Two very different operations share the name. A quick format takes seconds, writes a fresh empty index and leaves every file physically in place. A full format takes hours and writes zeros over the lot. How long yours took tells you most of what you need to know.
$ cdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk SD card (256 GB) · camera → Status: FORMATTED — file system reset, data intact → Client: confidential · Newmarket CB8 $ cdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → Previous file system: rebuilt → Found: 3,180 / 3,210 files $ cdr verify → ✓ photos — 2,940 files → ✓ video — 240 clips → ✓ formatted card — recovered
A format writes a new file system over the old one. The new structure describes an empty volume, and the previous structure — the one that knew your folder names, file names and dates — has been overwritten even though the file contents have not.
So recovery works in two ways. Where enough of the old file system survives, we rebuild it and files come back with names and folders intact. Where it does not, we carve by signature: scanning for the recognisable headers of JPEGs, documents, videos and databases and reconstructing files from their content alone.
Signature recovery works well and returns files identified by type rather than by name. On a card full of photographs that is usually entirely acceptable. On a folder structure someone spent a decade building, it is a real loss even though every file comes back.
Every new file written lands in the space your old files occupy. The single most damaging thing after a format, and the most common.
A second format writes another file system over the first, damaging any remnants of the original structure that survived. It never helps.
On modern Windows this zeroes the volume and ends the matter permanently. If the first format was quick, a full one afterwards destroys what was still there.
Formatted media recovery starts at £250 +VAT for cards and USB and £300 +VAT for drives. Logical class throughout, so no fix, no fee applies.
Where diagnostic shows a full format has zeroed the volume, we tell you it is unrecoverable and there is nothing to pay. That happens often enough to be worth stating up front.
Very likely not. Cameras perform a quick format, which rewrites the directory and leaves every image physically on the card. Stop using it and the odds are excellent.
Recoverable in most cases, provided it was a quick format and nothing has been written since. That prompt appears when Windows cannot read a file system, so the underlying data was usually intact.
Partially. An installation writes tens of gigabytes but not across the whole volume. Files outside those regions frequently survive, though folder structure rarely does.
Sometimes. Where enough of the old file system survives, yes. Where it does not, files come back sorted by type and content rather than by original name and location.
No. Every new photograph lands in the space the old ones occupy, and you have no control over which. Put the card aside and use a different one.
Two to five working days. Logical work is the quickest class we handle, and signature carving on a large volume is the main thing that adds time.
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.