author avatar
8 April 2024  Ashley S. Miller  Specialist of Customer Service Dept.
 

Summary
Discover the secrets to effortlessly restoring your lost or deleted files with our comprehensive guide on data recovery from a formatted external hard drive. Dive into our tutorial for practical, effective solutions that will help you bring back your data in no time.



Table of contents

table iconI. About formatting
table iconII. How to recover data from formatted mobile hard disk?
table iconIII. Regularly back up the mobile hard disk to avoid data loss
recover formatted external hard drive

I. About formatting

1. What is formatting?

High-level formatting and low-level formatting are two main types of formatting. High-level formatting, also known as logical formatting, is done through the operating system to prepare the hard disk for data storage by deleting all existing data, resetting the file system, clearing data, generating boot area information, initializing the FAT table, and marking bad sectors. Once the hard disk is formatted, all file data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered from the system’s “recycle bin.”
Low-level formatting (Low-Level Formatting), also known as physical formatting, is a pre-requisite for high-level formatting and is typically done in the DOS environment. Hard disks are low-level formatted by manufacturers before being sold, so users usually do not need to perform this operation unless there are issues like bad sectors causing data access errors or operating system failures.
The format operation can set the file system suitable for different operating systems for the hard disk, such as NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, HFS and APFS, etc. It should be noted that during the formatting process, all files and folders on the disk will be deleted, so it is recommended to backup hard disk data.

2. Can the data be recovered after the mobile hard disk is formatted?

It is possible to recover data from a mobile hard disk after formatting, but certain conditions need to be met.
① Quick format the mobile hard disk.
When Windows formats a disk, the Quick Format option is checked by default. This option only rewrites the boot record and clears the root directory table, but does not detect bad clusters or clear the data area. This means that the data on the disk can still be recovered through technical means.
format the hard disk
② After the extended hard disk is formatted, no new data is written
When a mobile hard disk is formatted, the data is not immediately erased but marked as “deleted“, allowing for potential data recovery if no new data is stored on the disk.
After understanding formatting, this will introduce formatted data recovery for mobile hard disks. Use professional data recovery software like Renee Undeleter, which supports Windows and Mac systems and is easy to operate.

II. How to recover data from formatted mobile hard disk?

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a software designed to restore various data files, including file recovery, formatting recovery, partition recovery, and image creation. It can help solve data loss problems for built-in hard disks, mobile hard disks, SD cards, U disks, and other storage devices by scanning and restoring files. The software also supports file previewing for accurate recovery.
Renee Undeleter - User friendly & Helpful Formatted Data Recovery Software

Easy to use 3 steps to recover formatted data back.

Multi Recovery Modes File recovery, Whole partition recovery and Whole disk recover are available.

Support Different File Types Photos, videos, audios, files, emails, etc.

Image Creation Creat image for disk or parititon.

Compatible with Different Devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB disk, computer, etc.

Easy to go 3 steps for whole recovery.

Multi Recovery Modes Files/partition/disk recovery modes.

Support Different Devices SD card/USB disk/hard disk, etc.

Free TrialFree TrialFree Trial 800 users have downloaded and found data back!

2. Use Renee Undeleter to recover data lost due to formatting

Step 1: Download, install, and run Renee Undeleter on the computer. Select the (Whole Partition Scan) option in the main interface for disk formatting, partition file system changes to RAW, etc. If this function fails to find the desired photos, choose the (Whole Disk Scan) option for a more comprehensive scan. This option also supports partition loss and partition becoming “unallocated”.
Note: Do not install Renee Undeleter in the disk where data is lost to avoid data overwriting.
select whole partition scan in renee undeleter to recover deleted video from sd card
Data recovery function introduction:

  • Fast Partition Scan: Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
  • Whole Partition Scan: Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
  • Whole Disk Scan: Analyze and obtain partition information, and fully scan the entire partition.
  • Image Creation: Image Creation image for a partition to back up the current partition state, and then restore data from the mirror file.
Step 2: Next select the removable hard disk partition that needs to recover data from. After the selection is complete, click (Next).
Renee Undeleter Whole Partition Scan
Step 3: Wait patiently for the scan to complete. You can double-click the file to preview it. If it is the file you need, please check the target file and click the (Recover) button.
preview before recovery
undeleter preview docx
Step 4: Click the (Browse) button to select another hard disk partition to save the files, and click (Restore). Wait for the recovery to complete, click (Browse recovered files) to view the recovered files.
recover the whole disk data

III. Regularly back up the mobile hard disk to avoid data loss

While data recovery can be a vital tool, it is important to note that it does not guarantee a 100% success rate for retrieving lost data. To safeguard against data loss on your mobile hard disk, it’s recommended to perform regular backups utilizing reliable hard disk backup software. Software such as Renee Becca provides capabilities for automatic, regular backups and is versatile enough to manage a variety of backup objects, including systems, hard disks, partitions, and files.

1. What is Renee Becca

Renee Becca is a tool for system and hard disk data backup and restoration. It uses incremental/differential backup technology to save time and disk space. Supports system, partition, hard disk, file backup, disk cloning, and system migration.
Renee Becca - Reliable Data Backup & Restore Software

Quick Backup files at up to 3,000MB/min.

Fullfill different backup needs Supports system backup, disk / partition backup, file backup and disk clone.

Intelligent Automatically analyze the differences between source and backup data.

Convenient Support VSS, allowing to freely view webpages when backing up system.

Highly compatible Supports various files and storage devices.

Quick Backup files at up to 3,000MB/min.

Fullfill different backup needs Backup for disk, partition and system. Save disk space by backing up incremental /differential data.

Highly compatible Supports various files and storage devices.

Free TrialFree Trial 2000 users have downloaded and enjoy Renee Becca!

2. How to use Renee Becca to regularly back up the mobile hard disk?

It is very simple to regularly back up the files in the mobile hard disk with the help of Renee Becca. The specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Download and run Renee Becca on the computer, select the (hard disk/partition backup) option in the main interface (backup) column to back up the data of the entire hard disk or partition. Use the (file backup) function for individual important data backups.
backup data in disks and partitions
Step 2: Select the mobile hard disk that needs to be backed up in the source file (device) and choose the hard disk partition to store the backup data in (destination). If backing up the partition, select the Partition Backup option in the upper right corner.
backup parition now
Step 3: In (Task Scheduler), you can set the daily/weekly/monthly regular backup and the time to automatically start the backup.
backup disk daily, weekly or monthly
In addition, in (Backup Scheme)-(Scheme Type), you can also choose a suitable backup scheme mode according to your personal needs. Renee Becca has 5 backup schemes to choose from, namely, version chain mode, single version mode, overall mode, and incremental mode. Quantitative mode and differential mode.
backup mode of Renee Becca
Renee Becca has 5 backup plans to choose from:
Version chain mode: Only the latest 5 versions are kept, and useless old versions are automatically deleted after the backup is completed.
Single version mode: Only the latest version is kept, and the previous version is automatically deleted after the backup is completed.
Entire mode: Creates a full backup.
Incremental mode: After the initial full backup, only incremental backups are created.
Differential mode: After the initial full backup, only differential backups are created.

Step 4: Finally, click the (Backup Now) button to start executing the command to back up the mobile hard disk according to your settings.