Member Avatar for bj35man

hi,

I use a software called HD-speed to test the speed of my USB hard dirve. when I test the write speed, it destroy the data in my hard dirve. can I restore my data back?

I find that the method used by HD_Speed to read/write is the following Win32 API calls: CreateFile(devicename,...), ReadFile() and WriteFile(). I don't know how the Win API calls work. so is there anybody tell me how to restore the data in my hard drive

thanks a lot.

li

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Quick, practical plan for based on the thread: stop using the USB drive immediately and work from a copy. Further writes to the device will reduce recovery chances. Because you say only a small area was overwritten, many files may still be recoverable if you follow a careful, read-only workflow.

  1. Do not save anything to the USB drive.
  2. Make a sector-by-sector image of the whole drive onto a separate disk (so you always work on the image, not the original). On Windows use a raw copier like HDD Raw Copy Tool (https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/).
  3. Try filesystem-aware recovery first on the image: TestDisk can repair partitions and recover file tables; PhotoRec does file-carving when metadata is gone (https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec).
  4. If filenames/paths matter and the MFT/ FAT is intact, try Recuva for a simpler Windows undelete attempt (https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva).
  5. If these fail or files are critical, stop and consult a professional lab—specialist recovery is expensive but sometimes the only option.

Notes and cautions: if any file sectors were actually overwritten by the write test, those parts cannot be reconstructed; intact sectors can often be recovered, but partially overwritten files may be corrupted. PhotoRec recovers file content but usually loses original names and folders; TestDisk/NTFS-aware tools can preserve names only when metadata remains. As pointed out, professional recovery can be costly; as noted, total overwrite means permanent loss. Treat this as a recovery-and-lessons exercise: take regular backups and image drives before experimenting with destructive tests.

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Member Avatar for Narue

>can I restore my data back?
There are a number of software packages that "undelete" deleted files, but I wouldn't expect too much from them if I were you. In my experience they're hit or miss (with a tendency toward miss). Real restoration is a very expensive manual process, so unless you had life altering data on that drive (silly little man, this is what backups are for), I would say write it off as a lesson learned.

Member Avatar for gerard4143

it destroy the data in my hard dirve.

It really depends by what you mean "it destroy the data in my hard dirve". If you mean the entire USB drive was overwritten then your data is gone. If you mean it changed some of the data on the drive them yes you can probably piece some of it back together through a long and tedious journey of hunting and searching...

In Linux its a simple matter of opening the device in a hexeditor and searching(Note this method assumes you know what the file and disk format is)

Also - shouldn't this be posted in the hardware section

Edited by gerard4143 because: n/a
Member Avatar for bj35man

thank you very much for your help. In fact, only very little part of my hard drive is overwritten and most of them still untouched. will you please tell me where can I find some free software which can recovery them? by the way, I am not very familiar with Linux system.

sorry, it seems that this should be in the hardware section. I'll keep that in mind next time.

thanks lot

li

Member Avatar for bj35man

thanks for your reply

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