Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Pleae help: Lion recovery erased my hd!!!!!

Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
Sorry I'm posting this again, I think this thread needs to be in OSX rather than in MBP:

WOOWWW!!!!! I really don't know what to do now! My external HD disappeared after I installed lion recovery disk assistant to it with all my information on it! I just can't believe this recovery erased everything I had on my HD!!!! I know I'm freaking out, but this was my backup external HD close to 1TB personal info on it, I stored all my files there to keep my MBP hd clean!!!!! HOW CAN I UNDO IT? I hope there is a way!!!! :confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
zjazz said:
Sorry I'm posting this again, I think this thread needs to be in OSX rather than in MBP:

WOOWWW!!!!! I really don't know what to do now! My external HD disappeared after I installed lion recovery disk assistant to it with all my information on it! I just can't believe this recovery erased everything I had on my HD!!!! I know I'm freaking out, but this was my backup external HD close to 1TB personal info on it, I stored all my files there to keep my MBP hd clean!!!!! HOW CAN I UNDO IT? I hope there is a way!!!! :confused::confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...

Whoa. You took a disk that wasn't junk and ran the recovery partition utility on the thing? Big oops. I would recommend picking up a $15 8GB usb stick and running the recovery partition creator on that thing, not a 1TB disk full of stuff you care about. At this point, you might be able to get some of your stuff back using disk utility on the USB drive. Whatever you do, slow down and take your time. You might get support from Apple on this one since you just bought Lion you get 90 days of phone support. See if Apple support tells you there is anything you can do (in terminal or disk utility) to get your stuff back. Then use a disposable usb stick and not your important data disk next time.
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
r0k said:
Whoa. You took a disk that wasn't junk and ran the recovery partition utility on the thing? Big oops. I would recommend picking up a $15 8GB usb stick and running the recovery partition creator on that thing, not a 1TB disk full of stuff you care about. At this point, you might be able to get some of your stuff back using disk utility on the USB drive. Whatever you do, slow down and take your time. You might get support from Apple on this one since you just bought Lion you get 90 days of phone support. See if Apple support tells you there is anything you can do (in terminal or disk utility) to get your stuff back. Then use a disposable usb stick and not your important data disk next time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for quick answer. If I only knew it before!!!!! I was thinking that it will put a folder in my HD that will be bootable just in case. But it completely changed my external and all my information on it is hidden now. Disc utility won't even recognize it.....
 
Y

Yuusharo

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2007
46
0
zjazz said:
Thanks for quick answer. If I only knew it before!!!!! I was thinking that it will put a folder in my HD that will be bootable just in case. But it completely changed my external and all my information on it is hidden now. Disc utility won't even recognize it.....
Click to expand...

Quote from the Apple Support KB article ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848 ):

How to use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive.



Take this as a lesson going forward - *always* make sure you have a backup of your data.
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
Yuusharo said:
Quote from the Apple Support KB article ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848 ):

How to use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive.



Take this as a lesson going forward - *always* make sure you have a backup of your data.
Click to expand...

WOOWW!!!! This was my backup!!!! Everything is gone now!!!! I CANT BELIEVE IT!!!!!
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
IM IN SHOCK NOW.....let me just deeply breath.....so all my data is erased due to this....noooo....seriusly there is no undo?????? so what do i do now????? if I can't uninstall recovery out of it, im just gonna put my HD to trash!!!! I can't believe it still, all my data!!!! ok, breath, breath!!!:eek:
 
baryon

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,877
2,924
Don't tell me you didn't read the red text next to the yellow exclamation mark?

Screen Shot 2011-08-09 at 7.49 PM.png

You can probably use disk recovery software to get back most of the lost data, since it didn't get overwritten. Try TechTool Pro or something like that!
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
baryon said:
Don't tell me you didn't read the red text next to the yellow exclamation mark?

View attachment 298290

You can probably use disk recovery software to get back most of the lost data, since it didn't get overwritten. Try TechTool Pro or something like that!
Click to expand...

I was so excited, that no, i didn't......
 
L

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
Not to sound like a jerk, but it's always best two have two external backups. I have one external drive that I use to backup regularly, and the other I use to backup like once every month. I have so many photos(that can't be replaced), documents, music, videos, etc: that I don't want to take any chances. Believe me, I've learned the hard way before too. One time it was when I was messing with a Linux install and the other was when the external drive just failed on me.
 
baryon

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,877
2,924
zjazz said:
I was so excited, that no, i didn't......
Click to expand...

Crap... I wonder why the assistant doesn't check whether you're installing on a USB thumb drive or on a proper hard drive. It should have a security check, not allowing you to easily install it on anything larger than an 8GB partition...

But ALWAYS read everything, especially red letters!
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
petvas said:
I understand your frustration, but why did you post this in two forums?
Click to expand...

I posted it in MBP thread first and then thought it would be better in OSX Lion...sorry if it's against the rules...i just wanted to gather as much info as i can...
 
brand

brand

macrumors 601
Oct 3, 2006
4,390
456
127.0.0.1
If that was the only copy of your data then it was not a backup. To have a backup you would have to have at least two copies of your data. Hopefully you learned a very important lesson on what a backup is and how to properly maintain backups.
 
tkermit

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,582
2,909
The recovery assistant only wrote about 600MB to your disk. It definitely may have overwritten some of your data, but the rest should technically still be present on disk, although not readily retrievable anymore. You would need some kind of data recovery tool to hopefully get at least some of it back. You may even want to contact professionals about this, if the data was truly important.
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
baryon said:
Crap... I wonder why the assistant doesn't check whether you're installing on a USB thumb drive or on a proper hard drive. It should have a security check, not allowing you to easily install it on anything larger than an 8GB partition...

But ALWAYS read everything, especially red letters!
Click to expand...

Yeah,,,,now I have 1TB of nothing with lion installer!!!!
I don;t think it erased everything on it, it would take long time to erase, but it installed lion recovery in 10 seconds or so....is there a way I can uninstall or erase it so I can see my HD again?
 
L

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
zjazz said:
Yeah,,,,now I have 1TB of nothing with lion installer!!!!
I don;t think it erased everything on it, it would take long time to erase, but it installed lion recovery in 10 seconds or so....is there a way I can uninstall or erase it so I can see my HD again?
Click to expand...

I would try a partition recovery software.
 
Y

Yuusharo

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2007
46
0
brand said:
If that was the only copy of your data then it was not a backup. To have a backup you would have to have at least two copies of your data. Hopefully you learned a very important lesson on what a backup is and how to properly maintain backups.
Click to expand...

Quoted for emphasis. A "backup" is another copy of your data. If you put everything on an external drive and erase the originals, then you no longer have a backup.

The point of a backup is if *either* media gets damaged, the originals or the backups, either one can be restored fairly quickly. If you're in a position where losing a drive means losing data, then you don't have a good backup strategy.

The best strategy out there is something called 3-2-1 backups. Three copies of everything, two different forms of media, one of those backups offsite. I know this doesn't exactly help the situation right now, but use this lesson going forward to make sure you don't get bit by this again. We've all lost data, and we've all learned the hard way.
 
Y

Yuusharo

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2007
46
0
zjazz said:
Yeah,,,,now I have 1TB of nothing with lion installer!!!!
I don;t think it erased everything on it, it would take long time to erase, but it installed lion recovery in 10 seconds or so....is there a way I can uninstall or erase it so I can see my HD again?
Click to expand...

You're data has been erased. That's what the Lion Recovery Assistant Tool warned you what would happen (in bold red letters with an exclamation symbol as well). There's no way to "uninstall" the recovery partition and revert back to your old drive. It's already reformatted it. It's done.

The best bet you have is to first *disconnect* that drive and don't write anything onto it. Then, find some sort of file recovery tool out there that works with Mac formatted disks. You *might* be able to recover your files from the drive, you might not.

Again, I want to stress this so that you wise up and never let yourself be in this position ever again - you did not have a backup. If your external drive is your only copy, then it's not a backup anymore.
 
Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
351
56
Yuusharo said:
Quoted for emphasis. A "backup" is another copy of your data. If you put everything on an external drive and erase the originals, then you no longer have a backup.

The point of a backup is if *either* media gets damaged, the originals or the backups, either one can be restored fairly quickly. If you're in a position where losing a drive means losing data, then you don't have a good backup strategy.

The best strategy out there is something called 3-2-1 backups. Three copies of everything, two different forms of media, one of those backups offsite. I know this doesn't exactly help the situation right now, but use this lesson going forward to make sure you don't get bit by this again. We've all lost data, and we've all learned the hard way.
Click to expand...

Well, second partition of another 1TB on same external HD is Time Machine. So I do have second backup to it...first 1TB was my main partition where I copy all files manually and then erase from computer to free up HD.

petvas said:
Try that: http://www.applexsoft.com/datarecovery/mac-partition-recovery.html
Click to expand...
Thank you, will try right now!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
W

wpotere

Guest
Oct 7, 2010
1,528
1
zjazz said:
Well, second partition of another 1TB on same external HD is Time Machine. So I do have second backup to it...first 1TB was my main partition where I copy all files manually and then erase from computer to free up HD.
Click to expand...

Then just restore the data from the backup! :rolleyes:
 
eawmp1

eawmp1

macrumors 601
Feb 19, 2008
4,158
91
FL
zjazz said:
Well, second partition of another 1TB on same external HD is Time Machine. So I do have second backup to it...first 1TB was my main partition where I copy all files manually and then erase from computer to free up HD.
Click to expand...

You have your "backup" on the same drive as primary data????!!!!...unbelievable! Whether you do something or the drive just fails, how did you THINK you would save information? Unplug it. Get a data recovery program. If that fails and the information is critical, there are oodles of data recovery companies that will charge you a bundle to get back recoverable information.

An expensive lesson learned: have a rational, workable backup plan BEFORE it's needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom