How to Unformat Hard Drive on Windows 7 PC to Rescue Lost Data

Updated Windows File Recovery Tips by Nancy on Apr 13, 2023 | Approved by Anthony Spadafora

Need to know how to unformat hard drive in Windows 7 to recover lost files from the either intentional or unintentional hard disk formatting? Here in this article, you’ll learn how to use iBeesoft Data Recover to scan your hard drive on Windows 7, preview and recover the important files you need from hard drive on Windows 7 PC.

Is it possible to unformat hard drive in Windows 7?

To be honest, it depends. Format is a Micorosoft DOS command which can be run to remove information from a hard drive. Basically, there are 2 types of format: Low-level format & High-level format.

Low-level format means you create something new to overwritten all the files that used to occupy the area in the actual structure.

High-level format is a process of creating logic structures and it can be divided into 2 types: quick format and full format. Full format uses the chkdsk command to scan the bad sector and remove the table while quick format just removes the table.

Whatever reasons for you to format your disk in Windows 7, the first and most important thing you need to do is to backup the hard drive. Otherwise, you’ll lose all the files or have to unformat the hard drive to restore the files on the formatted hard drive. If you haven’t backed up the hard drive before formatting, then you have to unformat it. Luckily, the commonly format an ordinary computer user like to use is the high-level format which appears in the right-click option "format". It only marks all files on the hard drive as useless files, making them invisible and being ready to overwritten them. They are still on the hard drive. While the low-level format will cause all the data lost forever.

What to do before unformat hard drive in Windows 7

iBeesoft Data Recovery is a professional yet affordable tool which is designed for people to recover deleted files or format recovery from Windows 7 PC and any external hard disks connected to the PC. It supports almost all the file types you use on computer or flash drives daily. Check out to see the supported file types>>

Your Safe & Effective Windows 7 Unformat Hard Drive Software

(Trust Score 4.7 by 1695 Users)
  • Supports all file types. It means it allows you to recover almost all the commonly used files from the formatted hard drive, including photos, documents, videos, music, archives, email and more.
  • Supported unformat SSD, HDD, external hard drive, memory card, USB flash drive, pen drive, MP3/MP4 player, camera etc
  • It’s read-only and risk-free. No operations will overwrite your original data. but perform very well for formatted hard drive recovery.
Free Download

Here are the simple steps for how to use iBeesoft Data Recovery to recover files from formatted hard drive in Windows 7.

Step 1. Install the unforamt hard drive software

Click the download button to get the installation package of the unformat hard drive Windows 7 software. After then, double-click the .exe file to install it on your PC. It is fully compatible with your PC, there will be no incompatibility at all. It is virus free and standalone, working robust.

Step 2. Select the disk to unformat

Next, all partitions on your Windows 7 PC as well as external hard drives are listed in the main window. You should check the formatted hard drive and click "Scan" to let the software scanning data on it.

Step 3. Unformat hard drive in Windows 7

How long it takes to scan your formatted hard drive fully depends on how many files on it. The longer it takes, the better, because it means the software will find more files for you.

While scanning the formatted hard drive, the software is displaying the found files. After the scanning process, you can see all files are listed by category. You can click to unfold the corresponding category in the left side to open the subdirectory to check all files under this type for preview. If you find a target file, you can click "Recover" to save them to your computer again.