I really need help. I accidentally formatted my WD My Passport external hard drive, and I’m panicking. It had a lot of important files, especially some irreplaceable videos and photos of my 6-year-old daughter. These memories mean the world to me, and I can’t believe I might have lost them forever.
Is there any way to recover data from a formatted drive? I haven’t written anything new to the drive after formatting it. Are there any tools or methods that can help get my files back?
Hi @MHXY
Don’t worry if you haven’t added any new data to the drive after formatting, the chances of recovery are good. Formatting doesn’t erase the actual data—it just removes the file system references.
You can use windows data recovery software to scan your WD My Passport. It can recover data from formatted external drives.
All you need to do is install the software, connect the drive, run a quick scan, and check the preview of recoverable files. If you can’t find your files in quick scan then you can opt for deep scan feature, available in the software.
There is a free edition of this software, which will let you recover up to 1GB of data, if you want you can try the it first.
Avoid using the drive until recovery is done to prevent overwriting.
Where were the videos and photos when you placed them on the Passport? Are they still there?
Don’t panic—you can still get your daughter’s photos and videos back. When you format a drive, the files aren’t erased; only their map is removed, so recovery is possible if you haven’t added new data. Use a photo recovery tool, like Stellar, as @EstherEdward suggested. Install it on your computer (not on the WD drive), connect your drive, and scan it to find your files.
Since you haven’t used the drive after formatting, your chances of recovery are good.
Software used by DR pros :
https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3208
I recommend DMDE.
If you only need photos and videos, R-Photo is freeware.
Note that some recent Passport models are SMR drives. These support TRIM. If your data have been TRIM-ed, then all your “recovered” files will be full of zeros. The free version of DMDE will allow you to recover up to 4000 files of any size from any folder per click.
As @EstherEdward mentioned, your files can still be recovered as long as nothing new has been written to the drive. Formatting doesn’t fully erase data—it just removes the file system, making the files invisible but still present until they’re overwritten. To avoid permanent loss, stop using the drive immediately. Use trusted data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery, Recuva, PhotoRec, or EaseUS to scan the drive. Install the software on a different drive (not the one you’re recovering from), and make sure to save any recovered files to a separate location. Avoid writing anything to the original drive until recovery is complete.
