can i recover files from an external hard drive that was wiped out by a virus?

Question

the virus is now removed but so are my files that were in there. is there a program that really works great and is free? also like to add that i was in a different state when this happened, it was on my brother's computer..so does that matter? can i still recover the files by plugging the external harddrive into my computer?

snvffy, um, the virus definitely deleted my files. trust me, i would know..because there was a crapload of stuff on my external hard drive and they were there the night before, and no one was messing with the computer at all. they disappeared the next morning, my brother's stuff had been deleted a couple days before, no one was messing with anything

Answer 1

You could give this free program a try:

http://www.recuva.com/

plrr

Answer 2

Let's be honest, the virus didn't delete your files, you or someone else did that. On an external hard drive, I even doubt it was a virus at all. Just my educated opinion, but then I'm always learning.

Now, it's possible to unerase files provided you have software to search for deleted files and then recover them. If you've done a lot of reading and writing on the hard drive since the incident, then you may not be able to get anything back.

I have Norton Utilities and it has an unerase wizard to recover deleted files. There are lots of others too. Don't give up until you've tried one of these, but also don't be "playing" with the hard drive until you get some serious recovery software.

Good Luck

Answer 3

I can recommend Recover My Files. I used it to recover files from an external hard drive that was corrupted from a virus and it got everything back for me.

http://www.recovermyfiles.com

Answer 4

yahoo answerers are enthusiastic about formatting drives, re-installation residing house homestead windows and defragging complicated drives, often it fairly makes no experience to do any of those anti malware like malwarebytes and loose antiviruses like comodo or avira antivir can remedy maximum complications, in the adventure that yourcontinual has viruses they're going to infect the newcontinual and also try to be in an analogous position in uncomplicated words with 2 contaminated drives, very few viruses or malware will reason the computer to no longer boot up because of the very shown reality that that ought to defeat what the hackers %. to do, attempt booting into protect mode or booting from the installation disk and dealing the fix console

Answer 5

Hey there,
One of the best recovery tools I used is wondershare data revcery. Free download here http://j.mp/1uUryVy
It's a good free solution.
Have a nice day