Recover Accidentally Deleted, Erased or Lost Data Files in Mac OSX

Full Trash CanWhat Not To Do?

As soon as you realise that you have lost your files, the worst thing you can do is continue on using the computer with the files on it. In fact, if you are looking up this exact topic right now using the computer you wish to recover the files from, you are already raising the chance of overwriting the exact same valuable data you wish to recover from your drive.

How To Get Started Recovering Files

As soon as you have deleted or realised the files are lost:

STOP USING THE COMPUTER.

If need be, shut it down!

The first step thereafter is to gather all the tools you need in order to recover the files that have been lost. The checklist of tools needed to recover the files consists of the following list:

  1. A bootable secondary device, for example an external firewire or USB2.0 hard drive containing a copy of OSX, an internal HD or even a bootable iPod or flash memory stick.

  2. A copy of SubRosaSoft's file recovery utility FileSalvage for OSX.

As suggested, if you have no external firewire or USB 2.0 hard drive you can always use your iPod or sizeable flash drive with SubRosaSoft's FREE DasBoot, in addition, if you have an existing secondary internal hard drive, you can use this very easily once a valid system is installed on it.

The Recovery Process

The purpose of the secondary drive or device is two-fold: firstly to act as a boot device for the computer, whilst secondly is to provide a secure location onto which you can recover the data from the original drive without worrying about overwriting the exact same data that you wish to recover.

And so now that you have a bootable device with space enough to recover data to, assuming the computer is shut down, plug in the external drive and/or startup the computer. As you do so, hold down the "Option" key; this will force the Apple Mac to scan for, and provide a list of, available boot devices. From the list that appears chose the desired boot device and then click the "Forward" arrow.

Once the computer has reached the desktop you are ready to start running FileSalvage and prepare for the recovery of the files. To get started with the recovery process, simply locate the FileSalvage application and double-click the icon. Having reached the main FileSalvage window you are ready to start the process of recovering, and/or reviewing the available files for recover prior to selection and recovery.

What Recovery Type Do I Need To Do to Salvage My Files?

FileSalvage offers 3 different types of recovery:

  1. Undelete
  2. Salvage
  3. Expert Mode

"Undelete" is designed to recover accidentally deletes files, whilst "Salvage" is designed to recover an entire drive's worth of data and files after a possible crash or drive issues, and "Expert Mode" is designed to analyze a device and allow you to selectively recover data from the list of recoverable files found.

For a quick and no nonsense approach to recovering data, your best bet is to go with options 1 and 2, Undelete and Salvage. If you have more time on your hands and a desire to recover a selective bunch of files, then "Export Mode" provides you with that added flexibility and control you might prefer.

When ready select the drive containing the files you wish to recover and then press the task specific button. This will open a secondary window, with a selection of settings including, but not limited to the choice of file formats to recoverm and whether the files might be embedded in other files or not. and then once all set, simply click the Undelete or Salvage button respectively.

Do I Have Enough Recovery Space? How Much Space Do I Need To Recover Files?

When recovering data, Filesalvage will NOT allow you to recover data to the device that is being analyzed and recovered from. This inherently makes no sense and in fact flies in the face of the entire purpose of the application, recovery rather than deletion of data. And so in making a recovery of data you need to ensure that you have a secondary or tertiary device attached and which can be recovered to, that has enough available free drive space onto which to be able to save the recovered files. As a rule of thumb is that if you wish to recover 10gb worth of data you will of course need 10gb of available space on the destination device, a ratio of 1:1 or like for like.

Why is FileSalvage the Best Application for Data Recovery?

The advantage of using SubRosaSoft's FileSalvage is that it uses proprietary and fault tolerant means by which to recover data from a working or faulty hard drive, scratched media or otherwise, and that, from experience, it has a good success rate of recovery, though the ability to recover data in part or as a whole can NEVER be guaranteed, even if precautions are taking very quickly after a file has been deleted, erased or a drive quick formatted or started to act up.

Conclusion: Action Action Action!

All in all, you need to act as quickly as possible in such a situation, and use the affected computer as little as possible to safeguard the data on it for recovery. That being said, results cannot be guaranteed, and you shoudl always anticipate the worst. This is why backups are also critical, and more so when you are dealing with mission critical and business critical data.

Find Out More...

Find out more about both FileSalvage - Data Recovery Software and DasBoot - The iPod Bootable Toolkit from SubRosaSoft, Inc.