Recover data from reformatted and reinstalled OS laptop hard drive

[Syd6679]

My laptop had a virus and crashed, couldn't boot it or do anything. Reinstalled windows 7 on it. Is there a possible way to recover my lost data?

PS: the laptop hasn't been used after reinstallation.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

The laptop may not have been used since re-installing Windows, but the process of reformatting & re-installing will have overwritten the data you now wish to recover, so chances of recovery are slim. You should have kept backups of your data before the virus problem.

You can try recovery software but you'll need another hard drive (external one if a laptop) to save any rescued data to, you can't save rescued data to the same drive you are rescuing it from.

Free recovery software: http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-best-free-data-recovery-tools

 

[Syd6679]

I bought a 2 TB external drive to store rescued data so I won't be rewriting on same drive. I plan to borrow my cousin's laptop to connect the laptop drive and external storage, then start.

Thanks for giving me hope that I can do a recovery.

I will remember to backup regularly once I recover and sort everything. I will schedule auto backup from now on.

Which would be the best software for indepth search and rescue? I do have a paid version of get data back ntfs. But if there's a better one please inform me.
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thanks