Undelete Files in Mac

[moez]

Ok guys so here is a BIG problem:

Somehow I deleted all the files in my desktop and emptied the trash. It was regular emptying and no 'Secure Delete'. Any idea on which App I would use to get the files back. It was atleast 20GB worth of data (yes my desktop was unorganized)

Thanks for your help

 

[MorzillA]

this is something that I will have to see for my self, since it affects us all but I think similar questions have been asked with the proper answers, Sadlyy I'm not on my G4 at this time so I might have to get back at you on Sat.
In the mean time look around here to see similar posts I'm sure you'll find the answer before I get back to you!!

 

[The Stig]

I believe Norton have a utility that can help you.

BUT to quote from the youtube video called "Why I hate Macs":

"So you run out to the store and buy a copy of Norton Utility for Mac, just to get home and have Norton tell you 'Dude, you're on a Mac! Your file is ***** gone!"

TS

 

[mkrishnan]

Here are three places to start...

http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=48
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue_info.php
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1

I don't think there's anything free that will restore 20GB of data.

And you're not going to like the advice, but I would be remiss... Once you've recovered from this, change your ways. This is absolutely the time to give up leaving 20GB of files in a disorganized fashion on your desktop. Get an external drive for backups and start doing something more intelligent with file management so you won't make this kind of mistake again. For your own good. You can get an external drive that will store 100GB or more of data for about as much as you're about to spend on data recovery software (that may or may not work).

 

[MorzillA]

Here are three places to start...

http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=48
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue_info.php
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1

I don't think there's anything free that will restore 20GB of data.

And you're not going to like the advice, but I would be remiss... Once you've recovered from this, change your ways. This is absolutely the time to give up leaving 20GB of files in a disorganized fashion on your desktop. Get an external drive for backups and start doing something more intelligent with file management so you won't make this kind of mistake again. For your own good. You can get an external drive that will store 100GB or more of data for about as much as you're about to spend on data recovery software (that may or may not work).

I concurr....

 

[MacinDoc]

The files should still be there, it's just the directory information that has been erased. These files can usually be recovered with one of the above utilities, but they are not at the moment protected from being overwritten. Best advice is to get a good file recovery utility, and to not do anything on your computer until you have booted up using the recovery utility disk.

And yes, back it up regularly.

 

[mkrishnan]

to not do anything on your computer until you have booted up using the recovery utility disk.

While we're in the spirit of concurring, let me concur.

Shut the computer down. If at all possible, do the undelete research from another computer, and don't turn it on again until you're ready to install recovery software and use it.

It's not necessarily true that the areas where these files were will be immediately overwritten (depends on how much free HD space you have), but this is good advice to be on the safe side, since you cannot predict what you will lose should you lose something.

 

[moez]

Thanks everyone or your help. I managed to recover most of the data although apart from directory structures being lost, the file names have even been changed. I'll try to salavage what I can later tonight.

mkrishnan: I know I should keep a backup and try to be more organized. I even have a 1TB external drive to backup but its just that I havent found a good method to sort and store my files. Atleast in desktop I could see all the files I have

[rant] And, besides, apart from trying to be more intelligent with file management, I should try to be more intelligent and not delete the Desktop folder in the first place. Who on earth would do that and not only just deleting it but clearing o the trash afterwards [/rant]

THANKS ONCE AGAIN

 

[seany916]

Hi Moez,

1. What program did you use and how?

2. When we do our 2x daily backups, we simply drag the files we've used into the file that holds a file by the same name onto the server (or external at 1TB since you have one). The new one will then replace the older one. Or if you're lazy, just always dump everything into one giant file named "Everything" just shift everything at once. On the external, make sure that you copied it once already so it has the same name. On subsequent backups, just keep draggiing it over and "replacing" the old one. Cheap and easy

3. NOT THE PROGRAMS, but I would offer a recommendation to archive 1x a month "September 2007 Everything" and delete the older ones after 3 months. Use a different external from your main backup if you can. Some people use DVDs, but our files are too big. Possibly with the next generation high capacity discs, but that won't be worth the time swapping discs.

Glad you got your info back.

Anyone have any idea how to get "Secure Empty Trash" back? We never use it.

Sean

 

[mkrishnan]

Glad you were able to get some data back. How often are you using that terabyte backup drive? Do you know about Superduper for backups? It's excellent.

 

[moez]

Hey, first off, thanks for the tips on backup... I hope I would try to do it.

Sean: I used DataRescueII. It categorized all the files deleted according to categories PDF, Office, Audio etc and gave the option to save it in the external drive. The only issue was that not only the folder names but file names were also lost and I was left with generic names M0076.mp3 bt I guess you cant have it all.

I really like your backup suggestions and would try to keep them in mind. Maybe not daily backups but atleast twice a week backups an the monthly archiving.

mkrishnan: I wasnt using the drive for backups per se. It was more ike external drive to store moves, tv shows and other downloads and although I had archived everything in that drive before formatting (or buying the new mac) I wasnt actively making backups. But things would change now.

Ok another question. In Windows you had options (or more like were forced to) create seperate partitions which made it easier to sort and organize files. Since in Mac u dont need to partition then where do u save your files. I was reviously using Desktop but obviously that is not the way to go. So, where do you guys save your stuff. I dont wanna save say movies in the Movies folder because that Frontrow gets bloated.

 

[mkrishnan]

Ok another question. In Windows you had options (or more like were forced to) create seperate partitions which made it easier to sort and organize files. Since in Mac u dont need to partition then where do u save your files. I was reviously using Desktop but obviously that is not the way to go. So, where do you guys save your stuff. I dont wanna save say movies in the Movies folder because that Frontrow gets bloated.

You can partition a drive with Disk Utility if you want to. I think Bootcamp can help you non-destructively re-partition a drive too, if you have an Intel Mac. My internal drive has just one partition, but my 500GB backup drive has five (2x160 to backup the iMac, 2x40 to backup the iBook, and 1x100GB leftovers).

Anyway, though, on the internal drive, generally what people do is make folders and subfolders inside their home directory. So most of my stuff goes in my documents folder, for instance, with subfolders for different aspects of my clinical training or different classes, subfolders for personal records like taxes, etc.

 

[guide]

You can try Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery software to recover your lost, deleted, damage or corrupted mac volumes. It supports HFS, HFS+, HFSX and HFS Wrapper file systems.
Download the trial version from: http://www.macintosh-data-recovery.com/
It shows the preview of the lost data, which you can later save it by getting the full version.