Data Recovery Software?

[Guest]

A client of mine recently accidently formatted his 20 gig drive. He only ran format for a few seconds, but it was enough that he cannot find some of his much needed files. I think the FAT tables were wiped out. He unfortunately has already reinstalled windows on the drive, but he has not installed much.

He has used a trial program to test and see if he can recover some of the data that he's looking for, but he's not sure that all of the data is there. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with data recovery and could maybe recommend some software or a company that would be good for recovering his data. Time isn't of the utmost importance, so he could ship the drive to a company for recovery.
-Dee's Troy

 

[Guest]

If only he had not re-installed. It really depends how many times the particular data he is after has been written over. There are many software packages...EG Norton Un-Erase, Adaptec Go Back etc etc etc that will find deleted stuff on your HD by going through the FAT index system. Hower in your clients case there is only one solution feasible solution, and that is advanced data recovery. As long as he stops using the drive immediatly, most data recovery labs will be able to analyze his drive and based on magnectic readings, predict what his previous information was with surprising precision. Kind of like how scanners have their interpollated resolution...anyways try the following link:
http://xlink.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/xlink/xlink/search.html?Uch=50&Utype=D&Utext=data+recovery&db=PC+Magazine