AltDataRecovery - UnFormat

UnFormat can recover files that are lost after the partition has been formatted. If you accidentally format a partition and forget to backup some import files, that is the right option for you. The UnFormat function will not change the content in the target source partition. It can find out what files can be recovered by just scanning the source partition. Therefore, even you already have files in the newly formatted partition, you can recover files from it without moving the files.

The UnFormat task can be finished in three simple steps.

Step 1. Select a target partition to scan, then click Next to start.

Select a target partition

Step 2. Select the files that you want to recover, then click Next to continue.

Found Files List, the scan result

Step 3. Select or enter a directory where you want to store the recovered files.

We highly suggest you to select a directory that is not located in the same partition as the source partition. Because if the recovered files are copied to the partition, they will eventually replace the space that contains the source data. As a result, you will not able to get all the files you selected in the previous step.

Recovered file store directory selection

Finish: Recovery Result

The Recovery Result shows the report of the recovery task.

Finish

UnFormat Options

UnFormat provides one scanning option.

1. Use MFT for NTFS: Every file in an NTFS's volume has an entry in NT's Master File Table (MFT for short). The MFT includes references to all folders and files stored on the NTFS partitions. By default, this option is uncheck. If you reformatted a partition by accident, you should keep the default setting so that UnFormat will scan all files ignoring all file system structures. For a corrupted partition, you should enable this option in order to use the current MFT to scan for files