HELP!!!! Recovering deleted files on a Mac

[straycat]

I need to recover .... all someone's work from a Mac**, after they accidentally deleted it. We're talking many many months of work, with no recent backups. Anyone got any advice on good file recovery tools for the job?

Not a happy Straycat.

**Just ... don't ask

[Lee Bartholomew]

Take it it's an IDE drive?

If so best way is go out, get a pc. Install the drive and just get one of the many brilliant hard drive recovery utils that are available for the well served and supported PC platform

[Lee Bartholomew]

Try VirtualLab. It's decent enough on PC. They have been kind enough to write a version for you poor poor mac owners. Free trial at Data Recovery Software | MacOS X and Windows Free Download

[straycat]

Take it it's an IDE drive?

If so best way is go out, get a pc. Install the drive and just get one of the many brilliant hard drive recovery utils that are available for the well served and supported PC platform

Thanks for the kind suggestion. Unfortunately, a) it's a laptop, which makes things harder, b) windows machines aren't good enough to read Mac format drives and c) windows machines don't support the advanced file formats that MacOS has used since its inception (ie the resource fork), so would be unable recover some crucial parts of the data.

[straycat]

Try VirtualLab. It's decent enough on PC. They have been kind enough to write a version for you poor poor mac owners. Free trial at Data Recovery Software | MacOS X and Windows Free Download

This looks promising. Thanks - I'll give that a go.

[Dreadful Scathe]

I imagine theres quiet a few of these for the mac - no need to go to hassle of taking the drive out. I would ask in a mac usergroup/forum if i were you.

Silly (l)user.

[Lee Bartholomew]

- I'll give that a go.

Then buy a PC

[Lee Bartholomew]

Just a thought, not calling you stupid or anything
but if you, sorry, your friend deleted the files, did they not go to the waste bin?

[straycat]

Just a thought, not calling you stupid or anything
but if you, sorry, your friend deleted the files, did they not go to the waste bin?

Funnily enough, that was the first question I asked (it's never a stupid question). And yes, they did. Just before it got emptied

[straycat]

I imagine theres quiet a few of these for the mac - no need to go to hassle of taking the drive out. I would ask in a mac usergroup/forum if i were you.

I'm building up a list, and looking for recommendations. As far as drive removal's concerned, that's a no-no, but the machine's shut down (it's the boot drive) and will remain so until I get to it. So it's looking like a boot CD job, or use Firewire Target Disc Mode from my machine. I'm thinking a CD though, as TDM will probably be a fair bit slower.

Silly (l)user.

We've just had The Backup Conversation. (again)

[Dreadful Scathe]

simply tell the users that they get their files recovered ONCE, next time it happens you will assume it is on purpose, tell their boss they wilfully destroyed company files and recommend their immediate dismissal. May work

[straycat]

simply tell the users that they get their files recovered ONCE, next time it happens you will assume it is on purpose, tell their boss they wilfully destroyed company files and recommend their immediate dismissal. May work

Doesn't work quite like that on girlfriends. Trust me on that one...

[straycat]

Try VirtualLab. It's decent enough on PC.

Mmm. After a bit more investigation, I think I'll pass on this one. You have to pay them for the amount of data that it tries to recover, ($120 for the first GB, $7.50 for each additional GB on top of that. SO - considering it's about 40 gigs of data, if it were able to recover the whole lot, we're talking $411. Just to make the attempt (some reviews suggest that if it fails, you don't get a refund).

The word 'ripoff' springs to mind. Anyway - we have a winner - I'll try it this evening. Thanks for the suggestions.

[ducasi]

Recovering accidentally deleted files on any operating system is tricky, but on a Mac it's especially difficult due to the balanced-tree structure of its file system. FAT is a lot easier, due to its table-based structure.

Most of the disk & file recovery programs for Mac OS X are aimed at recovering data from damaged disks and file systems, and will only offer "best effort" at finding data on the disk that may be part of your deleted files.

Anyway, the programs I've heard of are DiskWarrior, Tech Tool Pro and the one you've found, Data Rescue II. In a quick search of Version Tracker, I've also found programs called Boomerang Data Recovery, FileSalvage, and Stellar Mac Data Recovery that you might also want to look at.

Good luck!