Deleted Mac OSX HD during Bootcamp

[Aveline]

While trying to install windows onto my white unibody mac, i accidentally deleted the mac osx partition during the windows installation because i thought that would save space. I reinstalled Mac OSX using the installation disc and now I lost everything..files/documents/photos/musics...Is there ANY way to retrieve my old HD files back? Please! I am desperate!! (((((

 

[simsaladimbamba]

If you do not have any kind of backup, the chances are almost zero, as the reinstallation of Mac OS X probably overwrote your old files (which have not been deleted during your Boot Camp adventure).

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)

 

[Aveline]

Please anyone help? I'm really desperate T_T
I had mountain lion before but i'm not sure if icloud synced my docs/photos/songs..i dont think it did because i dont remember icloud ever syncing those files...

 

[minifridge1138]

I think you're probably out of luck.

I believe there is an iCloud website you can go to. That will show you what you synced to the cloud.

As for recovering the data... your only hope is going to be one of recovery programs that simsaladimbamba mentioned. Or sending the drive to a data recovery company (but that's going to cost many hundreds of dollars or more).

The problem with the recover is that it is easy to recover a deleted file (or partition in your case). It is not easy to recover a deleted file AFTER new data has been written to that part of the disk.
When you re-installed OSX, you most likely wrote over some (or all) of the disk sectors that used to contain your data.

It is still possible that you can recover some of your data with one of the recovery programs.

 

[JohnChen]

In the future...

Pretty much most of your data is gone. Sorry
Some of your data might be recoverable, if it was in small files. When you wiped your drive, the computer simply designated the drive as "free space". Through use, the "free space" has probably been over-written, corrupting the files. Small files like text documents and such might have avoided it.

In the future, install something like Mozy, Dropbox or SugarSync. They're free and all give you a few GB's. Have them back up the important stuff on your drive. It really is useful, as it runs quietly in the background. Back when I used a Windows desktop, I was forced to re-install XP. I thought I lost all my work, until I found out that Mozy had quietly backed up my stuff.