Recovering files from a formatted drive ?

[Mark]

Recovering files from a formatted drive ?

Data recovery is an area I've missed. I've had a client come up to me who's had his machine formatted and XP re-installed thus all his data is gone - the place where he got it done didn't back anything up, (cock up on their end), and he needs his Outlook Express files back.

.wab file for address book
.dbx files for messages
.mbx files for mail folders

If I read correctly.

I know a few people here are in this line of work and have more than likely come across this issue.

Looking for idea from the community, any boot discs / software, or are they gone?

[Drumm]

Some of it may be there. The less he uses his machine the better. I'd guess the format was not a dban and the data is still there. HOWEVER if XP was re-installed, then there is a chance that the bytes have been overwritten, this isn't certain of course, but possible. The data is still there.

[Pack3t SynAck3r]

Testdisk and PhotoRec. They are part of one software suite. They have a live linux CD that you can use. They will scan a hard drive and find all contiguous and partial files. It will scan for all partitions and partition fragments. You can then direct it to start dumping all found files onto an external drive. Either run it off a live CD on the machine you are trying to recover from or pull the HDD and plug it into another machine running Testdisk /photorec. As Drumm said there is a good chance some of the files have been overwritten, but this program is absolutely your best chance at getting anything back.

www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

[latch]

Testdisk and PhotoRec. They are part of one software suite. They have a live linux CD that you can use. They will scan a hard drive and find all contiguous and partial files. It will scan for all partitions and partition fragments. You can then direct it to start dumping all found files onto an external drive. Either run it off a live CD on the machine you are trying to recover from or pull the HDD and plug it into another machine running Testdisk /photorec. As Drumm said there is a good chance some of the files have been overwritten, but this program is absolutely your best chance at getting anything back.

www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

These sentences are too short and choppy. Try using some conjunctions to create compound sentences that are less irritating to read. When this is done, recommend a nice live cd with a gui that has both Testdisk and PhotoRec on there.

Pfft ..Alphas!