If you reinstalled the operating system and formatted one or more partitions of the hard drive, you may need to recover important information. To do this, it is recommended to use additional utilities that search for the desired files.
Necessary
Recuva program
Instructions
Step 1
Try the free utilities first. A striking example of this is the Recuva program developed by Piriform. Download this utility. Please note that the site offers both free and premium versions of the program.
Step 2
Open the Recuva utility after installing its components. Do not use the area of the hard disk where the deleted files were located to store the program.
Step 3
After starting the program, the menu of the deleted information search wizard will open. Specify the type of files you want to recover. To do this, select the appropriate category, for example "Pictures". Click "Next".
Step 4
Select a local drive, external drive, or specific folders to be scanned for deleted files. Click the Next button to go to the next menu.
Step 5
Check the box next to Enable Advanced Analysis. Remember that this function can be omitted if you started recovering files immediately after deleting them. Click the Get Started button. Wait for the scanning process of the specified areas to complete.
Step 6
After a while, a new menu will appear, containing a list of found files. Check the boxes of the ones you want to restore. Use the Preview function if you want to make sure you have selected the correct files. Click the Save button.
Step 7
Select an external drive or a folder on your hard drive where the selected information will be copied. After the Recuva utility has finished, open the specified directory and check the integrity of the files.
Step 8
Remember that this is far from the only program designed to recover data after formatting. Use another utility if the described program failed to fully cope with the task at hand.
