Reach for the wrong format option and your files aren’t actually gone — a quick format only clears the index, leaving the data untouched until a later write lands on it. Down tools on the device and formatted hard drives, SSDs, cards and USB sticks can very often be recovered, right here in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk SD card (256 GB) · camera → Status: FORMATTED — file system reset, data intact → Client: confidential · Woking GU2 8XH $ bdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → Previous file system: rebuilt → Found: 3,180 / 3,210 files $ bdr verify → ✓ photos — 2,940 files → ✓ video — 240 clips → ✓ formatted card — recovered
A quick format leaves every file intact, but that lasts only until something fresh is written over them. So hold the OS reinstall, put nothing new onto the device, and shoot no more photos to a formatted card — each of those can overwrite what’s still there. Fewer writes mean more recovered. Park it and get in touch.
Nearly all formats are the quick kind, and those leave your data recoverable — only a few scenarios erase it for keeps. Below are the ones we handle most.
Formatted data is something we recover across every storage type and every major make — if your files are on it, chances are we can help.
The disks inside laptops, PCs and Macs; hard drives and SSDs; external and portable units; and flash of every kind — USB sticks, SD, microSD and CF.
Formatted-media recovery runs copy-first. Your original device is never worked on live — it’s imaged, the old file system is rebuilt on that image, and only then are your files pulled off it.
Describe what got formatted and the circumstances; we assess whether the data is still recoverable and a written quote follows, usually within 48 hours.
The device is copied to a forensic image and everything runs on that copy, so the original is never touched or overwritten.
We track down the earlier file system — the previous $MFT and boot sector under NTFS, the previous FAT tables and root directory under FAT/exFAT — frequently still whole behind the empty new index, and rebuild it so your original folders, names and dates return.
Whatever can’t be relinked from that old file system is carved from the raw sectors by content, each format matched on its header and footer — JPEG’s FF D8/FF D9, PDF’s %PDF/%%EOF, the PK of ZIP and Office — so files surface even with no directory at all, and the passes are then merged.
Everything recovered is checked — signatures verified, documents and images opened, checksums compared — so what returns genuinely opens, and carved copies of files already found via the metadata are stripped out.
The set goes onto fresh media, ordered and ready to use.
That media is posted back, or the recovery offered as a free download for up to 75GB.
Formatted disks of every sort — hard drives, SSDs, external units, USB sticks and memory cards — with the old file system rebuilt and documents, photos, video and the rest carved back, always from a forensic copy.
Tell us what was formatted and we’ll get back to you, usually within a working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
No surprises and no pushiness — a free diagnostic and a written quote come before any work.
A few recent formatted-media jobs across different devices. Identifying details stripped, every result verified.
Being a camera quick format, the data was untouched. We took an image, restored the earlier file system, and returned nearly every photo and clip.
Its index had been reset while the data stayed exactly where it was; rebuilding the file system brought every document back whole.
From an image we restored the old file system and carved the remainder, retrieving most of the data before anything could overwrite it.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
What people most often ask about recovering formatted drives, cards and sticks.
Usually, if the format was a quick one. All that writes is an empty new index — a fresh $MFT or FAT table — over the top, while your files stay in their clusters. Where the old file system survives we rebuild it to restore names and folders; the rest we carve on signature. The exceptions are a full format that zeroes the disk and TRIM on an SSD, which really do clear the data.
The quick sort just wipes the index and leaves the data alone: a new $MFT and boot sector on NTFS, fresh allocation tables on FAT/exFAT, the clusters themselves untouched. A full format under modern Windows goes further, writing zeroes across every sector — and that genuinely destroys the data.
Down tools on it at once. Don’t reinstall the OS, don’t copy anything onto it, save nothing new — all of those overwrite the formatted data. Then get in touch; the earlier you stop, the more we recover.
Yes — formatted camera and phone cards are one of our most frequent jobs, since cameras format quick. So long as nothing’s been shot over the card since, the photos and videos can usually be rebuilt.
No, leave it be. That prompt normally signals a corrupt or unreadable file system — a damaged $MFT, a scrambled partition table — not lost data; the files are still present. A format would drop a fresh index over the top and make things harder, so send it as-is and we rebuild the volume off a copy.
Sometimes, though less reliably than a hard drive, stick or card, and we won’t oversell it. TRIM is the reason: on most internal SSDs, once the volume is formatted the controller erases the freed blocks in hardware within seconds, often leaving nothing to carve. With TRIM disabled, or on a USB-attached SSD that doesn’t pass it through, the odds climb — the diagnostic gives you a straight read.
Laptop, PC and Mac internal disks; standalone hard drives and SSDs; external and portable units; and USB sticks alongside SD, microSD and CF cards. If it can be formatted, we can usually help.
£250 + VAT for cards and USB sticks, £300 + VAT for hard drives, behind a free diagnostic and no fix, no fee on most jobs. As logical recovery it sits among our cheaper services — and the exact figure is confirmed in writing before we begin.
Most formatted jobs are through inside one to three working days, often less, the diagnostic itself usually back within 48 hours. Something genuinely urgent can jump the queue — just flag it.
Hand it in at our Guildford unit on a weekday, 9am to 5:30pm, or send it fully insured. Seal it and slip your details inside — name, address, phone, email — for booking-in, and once it’s here the free diagnostic and a written quote come before any work.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and formatted-media recovery off any drive, stick or card. The less you write to it, the more comes back — begin today.