Formatting is amongst one of the common tasks that users perform on a regular basis. It can turn out to be a nightmare if you accidentally format the wrong drive or partition. That’s because it can put your data at stake. No doubt, it is an extremely panicking situation for you, but you don’t have to worry. There are several methods implementing which you can easily recover data from a formatted hard drive. Before you begin to follow any troubleshooting guide, make sure you stop using the quick formatted hard drive. If you fail to do so, the data will be overwritten and permanently deleted, that in turn, reduces the chance of data recovery. If required, you may also try your hands on a data recovery software for hard drive.
Quick Format VS. Full Format
Quick Format: It is defined as the process of erasing or deleting the data from any storage device in a faster and simpler way. In general, it removes the files from the partition without scanning the disk for bad sectors. Anyone looking at the hard drive or storage device would not be able to see any data and will assume that the drive is erased. In real, the files are actually still there and the volume could be re-built, to gain access to the files again. Therefore, whenever you quick format a hard drive or any other storage device, it overwrites the file system on the drive. Meanwhile, it also creates a new master boot record (MBR) that has all the information related to the contents of the storage device, resulting in inaccessible data.
Full format: On the other hand, whenever you perform full format, it removes the file completely from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors. Because of this check, the full format take a bit longer than a quick format. Unfortunately, like the quick format, the files still exist and the volume could be re-built to gain access.
Why Is Formatting Sometimes Required?
A lot of you might consider formatting to be a destructive operation that does more harm than good. Is that true in all the scenarios? Well, NO. To make hard drives usable formatting is considered as a crucial process. As per the file storage conventions followed by modern operating systems, you won’t be able to store files on an unformatted hard drive. Here, we have listed some of the key reasons that makes it essential for the users to format their hard drives:
- Performance issues: When it comes at older spinning hard drives, you may witness performance degradation over time with storage devices. One of the common issues that you may come across is data fragmentation. But, formatting can help you restore a slow hard drive to its original performance.
- File access issues: To ensure that only authorized users can access the data, a complex file access management is supported by the modern file systems. But, it’s natural for issues to take place wherever there’s complexity. Well, it’s easier to resolve the access issues virtually without formatting. But it’s often much quicker to locate the corrupted files to a different location, format the storage device, and move the files back.
- File system change: The same file systems isn’t supported by all the operating systems and devices, that is why you might need to format your storage device while you switch from, let’s say, Windows to macOS or macOS to Linux.
- Data corruption: There are numerous reasons due to which your data might get corrupted. In some instances, data corruption may affect even the file system structure itself. That, in turn, may ask you to format the entire hard drive just so you can use it again.
If you follow all the correct measures, formatting can make an unusable hard drive usable again. But, when done incorrectly, it can instantly wipe out all files and would also leave your issue unsolved. That’s why, the role of data backups come into play.
Backups to the Rescue!
You won’t deny the fact, that any backup is better than no backup at all. It’s required to keep your data secure in worst of the scenarios. No matter, whether you end up with inadvertent or problematic formatting, backup of all of your internal and external hard drives can recover the corrupted data at much ease. You can adjust your backup schedule depending on the kind of data you have. For static data, backup can be performed periodically. While, dynamic data needs to be backed up on a regularly. Here, we have discussed the different types of data backup that are available for you to choose from:
Different types of data backup:
Depending on your backup need, you can choose the backup type that may keep your data secure. Here, we have listed some of the backup types:
- Automatic local backups: With software like Time Machine (macOS) or File History (Windows), it becomes easier to automate the creation of backups. All you have to do is, tell your backup application about the files that you want to make copies of and, select a suitable backup destination.
- Manual local backups: It is a simple backup option that allows you to copy files from one storage device to another one. For example, from an internal hard drive to a USB flash drive. What makes it difficult to perform the manual local backups? Well, it’s our busy lifestyle that makes us forget that it’s time to create a new backup. Once missed, the consequences of it can be devastating.
- Cloud backups: No matter, how convenient automatic local backups make look, they don’t assure to keep your data protected against natural disasters and other catastrophic events. Some of these, not only damage the original copies of your data but also all backup storage devices located in the same area. Therefore, to prevent this, you can try out the Cloud backup solutions, such as Microsoft OneDrive or Apple iCloud. These keep your data secure by automatically transferring files offsite.
- Full-disk backups: There might be a situation, where your entire system hard drive may stop working. In such a scenario, you’re suggested to create a full-disk backup that allows you recover the entire operating system, along with all your data, at hand. Moreover, full-disk backup is a time-consuming task, so, you can choose a lower backup frequency, such as once every month.
- RAID backups: RAID arrays are one of the alternatives to traditional data backups. It increases the count of hard drives that would have to fail for you to experience data loss. For example, RAID 1 allows you to create a data backup to two hard drives simultaneously, effectively lowering by 50 percent.
How to Recover Data from Quick Format Hard Drive?
Here, we have mentioned one of efficient ways by following which you would be able to recover data from a formatted hard drive without much trouble:
You can Use Stellar Hard Drive Data Recovery Software
Stellar Hard Drive Data Recovery Software comes with an easy-to-use interface and guarantees 100 percent safety and security. It helps you recover lost data from a quick formatted hard drive. Apart from that, you can also recover data that is lost due to logical issues, such as accidental deletion, corruption in the drive, or formatting of the hard drive.
Why to choose Stellar to recover data from formatted hard drive?
Below we have mentioned some of the major key features that makes Stellar a better choice when it comes to data recovery from a formatted hard drive:
- It guarantees data recovery with utmost safety and privacy.
- You will find unmatched success rate of approximately 80% to rescue data.
- No service– No Charge policy.
- It is amongst India’s first & and only certified “Class 100 Clean Room” lab.
- It also has a huge inventory of 15,000+ donor hard drives.
- ISO 9001 & ISO 27001 certified organization.
NOTE: With its free data recovery software, Stellar allows you to recover up to 1 GB data after a Quick Format of Hard Drive without charging a single penny.
Wrapping Up!
By now, you would have understood that a quick format of a hard drive can delete all the files, but it does not completely delete the files. However, if you have accidentally formatted a drive, you can recover your data by choosing the right data recovery software available in the market. In this blog, we have listed some of the common measures that you must follow to keep your data secure. If you don’t want to risk your data, then we would suggest you to try out the Stellar Hard Drive data recovery software.