Formatted file systems: chances for recovery

Windows file systems

Windows file systems include FAT/FAT32 and NTFS.

File system: FAT/FAT32

• Formatting: File allocation table is destroyed. New root folder is created.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: File name, size and on-disk position remain inside directory record (other than root directory) increasing file recovery chances up to almost 100%.

• Recovery of fragmented file: Chain of file clusters is destroyed leaving no information about file fragments. Known remain file name, file size and start position. Using heuristics it's possible to guess fragments locations, however, without any guarantees as for correct guess.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for FAT
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery

File system: NTFS

• Formatting: Master File Table record is marked as 'unused'. Bitmap of used space is updated to release used clusters. File entry is deleted from directory record.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: File name, size and on-disk position remain inside Master File Table record increasing file recovery chances up to almost 100%.

• Recovery of fragmented file: Information about file name, size and fragments chain remains inside Master File Table record increasing file recovery chances up to almost 100%. Recovery chances are lower for very fragmented files which use more than one Master File Table entry.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for NTFS
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery
  UFS Explorer RAID Recovery
  UFS Explorer Professional Recovery

Linux file systems

Linux file systems include Ext2, Ext3 and Ext4, XFS, ReiserFS.

File system: XFS

• Formatting: XFS destroys map of used clusters and writes new root directory. File allocation groups are updated as well.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: Most information about user files remains on disk. Chances for recovery are near 100%; whereas chances to retrieve real file name are near 95%.

• Recovery of fragmented file: The same as for non-fragmented files.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for XFS
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery
  UFS Explorer RAID Recovery
  UFS Explorer Professional Recovery

File system: Ext2

• Formatting: All allocation groups as well as file nodes are wiped.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: Only heuristics allows to recover good files but without real file names.

• Recovery of fragmented file: Only advanced heuristics allows to recover good files but without real file names.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for Ext2/Ext3/Ext4
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery
  UFS Explorer RAID Recovery
  UFS Explorer Professional Recovery

File system: Ext3/Ext4

• Formatting: All allocation groups as well as file nodes are wiped. Depending on driver file system journal may still contain information about some most recently created files.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: Only advanced heuristics and journal analysis allow to recover good files, however, in most cases without real file names.

• Recovery of fragmented file: Only advanced heuristics and journal analysis allow to recover good files, however, in most cases without real file names.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for Ext2/Ext3/Ext4
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery
  UFS Explorer RAID Recovery
  UFS Explorer Professional Recovery

File system: ReiserFS

• Formatting: The file system creates new S+-tree over the existing one.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: S+-tree node may still remain on disk (a copy in file system journal and an old copy, created with copy-on-write). In this case file recovery chances could be up to 100%.

• Recovery of fragmented file: The same as for non-fragmented files.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for ReiserFS
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery
  UFS Explorer RAID Recovery
  UFS Explorer Professional Recovery

BSD, Solaris, Unix file systems

Unix-like file systems include UFS and UFS2.

File system: UFS/UFS2

• Formatting: All allocation groups as well as file nodes are wiped.

• Recovery of non-fragmented file: Only heuristics allows to recover good files but without real file names.

• Recovery of fragmented file: Only advanced heuristics allow to recover good files, however without real file names.

  We recommend to recover files with:
  Raise Data Recovery for UFS
  UFS Explorer Standard Recovery
  UFS Explorer RAID Recovery
  UFS Explorer Professional Recovery

Clustered file systems

SysDev Laboratories LLC offers data recovery from such file systems as Apple Xsan (CentraVision file system, StorNext file system), RedHat Linux Global File System (GFS), VMware ESX Server Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) as logical data recovery services. If you need to recover data from any of such file systems, feel free to contact us and request remote recovery service.