How to Recover Data from Formatted C Drive Windows 10 / 11

Does Formatting C Drive Delete Everything?

The C drive is a crucial component of your computer system,ensuring your system operates smoothly. It typically serves as the system drive, housing the operating system, essential system files, installed programs, and often personal data like documents, downloads, and desktop files. If the C driveis formatted regardless of the reasons,as a result, your computer will become unbootable until a new operating system is installed. Additionally, all installed software, user profiles, and stored data on the C drive are wiped out during formatting.

However, technically, formatting the C drive does not always erase everything beyond recovery.While the file system structure is reset, data may still reside on the disk until overwritten by new information. This makes data recovery possible through dedicated recovery software.

How to Recover Data from C Drive after Formatting?

Since the C drive contains the operating system, formatting it will cause boot failure, making data recovery more complex than from other drives. It is necessary to access the C drive with a bootable rescue media or from another working computer before trying to recover C drive files after formatting.

No matter whichever way you prefer, some specialized recovery tools are often required. To improve recovery chances and avoid writing new data to the drive, you can make use of MyRecover, a trusted recovery software for Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Windows Server users. It allows you to make a bootable media to boot the computer into WinPE mode and then perform data recovery. Detailed steps are:

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Part 1. Make A Bootable Media

To make a bootable media using MyRecover, you can prepare an empty USB flash drive, connect it to another working computer and make sure it is recognized.

Step 1. Download, install and run MyRecover on the working computer.

Step 2. Run MyRecover, and click on “PC Crashed Recovery.”

Step 3. In the window, choose your USB drive and click on “Create”.

You can also choose another two methods to make bootable media:

• Burn to CD/DVD: To create a bootable CD/DVD.
• Export ISO File: Use this method to make a bootable ISO file. After the ISO is exported, you need to burn it with a third-party burning program. Or, you can use the ISO to boot some virtual machines or burn it to other devices.

Tip: "Add Drivers" allows you to manually add additional and necessary drivers into the bootable disk so that you can access more devices after you boot into WinPE.

Step 4. Then, there will be a pop-up information window. The USB flash drive needs to be formatted and all data on it will be lost. If there is important data on it, please first make a backup. If you confirm, please click "Yes" to continue.

Step 5. The creation process will start. Once it is finished, you can will get a successful message.

Part 2. Boot Failed Computer from the Bootable Media

Now, you need to boot the computer that contains the formatted C drive and requires data recovery from the bootable media created before.

Step 1. Restart your computer. During startup, press the designated key to enter the BIOS or UEFI settings. Common keys include: F2, F10, F12, Del, or Esc (varies by manufacturer).

Step 2. Continue pressing the key repeatedly until the BIOS/UEFI screen appears.

Step 3. In the BIOS/UEFI interface,use the arrow keys on your keyboard to look for the Boot tab or Boot Order section.

Step 4. Locate the list of boot devices (e.g., SSD, HDD, USB, CD/DVD). Highlight the device you want to boot from first. Use the on-screen instructions (often +, -, or F5/F6) to move your preferred boot device to the top of the list.

Step 5. Go to the Exit tab or press the designated key for Save & Exit (usually F10).

Step 6. Confirm the changes and restart your computer.

Upon reboot, your computer should now prioritize the selected device.

Part 3. Recover Files from A Formatted C Drive

Once your computer boots from the bootable media, you will enter the main interface of MyRecover. Now take the following steps to recover C drive files after formatting:

Step 1. Hover on C drive and click on “Scan.”

Step 2. Once scanning process is completed, you will see all deleted or lost files in C drive.

Step 3. If the files are not found, you can perform a deep scan.

Step 4. Tick the target files and click on “Recover.”

Step 5. Choose a location to save the files.

Then wait for the recovery process to complete.

This is how to recover data from C drive after formatting with the help of bootable media. If you don’t want to make the bootable USB drive, you can directly uninstall the C drive from the failed computer and then connect it to another functional computer as an external drive. At last, use MyRecover to recover files from the formatted C drive.

Wrapping Up

Formatting the C drive removes the operating system and all stored data, making the computer unbootable. However, the data is not permanently erased and can often be recovered using specialized recovery software like MyRecover. If you want to preview files before final recovery to check whether they are the correct files you need to retrieve, you can upgrade to Technician Edition, which allows for unlimited usage within one company.