When I connected my external hard drive to the computer, it gave me an error. The error message read 'You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it. Do you want to format it now?' I went ahead with formatting only to realize all my data is gone. Is there any way to get back my data? Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

format disk

If you have formatted your hard drive owing to these format errors or due to corruption, bad sectors or any reason, please do not worry! All your data can be recovered easily. The guidelines provided here can help you recover data from formatted external hard drives in the safest and most effective way.

It can be very hard to deal with the data loss after formatting hard drives. With SFWare, it is formatted external hard drive recovery made easy! It offers the safest, most reliable & user-friendly approach to recover formatted hard drives on both Mac and Windows!

Note: If you have not yet formatted the drive, please click CANCEL in the prompt. Then recover data from the external hard drive. Once you have recovered data, you can further evaluate the errors and repair the drive.

What is the need for formatting an external hard disk?

There are many reasons why you would need to format an external hard disk. The most prominent reasons are explained below.

SFWare – Best in-class software for formatted external hard drive recovery

If you have formatted your hard disk and lost all data on it, then SFWare is the go to choice for you to recover data. It has the ability to recover all of your formatted data from hard drives within minutes.

How SFWare Works?

When you run the SFWare software, it performs a sector-wise scan of the formatted hard drive. The scan will roughly take about 30 minutes or so depending on the size of your hard drive.

It identifies all the files using unique signatures and recovers them. Not only formatted, the software also also restores data from corrupt external drive.

Basically, using SFWare, you can recover Word & Excel documents, Photoshop files, images, videos, PPT’s, PDF’s, notes etc.

With SFWare as your choice, you need not worry about identifying or finding recovered files after recovery. This tool will recover files in the most user-friendly way with the original folder hierarchy and file names.

With support for multiple devices, SFWare is capable of recovering data from formatted hard drives (both internal & external), USB’s and SD cards. the softwaare can recover data from the external hard drive that goes unrecognized by the computer

Moreover, it can work with both hard drives and SSD’s with interfaces like SATA, SCSI & IDE. Plus, all brands of hard drives like Seagate, WD, Toshiba, Samsung, SanDisk etc. are supported by the tool.

The next section provides some simple steps to recover data from formatted drives using SFWare recovery tool.

How to recover data from formatted external hard drive?

Avoid situations that lead you to format the external hard drive

Removing external hard drives from the computer without safely ejecting it is the main reason for corruption. This usually leads to errors that prompt you to format the drive. Hence, in order to avoid this situation, ALWAYS make it a point to use ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ option before removing the hard drive. Only after doing that, unplug the hard drive. This will prevent corruption issues to a great extent.

Your data is precious. Do make a backup plan and enforce it in your regular routine. It will save you a tremendous amount of energy, time and money if you happen to encounter a data loss situation.

Main Screen - Fig 1
Select Physical Drive - Fig 2
Recovery Scanning - Fig 3
Preview Recovered Files - Fig 4
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