Forum Discussion
How to recover formatted external hard drive using cmd?
I’ve been in that situation before — once you’ve formatted the drive, stop using it right away to avoid overwriting data. You can try this data recovery software, it’s super easy and works great for recovering formatted drives:
Check this tutorial: https://www.ulitewin.com/recover-files-from-formatted-hard-drive
I actually used this tool to recover my important project files — got so lucky!
Since other users have already explained how to use Windows File Recovery, I want to share how to recover your formatted external hard drive using another free command-line tool called TestD1sk. It’s great for recovering files after accidental formatting, especially if you haven't written new data to the drive. Here's how to use it:
- Download and unzip TestD1sk from cgsecurity.org.
- Run testdisk_win.exe as Administrator.
- Select Create to start a new log.
- Choose your external hard drive from the list.
- Select the partition table type (usually Intel/PC).
- Choose Analyse to scan for lost partitions.
- If partitions are found, select and Write them back to the disk.
- Optionally, use Advanced > List to browse and copy files to another drive.
If these free tools don’t recover your data fully or the drive is badly damaged, you can try pro tools like 4DD1G Data Recovery. It’s user-friendly, supports deep scan for formatted drives, and has a higher success rate for complex data loss.