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I've accidentally formatted my 5TB storage drive (I got so angry with myself that punched the wall and broke my right hand over it) but luckily all the important files are still in "excellent" recoverable condition. Problem is I don't have any other place big enough to salvage the files over to. My immediate option at this point is to use the formatted drive I'm recovering from.

Does recovering from the same drive essentially overwrite the other data I'm trying to recover? Should I just wait and buy another 5TB drive to put the recovered files in?

Journeyman Geek
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1 Answers1

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If the data has value for you, the least you should consider is a separate drive to restore the data to. Honestly, if the data is valuable to you, you need to be looking at two drives. One to make an exact clone (use CloneZilla or something similar) of the existing, formatted drive in case you mess up your recovery step, and a separate drive to serve as the destination.

If I was to use only one additional drive, I'd use it to perform a duplicate of your existing drive, then attempt to recover the data on the existing drive.

It all depends on how valuable the data is, though.

ChrisInEdmonton
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