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Free Unformat Software to Recover Data from Formatted Drive

Published/Updated on Wednesday, May 7, 2025

M3 Software author Yuri Zhang

Written by

Yuri Zhang

English

Summary: This article introduces unformat software -iBoysoft Data Recovery, which unformats a hard drive, recovers lost data from a formatted drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card, etc., in Windows. 

Unformat freeware

If you've mistakenly formatted a drive, especially one that held important files, don't panic. In most cases, you can recover your data, especially if you act quickly and avoid overwriting the drive. Let me offer a real-world instance.

I was trying to reformat an external hard drive but I ended up formatting my secondary internal hard drive by mistake. Is there a way to unformat hard drive and recover lost data from formatted drive?

The simple answer to this question is "Yes".

Simply formatting a partition only wipes its partition table, then the partition will be shown as empty, and the files will look like they have been gone. However, the data is still there, formatting just unlinks all the files in the file system and marks their entries as writable space so that new data can be written.

If you formatted a partition by mistake and want to get data back, the best way is to keep the formatted partition alone and don't write any new data to it. Then find a unformat software to recover lost data from a formatted partition.

 Note: In Windows Vista/7/8/10, if you Full Format a partition, Windows would erase the data completely after full format so that the lost data cannot be recovered. Fortunately, the default format option is Quick Format.

Share these messages to inform others that the formatted drive is retrievable.

 

What to do immediately after formatting by mistake 

1. Stop using the drive immediately. Do not save or copy any files to it.

2. Do not install recovery software on the formatted drive. Use a different drive for the installation.

3. Use reliable data recovery software to scan and restore your files.

Unformat software: iBoysoft Data Recovery for Windows

iBoysoft Data Recovery is a unformat tool which can unformat hard drive and then recover lost data from formatted hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card, SD card, external hard drive, recover deleted files even if emptied from Recycle Bin, recover lost data from deleted or lost partition, recover lost data from RAW drive, etc.

Tutorial to unformat a hard drive and recover lost data from a formatted drive

Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery Free on your computer.

Step 2: Run iBoysoft Data Recovery and choose the "Data Recovery" module.

Unformat freeware iBoysoft Data Recovery Free

Step 3: Select the formatted drive from which you want to unformat data.

Recover lost data from formatted drive - iBoysoft Data Recovery Free

Click Next to scan the lost data from the formatted drive.

Step 4: Select the files you expect in the formatted drive and then click Recover to save them.

Click Next to scan the lost data from the formatted drive

 Tips for Successful Recovery: Avoid full formatting unless you are sure the drive is no longer needed. Always double-check the drive letter before formatting. And create regular backups to prevent future data loss.

Spread this handy tool to help others in the same dilemma of formatting.

 

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How to fix RAW external hard drive without formatting and recover files? 

How to convert RAW to NTFS without losing data or formatting?