Can an Undelete Program Recover Files Lost to Formatting?

Reader Tyree wrote in to ask the following question about recovering files from a formatted memory card:

I was just wondering whether PC Inspector Smart Recovery can retrieve items that were deleted when accidentally formatting on my camera. I pressed “Format”, and then all the pictures were gone. The screen said “No Files Exist”. I wonder whether the program will be useful to me in trying to recover the lost images!

As always when the subject is data recovery, the answer is “maybe”. I say maybe because there is never a guarantee that deleted files can be recovered. The storage device might be corrupt, a new file or files may have overwritten a portion of the deleted files, or they may just be irretrievable. But there is usually a chance that data recovery software like PC Inspector Smart Recovery will be able to recover your files.

How data recovery works

Formatting a storage device is like ripping out the table of contents, but leaving the actual pages intact. The pages are still there, but we don’t know where to find them. If you wanted to read a particular chapter, you would have to go through the book page-by-page until you found it.

When you format a storage medium such as a memory card or a hard drive, you are simply emptying out the table of contents. The space each file occupies is not overwritten at that moment. Instead, since the file is no longer listed in the table of contents, its space would be considered “available” should the operating system need to save a new file in the future.

Because of this, it is very important to stop using a memory card or hard drive from which you need to recover deleted files. If you were to save a new file or take a new photo, the new data may get written over the deleted file you wish to recover.

When you use a program like PC Inspector Smart Recover, it scans through the entire storage device piece by piece, looking for data that appears to be a deleted file. If it finds something intact that is not listed in the new “table of contents”, then it may have recovered a deleted file.

Are you likely to get your files back?

The likelihood of recovering your files depends on what type of storage device you formatted. Since Tyree is talking about the memory card from a digital camera, a file recovery program may be able to help him. You get good mileage with memory cards, USB thumb drives, external hard drives, and extra internal hard drives because you can stop using those devices the moment you realize that your files have been lost.

If you format the primary storage device of a computer though, such as the C: drive of a Windows PC or your Macintosh HD, you need to be more careful. In this case you will need to use another computer to run the data recovery software on the drive — if you reinstall your operating system on the formatted drive before trying to recover the files, you may overwrite the deleted files with the OS’ system files.