How do I recover files from formatted hard drives?

The other day I was watching TV while my cousin suddenly came to my room and played my PC. I thought he was just sitting there and watching cartoons as usual but did not recognize that he was clicking everywhere on it. Later he ran out of my room without telling me what he did to my computer. That night when I started my PC to reply some e-mails to some business partners as a routine in my daily life, I suddenly realized that my hard drive on D partition had been formatted where all my job data and files were kept there. I felt hapless and got stuck in my mind for having no idea of how to recover data from formatted hard drive. How can I recover files from formatted hard drives?

Overview of format

The Format commands are typically run to prepare a new logical drives for use after Fdisked hard drive - enabling the installation of an operating system, application programs & eventual user data. The format command has been around for a long time, formerly they were stand alone DOS programs before being integrated into Windows.

When you format a disk, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (that is, those that are scratched), and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. You must format a disk before you can use it. Formatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the data on the address tables. Do not be panic, if you accidentally reformat a disk that contains useful data, a computer specialist should be able to recover most of the information on the disk. You can also buy programs that enable you to recover a disk yourself. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is an ideal software for you to recover formatted hard drives on your own.

Symptoms of format

Where previously the computer would boot and be usable, systems that have been Formatted often report the following errors: (these errors are frequently displayed on a black screen with white text.)

• Operating System not found
• Invalid or corrupt FAT
• Cannot find file or program
• Invalid command.com
• Primary/Secondary Hard disk failure
• Non system disk
• Disk error

Or when a partition has been formatted, the all data would disappear.

How to recover files from formatted drives with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard?

1. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, install it and launch it. Click the "Complete Recovery" button on the main window of Data Recovery Wizard. (If you cannot boot the computer, please use data recovery bootable disk or connect the hard drive to another computer as slave to recover lost data.)

Tip: If the hard disk has mistakenly deleted volumes, hidden volumes, drives with failed operation/file system, you should use "Partition Recovery".

2. Select the file types you want to recover and volume where the formatted hard drive is. The program will automatically scan the selected volume.

3. Then the founded data will be displayed on the screen and you can get a preview of it. Then select the file or directory that you want to recover and save them to a healthy drive.

Caution: Saving file(s) to the partition or drive where you are recovering data, for it may result in overwriting data and permanent data loss!

Please see "Complete Recovery" for more details.

For more information of formatting drives, please see: How do I format a hard drive?