of your data, you can restore your files from the backup. If you don't have a backup, you can try the best hard drive data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover your files.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is capable and powerful in retrieving lost data but only under certain conditions. The sooner you perform the recovery, the higher the chance you have to get back lost data. Compared with other recovery methods, what's the 100% working way to protect data? Apparently, it's a regular hard drive backup.

Making a backup of data can be easy, like the copy and paste method. But for large hard drive backups, perform it automatically and smartly. Choose EaseUS free backup software to create a hard drive backup. It's easy, fast, and convenient. With a real-time backup at hand, you can restore data at any time when it's lost. Most importantly, you're guaranteed a 100% recovery rate to recover data from the backup. Try to keep a good habit of doing backups for important working documents, photos, videos, and music to achieve a risk-free digital life.

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Recover Files from Formatted Hard Drive FAQs

Here are more guides on how to recover data from the formatted hard drive. If you have these questions, read on, and you might just find an answer to your questions.

1. How to recover a formatted hard drive on a Mac?

To recover a formatted hard drive on Mac:

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Then, click the "Scan" button to perform the format file recovery.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scan results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) to recover and click the "Recover Now" button to get them back.

2. How to recover folders from a formatted hard drive?

If you accidentally formatted a hard disk with important data on it, then you can use EaseUS data recovery software to restore folders from hard drive data after formatting it.

Step 1. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Choose "Select Folder" under Specify a location. Browse for the location where you lost the folder and click "OK" to scan.

Step 2. You can search for the target folder or use the Filter feature to find a certain type of file in the folder.

Step 3. You can preview the recovered folder. Then, click "Recover" and choose a new & secure location on your PC to keep the recovered data.

3. How to recover a formatted external hard drive?

We recommend you try EaseUS hard drive recovery software to restore a formatted external hard drive:

Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer.

Step 2. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and scan the external hard drive.

Step 3. Filter the scan results and preview the recovered files.

Step 4. Click "Recover" and specify a safe recovery location.

4. Is it possible to recover files from a formatted SD card?

Recovering data from a formatted SD card is just as straightforward as recovering formatted internal hard drives. All you need to do is open EaseUS data recovery software and select the SD card to scan. Then, you are able to restore SD card files after formatting it.

5. How to recover data from a formatted hard drive with backup?

On macOS systems:

If you use Time Machine to back up files for your Mac, perform the following steps to use the backup storage media to restore files from a formatted drive.

Step 1. Connect the backup storage media of the Time Machine to your Mac.

Step 2. Open a Finder window in the folder that contains the lost files.

Step 3. Open Time Machine and find the files you want to recover.

Step 4. Press the Space Bar to preview the file.

Step 5. Then, click Restore to recover the item.

On Windows systems:

Windows has different backup and restore features. Here, we will show you how to recover files from a formatted hard drive with File History on Windows 10:

Step 1. Click the Search box and type file history. Click "Restore your files from File history" from the search results.

Step 2. Then, the File History window will open. All the backed-up files and folders will show up. You can preview the files to find the right version to restore.

Step 3. Select the files you want to restore, and then click the green arrow to restore the files.

Step 4. There might be a naming conflict when you restore files. You need to choose "Replace the File in the Destination Folder", "Skip This File", or "Compare Info for Both Files" according to your needs.

6. How to recover a formatted hard drive using CMD?

You can use Windows File Recovery to recover data from a formatted hard drive with command lines:

Step 1. Open Microsoft Store, search, and install Windows File Recovery.

Step 2. Launch Windows File Recovery, and use the syntax indicated below to start the process of recovering deleted files.

The basic command line is winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/switches].

For example winfr C: D: /n \Users\Documents\test.docx

Step 3. You can then follow the on-screen instructions to recover data from the formatted hard drive.