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lostinforums

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 4, 2015
124
7
Hi,

I have a mac pro and a macbook pro. I use dropbox to share files between them. In dropbox i have a folder called 'downloads' where i put folders im working on. I think ive deleted a folder in there about 4 weeks ago.

The hard drive that the downloads folder sits on for both machines is a regular rpm type drive, but the system drives (where i presume the trash sits) in both machines are SSD.

Is it possible to get the missing folder back from either of the regular hard disk drives? I heard you can't recover stuff from a SSD.

I've asked dropbox to see if they can get the files back, waiting to hear from them. Might be a bit too late.

Ive been trying stellar phoenix data recovery but nothing so far.

Any tips or help on whats best to do here would be great,

Thanks
 

orph

macrumors 68000
Dec 12, 2005
1,884
393
UK
is it important to get back what you lost?
just get some data recovery software and try it, see what happens. i did a google and found a bunch.

worth thinning about keeping backups if your working with important data.
 

bookemdano

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2011
1,513
844
Hi,

I have a mac pro and a macbook pro. I use dropbox to share files between them. In dropbox i have a folder called 'downloads' where i put folders im working on. I think ive deleted a folder in there about 4 weeks ago.

The hard drive that the downloads folder sits on for both machines is a regular rpm type drive, but the system drives (where i presume the trash sits) in both machines are SSD.

Is it possible to get the missing folder back from either of the regular hard disk drives? I heard you can't recover stuff from a SSD.

I've asked dropbox to see if they can get the files back, waiting to hear from them. Might be a bit too late.

Ive been trying stellar phoenix data recovery but nothing so far.

Any tips or help on whats best to do here would be great,

Thanks

You can easily recover what was lost:

Log in to dropbox.com using a web browser.

Click on "Files" in the left hand pane

Then click on "Deleted Files" in the left hand pane

There's more than a month's worth of history there. Just select the folder you deleted and restore it.
 

lostinforums

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 4, 2015
124
7
Thanks, I have spoken to them, they say that plus users which I am, have 30 days to go back and they can see the missing folder was deleted 37 days ago.
They have said they are escalating it to the recovery team to see if they can get the folder back for me.

I think pro and business account users get 120days recovery
 

pl1984

Suspended
Oct 31, 2017
2,230
2,645
The type of recovery, file system level, you require is less dependent on the drive type. If the data was deleted 37 days ago and you've been using the system actively since then then it's not likely you'll be able to recover it.

When a file(s) is deleted the operating system marks it as such and records its allocated space as available for use. The data remains and, if no activity has occurred since its deletion, chances of recovering it are high. However as the disk is written to the chances of the the files space being over written with new data increases and as such makes it less and less likely it will be recoverable. With four weeks of active use it's likely it will be unrecoverable (which the inability of the data recovery software to recover it appears to support).

About the only chance you have of recovering, if you want to call it that, the data is to use software which scan through the disk looking for orphaned files / file remnants which will create new files. Forensics software can do this but, unless the data is extremely valuable, it's unlikely to be in a complete / usable form.

Any chance it may exist on an older, forgotten about HD? Or USB drive?
 

lostinforums

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 4, 2015
124
7
Interesting. Sadly no it’s not on any other drive.
Dropbox support seems my best hope.
 
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