Cause of loss · formatted or erased
When people format a disk by mistake it is nearly always the quick kind: a blank index laid over files that never shifted an inch. As problems go, that is among the friendliest. A full format allowed to finish is another matter entirely — better you hear that here than after we have looked.
Run the problem past an engineer
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| On screen | What's behind it | First move |
|---|---|---|
| The format prompt, and you clicked Yes | A quick format has laid a blank index across the old one | Go no further; the data is under it |
| Explorer shows an empty volume with all space 'free' | Only the index was replaced; whatever it referenced is still in place | Add nothing to that disk |
| A full format that finished | From Vista onwards a full format puts a zero in every sector; that really is gone | Honestly: gone for good |
| A full format cancelled part-way | Anything the zero pass never got to may remain | Abort, then kill the power |
| diskpart clean | That removes the partition map alone — the volumes below survive | Odds are strong |
| diskpart clean all | Zeros from first sector to last, exactly like a full format | Honestly: gone for good |
| An SSD, quick-formatted | TRIM will have fired; the SSD is wiping its own cells right now | Unplug it this second |
Every item gets its own case number on the day it lands here. An engineer traces the fault, gives you a plain assessment of what is realistically recoverable, and puts one fixed price in writing. The diagnosis is free, you are under no obligation, and chargeable work starts only when you say go.
Full or quick? clean, or clean all? Did it finish, or did somebody stop it? Those answers set the plan, so we settle them before promising you anything.
On the image, the earlier file system is found underneath the new one and reassembled. Where enough of it survives, names, dates and the whole folder tree come back with the data.
If no structure is left, each format is extracted from the image by its byte signature — contents whole, filenames back wherever the clues support it.
You get the full list of recovered files first, and nothing is charged until you approve it. Data goes back on fresh media, return postage paid, and the job stays open on our side until you confirm every file opens at your end.
Put in writing so you can quote it back at us: on a hard disk, a quick format leaves you in a good position. Allow a full format to complete, or turn diskpart clean all loose, and there is nothing to look for — every sector has been deliberately zeroed since Vista. Should any outfit tell you it can undo a finished full format on an HDD, ask it to explain how.
One tower, two matching 2TB disks, and the fitter formatted the wrong one — and that was the family archive. Nothing was written to it afterwards, so the original file table stayed intact and every folder came back under the name it always had.
As a rule, yes. Quick-formatting a hard disk rewrites the index and nothing else; the files stay exactly where they sat. Write nothing to it since and whole folder trees usually come back in one piece.
A completed full format does: since Vista, Windows writes zeros across every sector. A quick format doesn't. That distinction underpins most of this page.
Switch it off and have it imaged. Every write that follows the mistake destroys files you could otherwise have kept.
Quick-format an SSD and TRIM generally fires alongside it, so the cells start clearing within seconds. Cut the power, then ring us — of every format case, this is the one measured in minutes.
Switch a failing device on again and you lose a little more. Open a case before you do — the diagnosis is free, whatever it finds.