Unformat a Partition

Partition is a term used to identify a certain part of the hard drive. On the user level the word 'partition' may be used as a synonym for logical drives, which is not completely correct, as some partitions may be invisible to the user with no letter assigned (for example, Linux-formatted partitions are not visible under Windows). However, if you use Windows as the only operating system on your computer, there's not much difference between partitions and logical drives.

Usually you need to format a partition to prepare it for using with your operating system. Many people also use formatting as a way to clean up their hard disk, to get rid of unnecessary files, to deal with different kinds of threats (like viruses and hacker attacks). In many cases formatting may be not the best possible solution, but it's pretty easy to perform, and it may be much quicker than searching for the roots of the problem.

But sometimes, just after clicking the confirmation button to start formatting, you remember or find out that some data wasn't backed up. And you need to undo formatting immediately.

Well, as long as you don't write anything onto the newly formatted partition, there are good chances that you will be able to recover formatted data. This can't be done with the usual system tools, although the situation was different back in the days of DOS, when small utilities named 'unformat', or 'uformat', were distributed with the operating system.

To restore files on a formatted drive, you need a data recovery tool. Advanced NTFS Recovery is a good choice, as it can perform all kinds of data recovery tasks: recover mistakenly deleted files, restore formatted partition, restore data on a damaged hard disk. The program works with both NTFS and FAT file systems (they are native to Windows, NTFS is often seen as the successor of FAT, but it is true only for large drives). Unlike similar undelete programs that simply scan the file table for recently removed files, Advanced NTFS Recovery can perform a full scan and restore even those files that the system itself can't access anymore (for example, due to a break in the power supply during the writing process).

If you want to recover a formatted partition, just run Advanced NTFS Recovery. A simple wizard will guide you through the process of recovery. If you didn't use the newly formatted partition to save any information there, the program will be able to restore most (or even all) of your files.

Only remember, that writing to the partition that you want to recover will inevitably destroy some data on it. So, don't use the partition for installing software or saving files. The less you save the better are chances to retrieve files from the formatted drive.

You can download evaluation version of Advanced NTFS Recovery and try it for free. You can also download these files if you'd like to upgrade your product to the latest version.