http://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1lmz5m/my_mom_accidentally_formatted_her_external_1tb/
[–]king_of_blades 15 points 9 hours ago (18|3)
Then I’d say that there’s almost 100% chance that she will be able to restore the data. That should make her panic less. That said, if it’s so important for her business I’d go to a data recovery company.
I probably would be able to help you if you know your way around a computer, but I’d really advice you get some professional help.
[–]TheBigC 13 points 7 hours ago (15|1)
I would reiterate King’s comments. Unless this is something you have done in the past, take the drive to a professional. They will charge $100 but your mother will likely get every single picture back. Then setup a proper backup and consider yourself lucky. The reason I say professional is that yes many utilities will recover deleted files, you may only have one opportunity to do it right. Do it wrong, or use a poor tool and you are done.
[–]king_of_blades 5 points 9 hours ago (5|1)
I assume that the drive is connected to a functional PC. She didn’t delete her OS? While it’s theoretically possible to fix the drive “in place”, meaning to make the deleted files appear on the drive again, I’d try to avoid modifying the drive in any way. That will let you seek professional help it you can’t restore it yourself.
Do you have another drive with enough free space to restore the files to it?
[–]NoSleepReader [S] 2 points 9 hours ago (3|1)
Yea we also own a 3TB external hard drive.
The drive is connected to a functional PC and the only thing deleted was everything on the 1TB external hard drive.
I’m very tired. It’s 2AM, I’m going to go to sleep. I will be sure to leave everything as is and follow up with you in the morning. I appreciate the help.
[–]garrettskj 4 points 8 hours ago (5|1)
As soon as you recover it…
Www.crashplan.com
Seriously best $60.
[–]YoshiMagick 2 points 1 hour ago (2|0)
I recommend DMDE to rewrite the file structure.
Hard Drives usually keep backups of the file structures in the last 128 sectors of the drive, and they can usually be recovered after a format.
You can use recuva as well, but DMDE would retain most of the names of the files as well as the folder structure. Recuva will probably give them all back to you unnamed and in one folder.
DMDE is a rather techie tool though. I recommend reading the manual or googling some guides.
Just keep in mind that the more unsuccessful tries you have with software the less of a chance you will get more of your files back. Also, after this is over, you might consider making a back up or two.
[–]almyz125 1 point 5 hours ago* (1|0)
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
I’ve tried recuva with no luck. The link above has worked for me. It’s not free though…
http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/08/11/5-must-have-file-recovery-tools-for-linux-users.html
one of the tools in the link above is specifically for lost or corrupted photos. ^
There is also some open source tools for linux.
[–]unabletofindmyself 1 point 19 minutes ago (1|0)
I’ve used Restorer Ultimate (and other older versions of it) many times over the past 6-7 years to recover multiple TB of data across many drives and my even a crashed RAID-5 array, granted it didn’t restore everything, but it got about 85%.
heredago's blog 