The cause · somebody formatted it
Which format ran? That one answer sets the ceiling on everything else. Nearly always it is the quick sort, which swaps the index over and leaves the files where they sat — the mild end of data loss, and most of those folders come home with names and dates on them. A full format that reached the end is another matter, and it is better said on the phone than after you have paid for postage. The calls sound the same from Reading, Newbury, Woodley, Didcot or Henley-on-Thames: somebody clicked Format on the wrong disk. Stop there, ring, and the diagnosis costs nothing.
An engineer answers, and looking is free
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| What you notice | What is likely wrong | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Windows asked to format it, and you agreed | A fresh, empty index now sits over the old one | Leave it alone — the files are still underneath |
| The drive opens empty, and every byte shows as free | The listing alone was replaced; what it pointed to has not shifted | Put nothing else on it |
| A full format taken to completion | Since Vista, a full format puts a zero in each sector, and a zero holds nothing | There is nothing left to read |
| A full format stopped part-way | Whatever the zero pass never reached is intact | Stop it and cut the power |
| diskpart's clean command | Takes off the partition table and no more; the volumes underneath stay put | Almost always recoverable |
| diskpart's clean all command | Writes zeros across every sector — the same outcome as a full format allowed to finish | Nothing readable remains |
| An SSD that was quick-formatted | TRIM has been sent, and the controller is emptying cells with nobody instructing it | Take the power off at once |
A case number goes on your device the day it reaches us, and an engineer then finds the real fault — free, and before anything else happens. You are told plainly what will come back and what will not, with one fixed figure in writing beside it. Nothing chargeable starts until you have read that and said yes.
Clean all, clean, a full format or a quick one — which was it, and did it run to the end? That sets a firm limit on what can be read back, and an engineer settles it before anyone discusses your chances.
The work happens on the image; your disk is not written to. What is left of the old file system gets lifted clear of the replacement and pieced back together. Where enough of its records can still be read, names, dates and the original folder structure all come back with the files.
Where nothing structural is left, each file is picked out by the header its type begins with and taken off the image entire. Where a record still points at one, the name comes back with it.
You see the file list first, then decide. Nothing is invoiced until you have said yes, and on most jobs there is no fee at all if the data does not come back. What we pull off goes onto media bought in for your job, and the postage home is ours. The case stays open on the bench until you tell us the files open on your own machine.
Put plainly: a quick format on its own is good news and usually a short job. A full format that finished, or clean all typed into diskpart, is the opposite — every sector has had a zero deliberately written into it, the Windows behaviour from Vista onwards, and there is nothing underneath left to look for. Any firm that says it can undo a completed full format should be asked to explain the mechanism. Here the answer costs nothing and comes before any figure is quoted.
Two 2TB disks of the same model sat in the one tower, and the format went to the one holding the family archive rather than the spare. A quick format only writes a new index; everything underneath it stays where it was, which is the whole reason there was anything left. Nothing had been written to the disk since, so the archive came back exactly as it went on.
Normally everything. On a hard disk a quick format goes only as far as writing a fresh and empty index; the sectors beneath it are never touched. Your files have not moved — the catalogue that named them has simply been replaced. Provided nothing else gets written to that disk, most of the folder tree returns with its names and dates attached.
It can, but only if a full format ran all the way to the end. Since Vista, that pass writes a zero into every sector it crosses. A quick format writes none. That one distinction settles most of these jobs.
Switch the machine off. Keep the disk out of service and have an engineer image it before anything else touches it. Every file saved from this point settles over something that was still readable.
No. Quick-format an SSD and the TRIM signal is normally sent within the second; the controller then empties the freed blocks on its own account. Cut the power and ring. Of every format job that arrives here, this is the one where waiting costs you most.
You pay nothing for the look. What comes back is a list — the files that opened, the ones that did not, and one fixed figure to finish the job. Leave it switched off until you have that in writing.