Recovery formatted data with ext3 disk?

amaj1407 · 07-14-2008, 07:36 AM

Hello every one,

I installed slackware and when I am asked to choose the directory for installation (a.k.a "/"), I choose my data harddisk by mistake then it's formatted. Now I want to recover my files. My hd is a 500gb but the files are approximately 410gb. After formation I can see only the LOST+FOUND directory and nothing else.

Using testdisk gave me "the following partition can't be recoverd".

So, can I recover them?

farslayer · 07-14-2008, 09:07 AM

well step one would be pull the power on the system and do NOT do anything with that drive mounted as read/write..

Boot from a CD containing forensics tools and see if you can carve out the old files from the drive.
Even better would be to make two images of the drive using dd and see if you can carve the files from one of the images, so as not to damage any data left on the original drive.

Helix and backtrack2 would be two viable options for forensics work on a Linux machine.

amaj1407 · 07-15-2008, 03:11 PM

I already used such tools, testdisk -as you know- is used for tasks like that, the following image I got when using testdisk
http://www.upload2world.com/pic93/up...orld_fedf4.jpg

which says that my hd is more than 500gb, but I really know my hd it's just 500gb and when I continue I get
http://www.upload2world.com/pic93/up...orld_b4faa.jpg

I hope this will help you to help me.

thank you farslayer for suggesting dd I don't know it but I will read about it.

amaj1407 · 07-15-2008, 03:14 PM

I forgot to say, now I am downloading backtrack3 and see if I can do something with it.

amaj1407 · 07-21-2008, 03:29 PM

OK, after I have a new HD to put the recovered files on it using PhotoRec, i was able to recover picture files perfectly and most of the MP3s but AVIs, FLVs and many movie files I can't recover them properly. So is there any tools to fix movie files OR is there any other technique I can use to recover movie files. I USED BACKTRACK BUT I CAN'T GET SUCCESS WITH ITS TOOLS.

Electro · 07-21-2008, 05:44 PM

A data recovery service is the only way to get the data back if you have formatted and stored some data on it. The good data recovery service can actually retrieve data that has been deleted and over written many times.

In future, disconnect the drive that do not want to format. It be less confusing when you do format.

amaj1407 · 07-22-2008, 11:24 AM

Quote:

In future, disconnect the drive that do not want to format. It be less confusing when you do format.

This what I will do next times I install an OS. Thank you for the advice.