Recovering heavily fragmented files from Quick Formatted FAT32

[JB2004]

Greetings:

I have this problem where I accidentlly quick formatted the wrong hard drive (which had a lot of files and directories). In Windows Explorer (Win 98), I right clicked on the wrong drive and chose "quick format". After it was finished I realized what I had done, and didn't write to the drive at all.

Now I am searching for a solution that will extract all the files (preferably w/ the same directory structure), as fast as possible. I've heard that some solutions have difficulty with multiple files or VERY large fragmented files or many directories/sub-directories.

From what I've been able to gather it's easier to reassemble NTFS files as each segment of a file has it's own "addresses" so to speak, if I'm not mistaken. FAT32, on the other hand relies on the File Allocation Table to say that this segment is here, that segment is there, and only the begininng of file and end of file segments have any addresses on board. You don't run into problems with contiguous files, or <= 64Kb files (2x32; i.e., beginning of file and end of file), but with larger fragmented files, i believe you would have to look at the actual data more closely, and use sophisticated algorithms to "put the pieces of the puzzle back together."

Like I've said my File Allocation Table is gone, but I have read that there's a backup copy of this FAT somewhere else on the disk (this was a new feature added to FAT32 over the older FAT). How can I reconstruct it?

If not possible, What solution would you recommend for my situation? Thanks a million!

Best Regards,
JB

PS-I tried GetDataBack, great on contiguous files, lousy on fragmented files w/ FAT32(the majority in my situation)

[Budfred]

Here are some options from Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Unformat&btnG=Google+Search

[Paul Komski]

Hi and welcome.

GetDataBack is usually pretty good/effective - but slow unless you pay and can then recover files in big batches.

Perhaps you could try How to recover files and folders from formatted or re-partitioned hard drive? (http://www.uneraser.com/quest12.htm)

Since a quick format is essentially a quick way of deleting all the files I suspect (but dont know for sure) that the files are just marked as deleted and without structural changes made to the FATs. If so it's just possible that you could try DOS's Undelete (http://users.cybercity.dk/~bse26236/batutil/help/UNDEL_S.HTM) or Unformat (http://users.cybercity.dk/~bse26236/batutil/help/UNFOR_S.HTM)

If you want a freebie to make a copy of the partition before you start experimenting with it you could try Image Maker (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3914.html).

[JB2004]

Saw this warning about UNFORMAT:

"This program was designed to only be ran in MS-DOS versions 5.0 to 6.22. If you have upgraded to Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or any other Operating system this command will not restore any information but may possibly cause additional issues with the Hard Drive."

at this link (on the bottom)

www.computerhope.com/unformat.htm


Is it possible to see this mirror/unformatting/image file, and convert/save it to another drive as DOS text? Is the UNFORMAT w/ DOS 7 different? I just don't want to risk anything being changed on the drive. Thanks again.

PS-Also tried GetDataBack, great on contiguous files (like all recovery programs), not so great on fragmented files(w/ FAT32).

[Paul Komski]

AFAIK ImageMaker makes a literal copy of the partition somewhere else. The reason I think this is that it only makes images of the same size and type with no compression or alteration of disk structures that I am aware of. In doing that it shouldn't write to your problematic partition at all and once you get a copy somewhere else it leaves you free to play around with this copy to your heart's content.

Read up on it (or something similar if you come across any other similar utilities) and satisfy yourself that it is a safe procedure. I downloaded it when I came across it some time ago but have never used it "in anger".

[CuratoR]

Don't worry you'll get all your data back with directory structure.
Make sure you don't perform any write activites on that drive until the data is recovered.
Easy Recovery Professional from http://www.ontrack.com, there is no other data recovery tool that compares. Its costly but worth it.