# Accidently deleted my entire storage drive... how to recover?



## hat (Jan 20, 2013)

I did a simple delete command by launching Diskpart, and "cleaning" a disk. I wanted to clean a different drive, but what I did was wiped out my entire storage drive. Since this is not quite a secure erase function, I'd imagine the data should be easy enough to recover... but I've never done this before.

What would be the best tool to use for this? Also, this disk is being treated like a new hard drive by my system. I would have to make a new partition on it to be able to access it. Would this have any bearing on my file integrity?


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## natr0n (Jan 20, 2013)

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Try this. I used it with great success.


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## newtekie1 (Jan 20, 2013)

http://www.icare-recovery.com/

I use icare, it isn't free but it lets you scan the drive and tells you what files it was able to find before you pay for the software.

Whatever you do don't create a new partition and format it, the more you use the drive the less data you will be able to recover.


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## hat (Jan 20, 2013)

Did a bit of poking around and tried a program called Testdisk. It rewrote the partition in a flash and so far everything seem intact. I guess all Diskpart's "clean" command does is wipe out the partition.


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## de.das.dude (Jan 20, 2013)

i laugh at your pain hat


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## lyndonguitar (Jan 20, 2013)

I use Pandora Recovery, I always delete using shift-del so I had similar problems when accidentally deleting files, I am always using Pandora to recover files and so far I get all of it back.

The largest one that I recovered was my whole steam folder. I accidentally uninstalled it(I thought you would be given the option to backup your games. but it didnt)


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## RejZoR (Jan 20, 2013)

Whatever you do, DON'T TOUCH THE DRIVE AND DON'T INSTALL ANYTHING ON THAT DRIVE!

First, get a same sized or bigger portable HDD and make a 1:1 clone of the drive (sector by sector copy). It might take few hours to copy but if the data is important, do it. Install the backup software on other drive.

Why? So you can freely poke the ruined drive and try to recover it. If you make things worse for whatever reason, you just recover the 1:1 copy and start over. This way you assure you can't lose the data during recovery process itself.


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## qubit (Jan 20, 2013)

hat said:


> Did a bit of poking around and tried a program called Testdisk. It rewrote the partition in a flash and so far everything seem intact. I guess all Diskpart's "clean" command does is wipe out the partition.



Great you got your data back - I feel your pain man!

But you know what I'm gonna say now, don't you...?

*MAKE BACKUPS!!!*

And keep them reasonably up to date.

I can't stress this enough. 

I use the freebie Karen's Replicator which has done me proud for over four years now. I generally make a backup once a day and sometimes more often. On top of this, my data drive is actually two drives in raid 1, for extra protection.


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## Aquinus (Jan 20, 2013)

qubit said:


> MAKE BACKUPS!!!



This. 
Always backup your stuff before you consider doing anything to your drives. Even if you don't mean to touch the drive you want to be working with.


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## Mussels (Jan 20, 2013)

as george takei would say


Oh my

:/


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## ...PACMAN... (Jan 20, 2013)

Mussels said:


> as george takei would say
> 
> 
> Oh my
> ...



Made me lol, just having a nice Sunday morning coffee browsing the forum and Mr. Bloody Sulu makes me spit it everywhere


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## qubit (Jan 20, 2013)

...PACMAN... said:


> Made me lol, just having a nice Sunday morning coffee browsing the forum and Mr. Bloody Sulu makes me spit it everywhere



Yeah, ya gotta watch out for Mussels, he's like that. He should really come with an impending joke warning.


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## de.das.dude (Feb 27, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> i laugh at your pain hat



me and my big mouth.

i deleted the partition of my download folder  confused:


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## Jetster (Feb 27, 2013)

Sad just Sad. Backups are for when I do shit like this


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## de.das.dude (Feb 27, 2013)

Jetster said:


> Sad just Sad. Backups are for when I do shit like this



and it was the un-backed up part 

test disk is too slow... more than an hour and only 7% passed


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Feb 27, 2013)

I backup every hour. Annoying when I'm watching a video because it will pixelate but I can't get around that with my settings.


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## de.das.dude (Feb 27, 2013)

:S just figured i was using test disk wrong. following their tutorial. i got the deleted partition back, but i tried to skip some time and ended up deleting another partition from the bootsector XD


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