Recovering a deleted file

[tsuke13]

Hello all, thanks as always for your help.

Yesterday I posted

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11523625#post11523625

however, I never did find that one file I was originally searching for!
The program I was using ( Data Rescue 3 ) renamed all my .jpegs in its search of my deleted files. So when I searched for the one I wanted not only did it not come up, but I was searching through 40,000+ jpegs one by one. Didn't get too far before I gave that up.

Is this normal for a data recovery program? Since I deleted them, it deleted the file structure for it so it renames them?

And has anyone successfully restored a deleted item? Just wanna save a few jpegs, that I was attached to.

I've never backed up my HD in the 4+ years of owing a mac so thats out of the option unfortunately. Looks like I know what I'll as for for christmas. An external.

Thank you again for any responses or help!!

Tsuke

 

[Detrius]

Yes, that's normal, and yes, I've been successful. The number one most critical thing is that you stop using the drive from which you deleted the file. If it's your boot drive, and you kept booting from it, and then you installed Data Rescue on it, and then you recovered deleted images to it, well... you're screwed.

 

[tsuke13]

Thanks Detrius