can unformat quick format drive d

After I performed a clean install (not upgrade) of Vista B2, I quick formatted drive D. I need to unformat it. How do I do that? Prefer Vista built-in option, if available.

Formatting wipes the drive clean, gets it ready for a new installation. You don't unformat things, you just format them again.
My suggestion would be to reinstall XP or what have you and go from there.
When you install XP, what you need to do is to delete the partition and then recreate it, a straightforward operation. The option for that happens early in the install, so watch for it.

Toasty, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. Maybe I did not state it clearly enough. I installed the OS on drive C, and that is working fine. After I completed installing the OS, I used Vista to perform a Quick Format on drive D. I minute after I did that I relialized that Vista had altered my drive letter designations, and I formatted the wrong drive. I understand that Quick Format does not remove files, only cleans the File Allocation Table (or directory tree structure). So what I would like to do is recover the information on drive D, which is the one I Quick Format, and not on drive C, which is the OS drive. Thanks again.
"Toasty O's" wrote:

Formatting wipes the drive clean, gets it ready for a new installation. You don't unformat things, you just format them again.
My suggestion would be to reinstall XP or what have you and go from there.
When you install XP, what you need to do is to delete the partition and then recreate it, a straightforward operation. The option for that happens early in the install, so watch for it.

Hey there
There are a lots of programs to unformat ntfs drives. Try google with those keywords.
-- Try, learn, experience.
"rmonzon" wrote:

Toasty, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. Maybe I did not state it clearly enough. I installed the OS on drive C, and that is working fine. After I completed installing the OS, I used Vista to perform a Quick Format on drive D. I minute after I did that I relialized that Vista had altered my drive letter designations, and I formatted the wrong drive. I understand that Quick Format does not remove files, only cleans the File Allocation Table (or directory tree structure). So what I would like to do is recover the information on drive D, which is the one I Quick Format, and not on drive C, which is the OS drive. Thanks again.
"Toasty O's" wrote:
Formatting wipes the drive clean, gets it ready for a new installation. You don't unformat things, you just format them again.
My suggestion would be to reinstall XP or what have you and go from there.
When you install XP, what you need to do is to delete the partition and then recreate it, a straightforward operation. The option for that happens early in the install, so watch for it.

I went looking, most of the stuff out there is "pay for it" software. I did find a program called smart data recovery that might help. I don't know if it will recover your partition table, but you should be able to recover any files you have lost. The best part is that it is freeware. http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Backup_and_Copy_Utilities/Smart_Data_Recovery.html
I tried this program and it seemed to work, although I was hesitant to quick format anything to replicate your problem. It did recover files that I had deleted.
Good luck
-Toasty O's
"rmonzon" wrote:

Toasty, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. Maybe I did not state it clearly enough. I installed the OS on drive C, and that is working fine. After I completed installing the OS, I used Vista to perform a Quick Format on drive D. I minute after I did that I relialized that Vista had altered my drive letter designations, and I formatted the wrong drive. I understand that Quick Format does not remove files, only cleans the File Allocation Table (or directory tree structure). So what I would like to do is recover the information on drive D, which is the one I Quick Format, and not on drive C, which is the OS drive. Thanks again.
"Toasty O's" wrote:
Formatting wipes the drive clean, gets it ready for a new installation. You don't unformat things, you just format them again.
My suggestion would be to reinstall XP or what have you and go from there.
When you install XP, what you need to do is to delete the partition and then recreate it, a straightforward operation. The option for that happens early in the install, so watch for it.

Toasty and Rahi, Thank you Rahi for pointing out the existence and value of google as a reasearch tool. I did check google before I posted my question on this board, and found out that most of the freeware programs available allow you to recover deleted files, but no unformat drives. All the programs I saw that can recover from a format are fee-based, anywhere from $30 to $100. So, I guess I'll have to shell-out some cash if I want to recover my files. As far as I can tell, Vista does not give you the option to perform an unformat. I'll check the link that Toasty forwarded. Thanks again for the time and effort.


"Toasty O''s" wrote:

I went looking, most of the stuff out there is "pay for it" software. I did find a program called smart data recovery that might help. I don't know if it will recover your partition table, but you should be able to recover any files you have lost. The best part is that it is freeware.
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Backup_and_Copy_Utilities/Smart_Data_Recovery.html
I tried this program and it seemed to work, although I was hesitant to quick format anything to replicate your problem. It did recover files that I had deleted.
Good luck
-Toasty O's
"rmonzon" wrote:
Toasty, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. Maybe I did not state it clearly enough. I installed the OS on drive C, and that is working fine. After I completed installing the OS, I used Vista to perform a Quick Format on drive D. I minute after I did that I relialized that Vista had altered my drive letter designations, and I formatted the wrong drive. I understand that Quick Format does not remove files, only cleans the File Allocation Table (or directory tree structure). So what I would like to do is recover the information on drive D, which is the one I Quick Format, and not on drive C, which is the OS drive. Thanks again.
"Toasty O's" wrote:
Formatting wipes the drive clean, gets it ready for a new installation. You don't unformat things, you just format them again.
My suggestion would be to reinstall XP or what have you and go from there.
When you install XP, what you need to do is to delete the partition and then recreate it, a straightforward operation. The option for that happens early in the install, so watch for it.