wnat to recover data with original folder structure from formatted drive

[hulabear]

Hello:

 

I mistakenly formatted a 1 terabyte drive and wish to use Minitool Power Data Recovery to save the data

onto another hard drive while preserving the original directory/folder/files structure. The support page

for this freeware is fairly clear on how to run the program and get to the point where LOST and RAW folders

are displayed. The LOST folder has many ROOT entries and the RAW folder has entries for many file types (BMP,

GIF, JPEG, etc.). I have been able to save files and then access the data on the output drive; many of the

images seem a bit corrupted, but many are OK. If any of you folks have much experience using the Minitool

Power Data Recovery software, please help me out with this task. Again, I want to save the recovered data

from the formatted drive onto the output drive so that there is the same directory tree (is that the correct

term?)as on the source drive. Thanks!

 

----HulaBear

 

PS: The files found by the Minitool total more

than 2.8 terabytes from a 1 terabyte drive. What's

up with that?

[Synapse]

I've never used Minitool, but have done alot of data recovery jobs.

 

Has the drive been formatted and not used?

 

Also, I ought to point out that full recovery is possible in a lot of cases, but its not an absolute, you may find a few corrupt files.

 

The best way I have found is to scan the drive and the software will give you a file/folder representation of what it has found. From there you can choose your entry point, ie the full drive, Documents folder, Pictures folder etc. and recover only that data.

 

I know Minitool is free, and it obviously does the job, but in a long drawn out way - thats where commercial software comes into its own. For a large drive, forget that software and look to something a bit more specialised, here are two I have used with success.

 

EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional - Hard Drive Data Recovery Software Utilities & Disk Recovery Tools in Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows 7.

 

Recover Windows Data. Get Back Data. Deleted File Recovery Programs

 

Both have trial versions so you can have a play and look at what can be recovered.

[hulabear]

Synapse:

Thanks for the reply. When I mounted the drive from which I am trying to recover data, Windows XP

created RECYCLE and SYSTEM INFORMATION (for system restore) folders; otherwise nothing has been

written upon that drive. I am hoping that I'll be able to get my files back without laying out money for

commercial software; I'm on disability and rather short of funds. Tried TESTDISK but it only displayed

the RECYCLE and SYSTEM INFORMATION folders; maybe I did something wrong. Any ideas? 'Bye!

---HulaBear