Data recovery utility?

[macmesser]

My Macbook's System partition is corrupt and won't boot or even mount. I originally thought I could boot from an external drive and copy over the files I need but since the partition won't mount from disk utility I doubt anything as simple will be possible. My next thought is to install a new system on an external drive and work on the corrupt volume from there. Is anyone familiar with a utility that might let me recover data in known folders? Mostly PSD files. The drive itself tests ok and the recovery partition boots. Possibly the problem is due to a volume optimization I did a week or so ago, but the machine seemed ok and even faster after. Before the partition quit mounting TTPro found volume structure errors, as did disk utility.

Anything I can do myself or should I get a data recovery pro?

 

[minifridge1138]

Have you tried using disk utility to repair the hard drive? That might be fix the volume problem and allow you to mount the partition.

I wish I had more helpful information, but I don't know what options you have for a partition that won't mount.

Good luck

 

[bcburrows]

Was in the same situation as you, I used a program called Diskwarrior which recovered everything for me.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

To retrieve files, that have been deleted and also been emptied from the Trash or are on unrecognisable partitions or HDDs or on accidentally formatted partitions or HDDs, you can use

• Data Rescue 3 - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (99 USD)
• Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (99 USD)
• FileSalvage - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (99 USD)
• DiskDrill - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (79 USD)
• Nice To Recover - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (69.95 USD)

 

[biggd]

Replace with SSD. Connect HDD to USB-sata connector and transfer data

 

[macmesser]

Have you tried using disk utility to repair the hard drive? That might be fix the volume problem and allow you to mount the partition.

I wish I had more helpful information, but I don't know what options you have for a partition that won't mount.

Good luck

Thanks. Got my data back with Data Rescue but it looks like I'll need to do a clean install.

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Was in the same situation as you, I used a program called Diskwarrior which recovered everything for me.

DiskWarrior rocks. It recovered my partition nicely, after I used Data Rescue to back up everything. It repaired the volume but not my problem, since it looks like a reinstall is needed. If I hadn't been neglecting my normal DiskWarrior preventive maintenance rebuilds every few weeks I most likely wouldn't have had the problem. Safest utility I've used.

 

[macmesser]

To retrieve files, that have been deleted and also been emptied from the Trash or are on unrecognisable partitions or HDDs or on accidentally formatted partitions or HDDs, you can use

• Data Rescue 3 - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (99 USD)
• Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (99 USD)
• FileSalvage - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (99 USD)
• DiskDrill - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (79 USD)
• Nice To Recover - trial lets you scan for free, but recovery needs a purchase (69.95 USD)

Thanks. I wound up upgrading my copy of Data Rescue 2 and backing up my data files to a USB drive. Everything was there, thankfully. Then I used DiskWarrior, which asked for a second go at it after it failed to rewrite the directory the first time. Second time fixed it but apparently not the system files. So now I have a drive with a good partition map, good directories, and bad system files. Data Rescue 3 is a good recovery utility. They seem to do it right, but I couldn't compare it to the others, which I'm not familiar with. Both times I've used it my files were found.

 

[macmesser]

Replace with SSD. Connect HDD to USB-sata connector and transfer data

Thanks. Not a bad idea.