Undo quick format with unformat freeware

Posted by Tim to Data Recovery Tips on April 10th, 2017

Did a quick format on the wrong 2TB external hard drive and now I have lost all my documents and movies. Is there a way to undo quick format and get all data back?

The answer is YES.

Don't touch the drive after quick format

The first thing you must do is stop using the formatted drive immediately and don't write any new data to the formatted drive where you are planning on recovering data from it, otherwise, you will overwrite the lost data so that the lost data cannot be recovered properly.

Generally speaking, a quick format doesn't really format the entire drive, your files are not permanently gone from your drive after a quick format, so there is still a chance to undo quick format and get data back as long as you have not overwritten the original data.

To undo quick format and get data back, you need a professional unformat freeware to help you get all data back. There are many data recovery software utilities in the market, but iBoysoft Data Recovery is the best unformat freeware.

Unformat freeware

iBoysoft Data Recovery is a professional unformat freeware which can recover lost data after quick format on hard drive, external hard drive, USB drive, flash drive, CF card, memory card, memory stick, USB stick, SD card, pen drive, etc. in Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 and Windows Server 2016/2012/2008/2003.

Tutorial to undo quick format and get data back with iBoysoft Data Recovery

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

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

Unformat freeware

Step 3: Select the quickly formatted partition and click Next to scan the data from formatted partition.

Scan data from quickly formatted partition

Step 4: The lost data will be found in several minutes, select the files you expect and click Recover to save them.

Recover lost data after quick format

Important thing: Please don't save the recovered files to the quickly formatted partition where you are recovering data from it, otherwise, the lost data will be overwritten so that they cannot be recovered properly.

Besides to undo quick format and get data back, iBoysoft Data Recovery can also recover lost data from RAW partition, recover lost data from inaccessible partition, recover deleted files even if emptied from Recycle Bin, recover deleted or lost partition, recover lost data from failed/corrupted/inaccessible BitLocker encrypted partition etc.

What happens during a quick format?

When you quick format a partition, the operating system would reset the FAT or MFT on the partition so that the FAT or MFT is now blank. It also marks all sectors as available so that new data can be wrote.

Does quick format permanently erase my files?

The quick format operation is often used as a way of deleting the entire contents of the partition. However, there is a big difference between deleting and erasing. A quick format only resets the FAT or MFT, it does not erase the contents of the partition. The files are still on the partition so that they can be recovered by data recovery software.