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Help! Might have lost all data after updating to HS. Recovery options?

D

Dgtlduck

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 14, 2017
18
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Ok so I finally bought a backup external storage and yes, this could have prevented my problem and yes, this will be a painful lesson. I have a 1tb (or maybe 2) 2011 iMac and it did a high Sierra update overnight but failed. I couldn’t get disk utilities to reinstall and I was left with purchasing an external drive, formatting and installing a fresh copy of HS.


Only now when I was in HS (on my external) my internal drive looks like it’s empty. It’s only showing a 1TB capacity with all space available. I tried a free recovery program just to see what it would find and it started to find thousands of images from my camera so I know they’re there somewhere. However I have a lot of videos and images I need to recover. Can anyone recommend a good recovery solution? I have no idea what is going on. Thank you!!
 
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Hi so what happened with internet recovery is, when I was trying to fix the HS update fail, to work disk utilities would tell me that the drive was locked and I couldn’t do internet recovery. Since at the time this was my only working drive , I had to leave it alone. Now, however, if I could unlock that disk with disk utilities on the HS WD drive, I will give it a shot since I haven’t changed anything on that disk where all the info is supposed to be
 
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When you did the update, did you format your drive as APFS? I'm assuming your 2011 iMac with 3TB drive is a rotational drive. It should be HFS+ not the new APFS.

Was encryption turned on?

It might be worth your while to buy DiskWarrior. There is no download so you'll need to run off your external while you get this fixed, but I've seen DW do miraculous things. https://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/highsierraapfs.html
 
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Hi guys.... so here is where I am at.... I ended up already using Disk Drill.... I read that disk warrioe had issues with High Sierra..(not sure)So far:

1. I can see and it looks like recover all of my data, video, pics docs...which is great.....problem is, once i recover it it will be in one giant folder...(pics, videos etc)
2. I have a bootable usb but doesnt thta just get me into disk utilities? I choose it at startup but it just openend up disk utilities, which I could access already.
3. i wish there was a way to still somehow get the data from the original internal drive over to the external drive while retianing the same folder structure. I know youre going to say thta a Time machine backup in the future will do this and yes, youre right...in the mean time, am I out of luck? Will I have to sift through my entire giant folder and just start over?
4.Once i at least have the data recovered this way, can I go back to the original drive and try and run Internet Recovery or something? Problam is, the disk is locked so i cant reinsstall it. I cant change it to Journaled in disk utilities which is what ive read I need to be able to do...
5. I wish I could use migration assistant but cant because its an internal drive, correct?

Thank you!
 
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" I can see and it looks like recover all of my data, video, pics docs...which is great.....problem is, once i recover it it will be in one giant folder...(pics, videos etc)"

Your MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITY at this point is to get your data "somewhere safe".
So... do what you have to do.
Recover it -- ANY WAY THAT WORKS.
You can sort it out later.
If you hadn't "taken the wrong steps" earlier, you wouldn't be here now.


"I have a bootable usb but doesnt thta just get me into disk utilities? I choose it at startup but it just openend up disk utilities, which I could access already."

A bootable USB drive is "THE KEY" towards doing an OS installation that works.
If you have one, that's the tool you need.
If you don't have one, MAKE ONE.


"i wish there was a way to still somehow get the data from the original internal drive over to the external drive while retianing the same folder structure. I know youre going to say thta a Time machine backup in the future will do this and yes, youre right...in the mean time, am I out of luck?"

See above.
"Wish" all you want, but when the chips are down (and things are broken), you have to take the way forward "that's take-able".

"i wish there was a way to still somehow get the data from the original internal drive over to the external drive while retianing the same folder structure. I know youre going to say thta a Time machine backup in the future will do this and yes, youre right...in the mean time, am I out of luck?"

See my answers above.
 
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Fishrrman said:
A bootable USB drive is "THE KEY" towards doing an OS installation that works.
If you have one, that's the tool you need.
If you don't have one, MAKE ONE.
Click to expand...

Thank you for such a thorough response Fishrrman! I do have the bootable usb, made it last night. However, doesn't it just boot to Disk Utilties? I selected teh UBS at bootup and it just went to disk utilties. Seems i could access that just fine before making the USB. Did i miss something which would allow me to actually boot directly into the OS which was down?

Thank you!
 
Boot from the flash drive.
If you get dumped into Disk Utility, try quitting it and see what happens next.
Report back here with your answer.
 
Fishrrman said:
Boot from the flash drive.
If you get dumped into Disk Utility, try quitting it and see what happens next.
Report back here with your answer.
Click to expand...

Hi, so unplugging the external and booting from usb still dumps to Disk Utilities...no option to quit, just to choose boot disk.

However, i Finally finished recovering all data.... although the 32k pics folder is a mess, lol. Anyway, on to the next steps, what I am thinking is:

1. boot into recovery, erase and format original, internal drive so I can put High Sierra on to it.
2. Boot into external HS and copy all data onto the internal
3. boot into internal and format the external and set it up for Time Machine

However, before I do any of that...would it make sense to try an internet recover or ANYTING to try and gain access to the internal disk so at least the original data is still where it is supposed to be? Even the docs arent labeled and some of the MP3's are blank not to mention all of my edits on my lightroom catalog are gone.... :)
 
OP wrote:
"Hi, so unplugging the external and booting from usb still dumps to Disk Utilities...no option to quit, just to choose boot disk."

There's something wrong with the flash drive you made.
If you want to know how to do it right, just ask.

"However, before I do any of that...would it make sense to try an internet recover or ANYTING to try and gain access to the internal disk so at least the original data is still where it is supposed to be? Even the docs arent labeled and some of the MP3's are blank not to mention all of my edits on my lightroom catalog are gone...."

You have just learned about the ins and outs of data recovery.
A "result" of data recovery can be that you lose all previous folder/file hierarchies, and can lose file names as well.
This is often "par for the course". Just be thankful that you GOT THE DATA BACK, even if "getting it completely right" is going to require some work.
 
Hi Fishrrman. Thank you again for your replies, and yes, this has been a valuable lesson One thing:

1. I created a new boot disk with the HS image downloaded and it still boots me to disk utilities when I select it at startup. Is it possible that the internal disk was damaged to much during install that I cant boot into it? The only thing I can tell is that I don't have an option to reinstall HS on internal disk because the HD needs to have journaling enabled or sometimes it would say its locked. The option to enable journaling, even when looking at it from HS, s greyed out.
 
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OP wrote:
"I created a new boot disk with the HS image downloaded and it still boots me to disk utilities when I select it at startup. Is it possible that the internal disk was damaged to much during install that I cant boot into it?"

HOW did you "create it"?
I'm guessing it ain't right.

Follow these instructions to the letter (print this out)
WHAT YOU NEED:
a. A "full copy" of the OS installer app (should be about 5-6gb in size, and it should be in your applications folder. If it's not, move it there)
b. The FREE little app called "Boot Buddy". You can get it here:
Boot Buddy – sqwarq
c. A USB flash drive that is 8gb or 16gb (if the 8gb size doesn't work, use 16gb).

WHAT TO DO NEXT:
1. Plug in the flash drive and open Disk Utility.
2. Erase the USB flash drive to Mac OS Extended with Journaling Enabled. Give it a simple name that you can recognize.
3. Quit Disk Utility.
4. Open Boot Buddy.
5. Click "source" and select the OS installer app (in your applications folder)
6. Click "destination" and select the flash drive
7. Click "Create".
8. Boot Buddy will create the flash drive, it will take a little while.

NOW, DO THIS:
a. Power down, all the way off
b. With the flash drive connected, press the power on button.
c. IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears.
d. Do you see the icon for the flash drive? If so, select it with the pointer and hit return.
e. The Mac should boot from the flashdrive.

NEXT, DO THIS:
1. It will probably open to the OS installer. I would suggest that you first erase the internal drive, and "start over" (UNLESS you have stuff on it you want to save)
2. Quit the OS installer and open Disk Utility
3. ERASE the internal drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
4. Quit Disk Utility and re-open the installer
5. Try to install now. It will take a few reboots and some time.

Does this work?
 
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Ok this is going to sound stupid. For some reason, I thought a correct usb boot drive was going to somehow boot me into the desktop (somehow) letting me somehow reinstall HS on top of the Damaged OS, lol.

So yes knowing that that doesn’t really make sense, the USB drive I made is taking me to disk utilities and does allow me to erase the main partition. I thought there would still be a way to fix the journaling issue allow me to just reinstall High Sierra on top of the internal disk. However I should be ready to proceed with the erasing and reinstalling High Sierra on the internal desk
 
I think you mean that the USB drive takes you to "macOS Utilities" window, which has several choices in the list.
One of those choices is Disk Utility.
Another choice in the list is "Reinstall macOS" --- That's the one!
 
DeltaMac said:
I think you mean that the USB drive takes you to "macOS Utilities" window, which has several choices in the list.
One of those choices is Disk Utility.
Another choice in the list is "Reinstall macOS" --- That's the one!
Click to expand...
Unfortunately my disk doesn’t have journaling enabled and I can’t select it in disk utilities while in HS through my correct intstall. I was hoping to find a way to get journaling enabled again first before deciding to erase and start over :(
 
"journaling", AFAIK, does not need to be enabled to install/reinstall any macOS system. It is suggested, but not required for the install.
And, journaling may not be particularly important for your issue, as it is most needed when you have a system crash, or you unexpectedly shut down (or the power cord gets pulled accidentally or other power failure). Some glitch in the install process, resulting in data loss of some kind, really is not something where journaling will help, AFAIK.

How did you determine that journaling is NOT enabled? To make sure about that, open Disk Utility, choose your partition, and get info on that partition. That will def show you the journaling status.

note.. An SSD formatted APFS will not be journaled (doesn't need it)
A High Sierra install does not convert a spinning hard drive (HDD) to APFS, and shouldn't change the journaling status, either way.
 
"Unfortunately my disk doesn’t have journaling enabled and I can’t select it in disk utilities while in HS through my correct intstall. I was hoping to find a way to get journaling enabled again first before deciding to erase and start over"

If you DON'T have journaling enabled, then boot from the flash drive and follow my instructions in reply 13 above, starting with "NOW, DO THIS:"
 
DeltaMac said:
"journaling",

How did you determine that journaling is NOT enabled? To make sure about that, open Disk Utility, choose your partition, and get info on that partition. That will def show you the journaling status.
Click to expand...


Hi DeltaMac so Disk Utilities just shows Journaled "No" for my internal drive.

Fishrrman... yeah I can start over and install HS. I was hoping to install it over the internal drive without erasing everything, that way I wouldn't have to loose anything. Knowing that's not the case I am ready to erase and format. Thank you!!!
 
Can you tell us if the internal drive is still a spinning hard drive (HDD), or have you replaced the HDD with an SSD?
An SSD will make a noticeable difference in performance, and with High Sierra, would be converted to APFS format, which does NOT use journaling. The drive would therefore show No Journaling, if it is an SSD with High Sierra installed.
THAT may not be your issue if you don't have an SSD, but I though I should mention it when you ARE using High Sierra.
 
DeltaMac said:
Can you tell us if the internal drive is still a spinning hard drive (HDD), or have you replaced the HDD with an SSD?
An SSD will make a noticeable difference in performance, and with High Sierra, would be converted to APFS format, which does NOT use journaling. The drive would therefore show No Journaling, if it is an SSD with High Sierra installed.
THAT may not be your issue if you don't have an SSD, but I though I should mention it when you ARE using High Sierra.
Click to expand...

Hi, it’s the original internal drive in my 2011 iMac so HDD
 
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