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I accidentally formatted an external hard drive on mac with Disk Utility from NTFS to FAT32. I'm looking at TestDisk to see if I'm able to recover the data that was on there, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it back..

Is this even possible? And if so, how would I do this?

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Tim Baas
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  • The short answer is no if you formatted it its empty I cant think of anywhere where the data will be kept for recovery – ThunderToes Aug 18 '14 at 13:03
  • This is possible if only the partition table data was erased and not the whole drive (i.e. if it took less than 5 minutes to erase the disk). You should be looking at [this TestDisk guide](http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step) or use professional recovery software like [Stellar Phoenix](http://www.stellarinfo.com/) or [similar tools](http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/). Make sure you recover the data to a separate external disk. – Vinayak Aug 18 '14 at 13:19
  • @Vinayak Thanks. I did indeed only delete the partition. It was done in less than a minute. I'm now scanning the drive with Stellar Phoenix for lost partitions. It already found two, but no NTFS partition. Only FAT32 and HFS+. – Tim Baas Aug 18 '14 at 13:33
  • I'd use TestDisk first and then switch to other tools if TestDisk doesn't seem to help. Take a look at the step-by-step guide and follow the instructions. If you get stuck, ask a question at the [CGSecurity Forum](http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/) and you could get an answer from Christophe Grenier himself (author of TestDisk). – Vinayak Aug 18 '14 at 13:39
  • If possible, [create a disk image](http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Image_Creation) using TestDisk and then work on that rather then actual disk. If you're unable to recover the partition you might try using [PhotoRec](http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec) instead, a file scavenging tool which is bundled with TestDisk. – and31415 Aug 18 '14 at 13:47
  • @Vinayak I already signed up for the forum to find help, but my activation e-mail isn't yet delivered.. I'll ask for help there when my activation is completed. – Tim Baas Aug 18 '14 at 14:01

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You may have an opportunity if you made a quick format (which delete the data asignation table and not the real data) and not a long format (which replace the data of your harddisk with zeros).

I recommend you recuva, it's a windows only recovery tool which will recover your files if them are still there.

There is another similar question with various answers with more applications to test if recuva don't work for you.

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