Windows 7 Formatting parition question!!!!

[gt11990]

Hi i had a laptop with windows 7 on ti nad 4 paritions on 200 gb hardisk and the laptop had a problem so i gave it back to where i got it from. I formatted one parition with the system format tool and i was wondering if any one can get that data back if they wanted to.

Thanks

 

[ickymay]

yes if they felt the need

 

[gt11990]

well can they get everything because i had pictures thatswhat am worried abotu and the pictures where over 5000 and i had a lot of data films music and everyhting which filled up the whole 60gb partition coudl tehy get these pictures and how

 

[ickymay]

well can they get everything because i had pictures thatswhat am worried abotu and the pictures where over 5000 and i had a lot of data films music and everyhting which filled up the whole 60gb partition coudl tehy get these pictures and how

a program such as power data recovery can get data back regardless of it's partitioning or formatted state and the only true way to get rid of your files would be to use a data shredder , It's a bit late to worry about it now though isn't it ?

 

[gt11990]

yh well i just wnated to know oh well if the person wants to get the data then they can but what i dont understand is that even that the hard disk was full and i formatted and it was all clean with free space how can they get it back where does this data go and get stored in order to get it back becuase the harddisk is 200gb and it has 200 gb free space so where is all these data going :S

 

[ickymay]

yh well i just wnated to know oh well if the person wants to get the data then they can but what i dont understand is that even that the hard disk was full and i formatted and it was all clean with free space how can they get it back where does this data go and get stored in order to get it back becuase the harddisk is 200gb and it has 200 gb free space so where is all these data going :S

well in simple terms the data remains written but it has no index or file structure so is more difficult to access

 

[gt11990]

you lost me there lol but how comes the hard disk still has free memory on it and seems like nothings on it does the hard drive have a secret addtional memory or what ever i dont know and if data has been written on the hard drive and not on the parition which i deleted the files from can it still be recovered or if the partitions are remerged would the data still be there ok simply would the data taht i formatted get lost forever

 

[fjgold]

The only way to completely erase all data from a hard drive is to write 0's to the entire disk, thus overwriting any data remaining.
A normal format justs frees the disk up to be overwritten.
Without an index or filestructure an OS will see the drive as empty and will allow files to be written there.

If you want to recover files after a format you need to stop using the drive and use recovery software.
If you continue to use the drive your chances of recovery become less as more data is written thereby overwriting the data you are trying to recover.

I'm not really to sure that you can recover much data from a freshly formatted drive.
I know that deleting files doesn't really delete those files, deleting justs frees up the space taken up by those filews so they can be overwritten.

A lot depends on the method used to format.
A quick format simply removes the file index etc.

A complete (slow) format actually overwrites the disk.

A program that purports to completely erase using methods approved by the US Dept of Defense actually writes 0's to every part of the drive at least 7 times.
Good luck recovering data from such a drive.

Another way to ensure no data remains readable on a drive is to physically destroy it, that is grind it up to little pieces.

The feasibility of recovering data from a "clean" drive is a good reason to be careful when you sell or give a computer away, especially if you've had sensitive data on it.

Removing and keeping the drive is one way to prevent problems from unauthorized access.
Investing the time (considerable for a big drive) by using a Dept. of Defense approved application to overwrite the entire drive is another.
A third alternative, and probably the most fun is to take a big hammer to the drive, reducing it to small pieces.
Remember to wear safety glasses. LOL

 

[RAK]

When you delete files, the first letter of the file name is replaced with a dollar sign. In programming technology, this effectively makes it "non-existent" In that stage, it is easily recovered with a hex editor. It will not be using any resources, including memory, and merely exists as someelectonic "marks" on the Hard disk.
If you do a quick format, the hard disk is rearranged into sectors. This will scramble some of the file for ever, but only a few. In a hex editor, again, it is more difficult to spot the individual files.
With a full format, the whole hard disk is overwritten. A retail shop would not, normally, have the facility or interest in trying to recover data, at that stage.

 

[fjgold]

Thanks RAK for the additional info.
I didn't know the "nuts and bolts" of what happens when you delete files or format a drive.

I had to perform a complete format on a drive once because of some type of corruption.
It wasn't even recognized by Windows setup so I couldn't even install XP on it.
I used Darik's Boot and Nuke CD and it took several hours.
If I remember the documentation correctly Darik's Boot and Nuke
wrote 0's to every part of the drive. This restored the drive to as new condition requiring the drive be initialized.
Doing this saved the drive.

The various drive makers offer similar software.

 

[gt11990]

OK that cleared a lot for me ok now all am asking is simply that i did a slow format not quick via the os format tool from one partition which i created new before the data was on it. so now what are the chances of recovering all the data i need to know because i am paranoid that the laptop might be sold to someone else and they might recover my data i didn’t have passwords or nothing like that on it but feels and pictures i had big files like 3 to 4 gb i just don’t want no one recovering the pictures from it and i had lots i know it’s stupid i learned from my mistakes am never going to put anything important on to the laptop.

Also a few days before the format i deleted a few things from that formatted partition and deleted from the recycle bin, now that the partition is formatted can these files be recovered, because these were private pictures and if the c drive is formatted and reinstalled with a operating system can these data be recovered

Thank you for you time you are helping me a lot

 

[RAK]

Relax. It is going to take a "boffin" to find anything there.

 

[gt11990]

so simply its gonna be very very hard to find data and waht about recycle bin files the ones i mentioned would that be recoverble easily

thank you so much

 

[gt11990]

RAK

What you mean by
"It is going to take a "boffin" to find anything there"

 

[gt11990]

Thank you all, this made m efeel better becuase i read on the net one many sites that recovery is possible any way thank you for you help every one you all are most helpfull people and thank you for making time for my problem :

 

[gt11990]

One tiny question more

As i said before i had 4 pictures on the formatted partition and i deleted it by the delete butotn and then i deleted it from the recycle bin. and now the parition is formatted can thos pictures be recovered by anyone or did it get completly erased when i formatted the parition and the opearting system was windows 7