Can I recover data from a wiped hard drive, or is it truly gone?

@wizzardino Do you remember what kind of format you used? I would say it's usually recoverable, if it was just a quick format. Full format is a different story. Also, I hope you formatted it using the regular Windows option and not some third-party wiping tool such as DBAN, Eraser, or CCleaner’s Drive Wiper. …. If the drive was securely wiped or overwritten, recovery probably won’t be possible.

Yep, totally agree with @datanerd. Quick format - recovery software usually can find files. Also, do you have backups, or can you perhaps have another copy elsewhere?? It sounds so obvious, but just in case you haven't checked it yet.

@datanerd Nah, I don't use any programs like that.I honestly wasn't even aware it was an option. I do everything through Disk Management, and I don’t usually change default settings when formatting, well aside from drive name. So, I'm pretty sure it was just a quick format.

@em_on_pc No backups, unfortunately, or extra copies… 

Also, I did put some files on the drive (a few photos), can this be a problem? I heard you shouldn’t put anything of the drive if you want to recover deleted files. Now I'm worried…

Welcome, @wizzardino! Yes, adding those photos can be a problem, but if it’s just a few images, it might turn out alright. After a quick format, the old files may still physically exist on the drive, but Windows considers that space free. When you copy new files to it, some of the old files can be overwritten. Once that happens, recovery software can’t bring the overwritten data back.

Your next step should be to scan the drive with data recovery software. There are a lot of different tools, just look up some ratings (for example this one: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/best-recovery-apps/) and select the best one for your situation.

@datarecoverexpert Thanks for answering! I’ll look it up. One more question though. If the software finds my docs, how do I know they’re actually recoverable and not just old filenames? Do these programs let you open/preview files before paying/recovering them?

@wizzardino Depends on a program, but usually you can preview files before recovery. Unless you’re using something like Windows File Recovery as there is no graphical interface.

@wizzardino

Since you said these are important work docs, I’d consider making a disk image before you scan. For a healthy drive that was simply quick formatted, it isn’t always a must, but if the files are really important, it’s still a good precaution. You’ll just need another drive with enough free space for the image. 

I’d especially do this if the drive starts behaving strangely. Disconnecting randomly, making weird noises, getting really slow, throwing read errors, stuff like that. Repeated scans put more stress on a drive, which isn’t ideal if it’s starting to fail.

You could also give Recuva a try. I’ve used it a couple of times for deleted files and it worked fine, plus there’s a free version. Not sure how well it handles a whole formatted drive though, my cases were just files I accidentally deleted.

@zensoul Good to know, thanks. Preview is definitely something I want then, especially since I’m mostly trying to get back Word docs and PDFs. I don’t want to pay for recovery only to find out the files are corrupted.

@bryan The drive seems completely normal so far, no weird sounds, disconnects, or slowdowns. But yeah, these files are important, so making an image first sounds like the safer option. Any recommendations for something that can do both the image and recovery? Would rather not install five different programs lol.

@wizzardino Disk Drill can do both. It has a disk imaging feature that creates a disk image, and then you can load that image into Disk Drill and scan it instead of the original Toshiba. It also lets you preview found files before recovery, so that would answer your other question too. I’d create the image first, unplug the Toshiba once it’s done, then do the actual scan/recovery from the image. Just remember the image itself needs to be saved to another drive with enough free space.

Also, 100 MB of free recovery should be more than enough for your docs.

Edit: I found a great video instruction on creating a disk image with Disk Drill, just in case you need guidance)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ1aQPFxTag

@wizzardino

When you look at the results, don’t be surprised: after formatting, some files might come back with generic names. That doesn’t necessarily mean those files are bad. It’s pretty typical for a formatting scenario. Open the previews and check the actual contents. For Word docs especially, I’d search/filter by DOC and DOCX instead of relying only on the old folder structure.

And don’t be surprised if it finds some really old stuff too. I scanned a formatted HDD once and got files from way before the last format mixed into the results lol. Recovery scans can be messy.

Small update: I made the disk image and scanned that rather than the Toshiba itself. Took a while, but it actually went much better than I expected. Most of the documents I was looking for showed up, and I could preview the important DOCX and PDF files before recovering them.

A couple had generic names and I’m still sorting through everything, but the main work files are there and they open normally 🎉 Thanks a lot!

Random question after reading all of this: would the advice be the same if OP had an SSD instead of a regular hard drive? Everyone seems pretty optimistic because it was a quick format, but I’ve heard deleted files are much harder to recover from SSDs because of TRIM. Does quick format make a difference there too?

@gareth_w Good question. SSDs are a different case. A quick format doesn’t overwrite every block by itself, but TRIM can tell the SSD that the old data is no longer needed. Once those blocks have been cleared, recovery software can’t recover their previous contents.

That’s why a quick-formatted HDD like OP’s generally has better recovery prospects than a quick-formatted SSD. With an SSD, it can still be worth checking, especially when TRIM wasn’t active or didn’t reach the drive, but you shouldn’t assume that “quick format = recoverable” the way you often can with an HDD.