Lost all my files from my external drive, help?!

[david12795]

Ok so long story short, i accidentally deleted all the files on my external drive while using compuapps swiss knife, and NTFStoFAT32 to converter another external drive. Stupid me, I got the drive letter mixed up.

Does anyone have a way to recover the files or majority of it? i have used "pc inspector" and "recover my files" none have seemed to work. so i figured i asked a personal suggestion here.

 

[jmbreci]

What OS? Making sure I am clear - you converted it from NTFS to FAT32?

Not going to necessarily endorse this, but try http://download.cnet.com/VirtualLab/3000-2248_4-10610841.html

It got decent reviews.....do searching on Download.com or Sourceforge for others. I have not (personally) done this for years and am more knowledgeable on the pay programs.
http://download.cnet.com/VirtualLab/3000-2248_4-10610841.html

 

[david12795]

i am currently using windows XP professional. that programs says it only backs it up. i am trying to recover.

no, my story is that i was trying to convert an external hard drive but i accidentally formatted my OTHER external drive instead(which had crucial files) on swiss knife. but it didnt successfully changed from NTFS to FAT32. its still the same but it doesnt show the "brand" icon anymore.

 

[david12795]

can anyone else help me? i managed to find all my files, BUT recover my files ( a program) wasnt free at all

 

[seen]

I don't think there are any programs that are free which will do what you want. You should decide if the data you can recover is worth the cost of the recovery program.

 

[david12795]

touche, ill see what ill do then. unless i find a hack program but itll be full of viruses.

 

[Altanis]

I can't vouch for the program or anything, but Recuva from Piriform supposedly can recover files.

 

[Megazell]

I've used both recently to recover files from dying Laptop drives.

http://download.cnet.com/PC-Inspector-File-Recovery/3000-2248_4-10118663.html

http://download.cnet.com/Pandora-Recovery/3000-2094_4-10694796.html

Both are free and legal.

 

[m6oo]

FYI - I've had better luck with PCInspector with the drive mounted as a slave drive directly to the MoBo rather than going through USB.

Also, if some of the files you are trying to recover are images, try PC Inspector Smart recovery. It recovers only specific types of files (ie. images) but does a better job of it because it uses knowledge of the file format to aid recovery, rather than trying to recover any arbitrary file type.