accidentally began to format hard drive Stopped at 0.5%

[DROPS7]

My main plan was to encrypt my external hard drive. Before I did that I had to format it so I put everything on my desktop. I tried to do a quick format with windows but that corrupted it. So I popped in Hirens boot CD and used one of those formatting tools. By default it chose the hard drive in my computer. I got it to stop at 0.5% but it still did some serious damage. I then booted into Linux from the live CD to find out if there was any hope. I had 3 partions and I didn't see not 1.would could I do to get my data back? I don't wanna lose Allll my data.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome DROPS7 mate if you are referring to the C: (OS) drive then you cannot format it while it is in operation - I stand to be corrected though.

If you have damaged the drive then maybe you might like to use this

BOOTABLEUBUNTU

Makea bootable Ubuntu disk http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Setthe BIOS to boot from the optical when the machine boots it will show you ascreen with TRY or INSTALL > select TRY. You can of course remove the hard drive and any otherdrives when doing this as if the optical alone is the only drive left in themachine then the BIOS will only find it to boot from.

Whenit is finished - it takes very little time you will get a screen like in thepic .

Openthe drive you want > User and dig down until you get to the data / settingsyou may be able to copy / paste the material you want to an external source orother installed drive doing this.

Iam not sure if it will but I have recovered tons of data etc using this methodboth on "dead" or just plain drives that you cannot get data fromusing Windows.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

So I popped in Hirens boot CD and used one of those formatting tools.

Which formatting tools and what exact operation was executed ?. I don't think it was a formatting operation - that will only resulted in loosing a single partition. I assume you used "HDD Low Level Format Tool" which is actually a zero wiping utility. If that is the case, MBR, Partition Table and starting portion of first partition will be already wiped out. The first partition could be either the 100 MB "System Reserved" or the actual "C" drive.

I would suggest booting the system using "Partition Wizard" boot CD and try the partition recovery function.

Partition Wizard Boot CD : Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.


How to recover lost partitions : Recover files by partition recovery with partition magic - MiniTool Partition Wizard.


Partition Recovery | MiniTool Partition Wizard Official Video Guide - YouTube


Let us know whether "Partition Wizard" can detect any of the three lost partitions.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hmm well it might have been worth while mentioning what you formatted the drive with as I was unaware of that situation :sarc: