Retrieving data from an initialized HDD

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broulik

Commendable
Dec 22, 2016
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Hi guys,

I did something terribly stupid to my WD HDD and hope that there is a way to undo it.

I have a 1TB WD My Book Studio external HDD (with a WD10EADS drive in it). I used a FAT 32 file system on it and had about 500 GB of data on it.

For a stupid reason, I disassembled the external HDD and put the actual drive into a Windows XP PC. There I clicked to "initialize" the drive.

Only too late I found that this deletes the master file table and that I thus won't be able to access the data any more.

Do you have any suggestion how I could the data back?
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
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Various programs (iRecover being one, never used it but heard good things) supposedly recover data after initializing (even 'quick' formats IIRC), but it may be worth evaluating what you had on there and whether you could live without it.

Initializing doesn't format/erase anything, but it does destroy the tables that record where to find everything. Overly complex files (detailed excel tables etc) may never be usable again, even if recovered. Word docs & pictures usually work out fine. Videos & music can be very hit & miss.
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

Judicious
Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there broulik

That is really unpleasant. :(
I would agree with the other guys, you need to use some data/partition recovery software.

Yet, you need to put the drive back in the enclosure, as most probably, the device features hardware encryption. There's a chip in the enclosure that encrypts the data, and you will not be able to access it unless the drive is in the enclosure.

Let us know in case you have some more questions,
D_Know_WD :)
 
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