How to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive [4 Fixes 2025]

Yesterday, when you were working on your computer, your hard drive was full of important files, photos, and documents. But today, when you switch on your PC, it appears empty. You would swear you didn’t format it, yet everything seems gone in a puff of smoke. 

The real question here is, “Why does a hard disk appear formatted, can you recover formatted hard drive, and if yes how?” Don’t worry, though. We’ll answer all these queries in this ultimate guide and will also try our best to help you restore files you lost from your formatted hard disk!

Can You Recover Data From a Formatted Hard Drive?

Yes, it’s viable to recover data from formatted hard drive albeit a little difficult as success depends on type of formatting and disk. When a drive is formatted, the file pointers are removed, but data still exists on disk hiding from view, and you can extract it with help of a specialized tool unless it’s overwritten. 

Quick formatting only erases file system, making data recovery from formatted hard disk easier. While full formatting overwrites data, making it difficult to restore files. In addition, formatted HDD data recovery is more successful than extracting files from formatted SSDs due to TRIM feature, which permanently erases data. 

Other than using a specialized tool, you can learn how to recover formatted external hard drive using CMD and a backup. However, if no solution seems to work consult professional services. But all in all, act quickly to avoid overwriting data.

How Can a Hard Drive Become Formatted?

You might not be planning to format your drive, but still, it gets formatted anyway, forcing you to find a solution to recover data from formatted hard drive. But first, let’s discuss why your drive might get formatted:

1. Accidental Formatting: You might have picked the wrong partition by mistake during formatting. 
2. Viruses or Malware: Malicious software can corrupt or even format your hard drive intentionally.
3. Sudden Interruptions: Power outages or PC crashes during use can corrupt your hard disk’s file system.
4. Incompatible File System: If your hard disk is formatted with a file system that it doesn’t support, this can make it seem unreadable and prompt you to format it again.

How to Recover Files From a Formatted Hard Drive?

Here are 4 ways to recover formatted hard drive depending on what type of data loss you suffer from. Try them out individually based on your situation:

Solution 1: Use Professional Data Recovery Software

The easiest way for data recovery from formatted hard disk is through specialized data recovery software. This solution is also ideal in cases where you don’t have a backup of your hard disk. Consider 4DDiG Data Recovery software to restore files from formatted hard drives with high success. It also allows you to choose your desired file types to reclaim. Moreover, this tool offers:

• Can retrieve files from formatted, logically damaged, or virus-infected hard drives.
• Supports recovery of 2000+ file types including videos, audio, images, documents, and so on.
• You can preview recovered files according to their file type or path for free.
• It offers both free and paid versions.
• Works on a wide range of file systems, such as NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, HFS+, APFS, etc.
• A clean, simple interface that allows even computer novices to recover their data without difficulty.

Check out steps below to use this tool for formatted HDD data recovery:

Step 1: Execute formatted hard disk recovery tool on your computer. Then, pick your formatted drive. Choose file types to scan. Then, hit “Scan.”

Step 2: The tool will sort through erased data for your chosen file types. You can pause or stop scan once you find files you need and examine them thoroughly.

Step 3: Once you’re satisfied with results, hit “Recover” to export them to another drive to avoid getting newly recovered files corrupted.

Solution 2: Use the Command Prompt (CMD)

Sometimes, your hard drive isn’t formatted but seems to be. This happens when your disk is either corrupted or your files are hidden. You can use Command Prompt in such a case to unveil hidden files or repair your disk if it’s corrupted. Here’s how to recover formatted external hard drive using CMD:

Step 1: Type “cmd” in Windows search field. Then, execute “Command Prompt.”

Step 2: Type following command to unveil hidden files (Replace E with your drive’s disk letter) and hit “Enter”.

attrib -h -r -s /s /d E:\*.*

Step 3: If your hard disk is corrupted run following command (Replace F with your drive’s disk letter) and hit “Enter”.

chkdsk F: /f /r /x.

Solution 3: Check for Backup

You can also recover files from formatted hard drive for free using a local like “Windows backup” or a cloud backup such as “Google Drive.” This solution is exemplary when you’ve overwritten your disk data and wish to retrieve it. Here’s an example to recover files from formatted hard drive for free from Windows backup:

Step 1: Type “backup” in Windows search field. Open “Backup and Restore.”

Step 2: Click “Restore my files.” Find files you want to recover from backup.

Step 3: Choose a place to restore files but avoid exporting them to original drive to prevent overwriting.

If you have backed up your drive with help of File History, check out this guide to recover files from formatted hard drive for free.

Solution 4: Hire Professional Data Recovery Service 

If all else fails to recover data from formatted hard drive, turn to a professional data recovery service. This is ideal in a case, where your drive seems formatted because it’s either severely corrupted or physically damaged. Though formatted HDD data recovery services are costly, they have the right expertise and tools for data recovery from formatted hard disk.

How to Prevent Data Loss on Your Hard Drive?

After you successfully recover files from formatted hard drive for free or with a specialized tool, you must make sure you never lose data again. For this to happen, you’ll need to take some preventative measures. Here’s what you should do:

1. Regular Backups: Save important files to external hard drives for physical backups. You could also use cloud services like Google Drive or OneDrive to store files with recovery options. In addition to this, set up automated backups.
2. Avoid Untrustworthy Sites: Don’t download files from dubious sites to prevent risk of malware or viruses that could corrupt your hard disk.
3. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Identify and prioritize critical files for protection.
4. Careful Disk Management: Always double-check drive before formatting to prevent mistakes.
5. Monitor Drive Health: Use tools like CrystalDiskInfo to check drive health and detect issues early.

Conclusion

Hope, you were able to learn how to recover formatted external hard drive using CMD or other tools. However, if your drive is physically damaged reach out to a professional data recovery service. But before that, we recommend trying your hand at a specialized tool like 4DDiG Data Recovery. 

Your hard disk might appear formatted due to corruption and you might not have a backup of your files. In that situation, this tool will be ideal to recover formatted hard drive. It can reclaim data successfully from various data loss situations such as formatting, corruption, deletion by mistake, etc.

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