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Can You Recover Data after Format CF Compact Flash Card

Have you ever formatted your compact flash card by mistake or by intention? What if you have no backup of files important and precious, such as pictures, videos and audio files saved on the formatted compact flash card? I guess you must want to find them back after the compact flash card being formatted. The question is that do you have any idea how to retrieve your losses from a formatted CF card. You should keep reading for the solution as follows if you do not know.

Case of formatting the compact flash card accidentally

I have a 4GB compact flash card and there are massive files saved on it. All those files are valuable and crucial for me, so I cherish them a lot. But there comes an unfortunate thing that the compact flash card was formatted by accident last night. I don't dare to think how it happened. I want to find back my lost information very much but there is no way for me to start the restoration. What can I do to retrieve all my lost pictures and other files from the formatted CF card? -Adam from Australia

How to retrieve lost data on compact flash card which has been formatted with data recovery software

If you happen to encounter such formatted memory card matter as example above or other similar compact flash card situations, ask data recovery software for help if you need to restore lost information from the formatted CF card. The following steps will show you how to do:

Recover data from formatted CF card

Preparation: Download and install data recovery software on your computer. Connect the CF card to your computer and launch the software. Then, select a proper recovery module.

1Connect the formatted compact flash card to the computer with the help of a card reader.
2Download and install the data recovery software on the computer.
3Open the data restoration software. Choose the recovery model and aim disk to scan.
4Preview the contents in the list after scanning and select files need to be retrieved to recover.

Notice of which should be took when get back files from the formatted CF card

You should be careful once your compact flash card was formatted accidentally or intentionally if you have to get back files from it. Some file may can not be recovered successfully if you perform operations wrong on the formatted compact flash card. The most possible reason is that those files are overwritten. Here are some cautions as follows to ensure the full of retrieval:

1. Do not save any new data on the formatted compact flash card. You may want to check whether the compact flash card still have the ability to save information after being formatted, so store some new files on it. It is very dangerous actually, because the original data may be overwritten.

2. Do not reformat the compact flash card which has been formatted once. You may think that the reformatting action can get back your lost data, so you format your formatted compact flash card again. But unformat is not equal to reformat. What’s more, reformatting will cause the second damage to files saved the compact flash card.

3. Do not download and mount the data recovery tool on the formatted compact flash card. You need to choose the location to save the data restoration tool when you install it. Please store it on one of the computer disks.

4. Do not store the recoverable contents on the compact flash card which has been formatted. You will be asked to select the location to save needed files after clicking the recover button. You should choose one of the computer disks, too.

How to avoid compact flash card meeting formatted error

The formatted compact flash card problem is a common data loss situation we may face. It is a huge loss for people who do not know how to restore lost data from the formatted compact flash card. So you should take some precaution to avoid such terrible trouble. Here are some of them as follows:

1. Think twice when you intend to format your compact flash card. You may format your CF card because you want to delete all your files on it quickly and permanently. You can do it on the condition that makes sure all of them are useless.

2. Back up the important or valuable data. You should develop the habit of backup your files crucial regularly. It is easy and do not take too much time. You can never worry about the accidental data loss any more if you have the backup.

3. Do not choose to format the compact flash card when you are asked to. You may be prompted that you need to format your compact flash card before you can use it, please do not format it at that time. You should retrieve information from it with data recovery tool and format the compact flash card later.

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