Data Recovery

TGphoto

TGphoto

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Tom
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Hi All,

Had an issue with my main external hard drive. My main folder (over 3tb of data) has just vanished, still taking up the space but the folder has completely disappeared.

Now, I have got a backup of this data but it's not quite as organised, so I'd prefer to recover this one.

I'm using mac. Does anyone have any recovery tips or software advice?

Thanks,

Tom
 
Apple's Disk Utility has become rather dumbed down over recent iterations, although to be fair, issues are fewer and further between if you are using AFPS rather than the old HFS+ disk formats.

Alsoft DiskWarrior is the main contender, which is good for fixing invalid B-tree node errors and other problems with corrupt HFS+ volumes which Disk Utility could not fix*

ALSOFT - Makers of DiskWarrior.

DiskWarrior is a utility program designed from the ground up with a totally different approach to preventing and resolving directory damage.
www.alsoft.com www.alsoft.com

ProSoft Data Rescue saved my bacon on several occasions in the past by getting data off spinning rust drives that were otherwise unreadable, some of them with quite extreme mechanical problems

www.prosofteng.com

Prosoft Engineering, Inc.

Prosoft Engineering Inc, offers software to undelete your important files, detect malware, monitor your computer, and create backups.
www.prosofteng.com www.prosofteng.com

Neither appears to have been updated lately, which may reflect how modern solid state drives and AFPS are much more reliable than the way things used to be

* typically they used to happen when an HFS volume has been run for some time while filled to the brim. Unexpectedly disappearing files and folders with no apparent reduction in disk space are symptoms which could fit this.
 
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P.S. HFS+ is also known as Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Select the disk in the Finder and Get Info from the File menu (Command-I)

With a mechanical external disk it's likely yours will be HFS+ and look something like this

1664219284276.png
 
Chipper said:
Is it covered by your Time Machine?
Click to expand...

Sadly not.

ancient_mariner said:
The maker might have some recovery software.
Click to expand...

Doesn't appear to have.

ecoleman said:
Are you sure you haven’t accidentally dragged it into another folder
Click to expand...

Definitely, checked each file and then selected all, looked at info and it's less than 600gb. 3.4tb missing.
Musicman said:
Apple's Disk Utility has become rather dumbed down over recent iterations, although to be fair, issues are fewer and further between if you are using AFPS rather than the old HFS+ disk formats.

Alsoft DiskWarrior is the main contender, which is good for fixing invalid B-tree node errors and other problems with corrupt HFS+ volumes which Disk Utility could not fix*

ALSOFT - Makers of DiskWarrior.

DiskWarrior is a utility program designed from the ground up with a totally different approach to preventing and resolving directory damage.
www.alsoft.com www.alsoft.com

ProSoft Data Rescue saved my bacon on several occasions in the past by getting data off spinning rust drives that were otherwise unreadable, some of them with quite extreme mechanical problems

www.prosofteng.com

Prosoft Engineering, Inc.

Prosoft Engineering Inc, offers software to undelete your important files, detect malware, monitor your computer, and create backups.
www.prosofteng.com www.prosofteng.com

Neither appears to have been updated lately, which may reflect how modern solid state drives and AFPS are much more reliable than the way things used to be

* typically they used to happen when an HFS volume has been run for some time while filled to the brim. Unexpectedly disappearing files and folders with no apparent reduction in disk space are symptoms which could fit this.
Click to expand...

Musicman said:
P.S. HFS+ is also known as Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Select the disk in the Finder and Get Info from the File menu (Command-I)

With a mechanical external disk it's likely yours will be HFS+ and look something like this

View attachment 368020
Click to expand...
Will have a look at this, I've run first aid on disk utility and get this message:

File is AFPS.

Screenshot 2022-09-26 at 20.21.44.png
 
With something like that, the first thing I would be inclined to do is make a backup of the whole disc. Carbon Copy Cloner, or even Disk Utility can be used to do this.

DiskWarrior is great, but only works on old format discs.
 
What happens when you search for a file that was in the missing folder?
 
Pound Coin said:
With something like that, the first thing I would be inclined to do is make a backup of the whole disc. Carbon Copy Cloner, or even Disk Utility can be used to do this.

DiskWarrior is great, but only works on old format discs.
Click to expand...

I guess that isn't just a case of copy and pasting from the current hard drive?
L320Rio said:
What happens when you search for a file that was in the missing folder?
Click to expand...
Nothing is found.
 
I’m sure you have, but as it’s still taking up the space, have you checked the bin when the disk is connected? Although I’d have thought a search for the individual file would have been found, if so.
edit - just spotted your post above re corrupt disk :(
 
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TGphoto said:
I guess that isn't just a case of copy and pasting from the current hard drive?
Click to expand...
No, its about making as close an exact copy as you can. Disc utility can be used to make a Disk Image of the hard drive that should hold all the data. Other software will clone the data.

Disk failures (as I understand) will be mechanical or software. If the former, you need to as little disk access as possible, and try to get as much off as you can. If the latter then you need specialist software to recover the ability to read the data. The data is almost certainly still there, it is just that the computer can‘t find it because the index that points to it is damaged.
 
It won't be any help in this case but I have long kept copies of every file on three separate disks.

It's the only way to give yourself a fighting chance.
 
Hi

Not the same issue as you have but all the photos disappeared from one of my drives and this found most of them

www.cgsecurity.org

TestDisk

TestDisk is a free and open source data recovery software tool designed to recover lost partition and unerase deleted files.
www.cgsecurity.org www.cgsecurity.org
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
It won't be any help in this case but I have long kept copies of every file on three separate disks.

It's the only way to give yourself a fighting chance.
Click to expand...

I do have a copy, it’s just not as up to date in terms of organisation.
sep9001 said:
Hi

Not the same issue as you have but all the photos disappeared from one of my drives and this found most of them

www.cgsecurity.org

TestDisk

TestDisk is a free and open source data recovery software tool designed to recover lost partition and unerase deleted files.
www.cgsecurity.org www.cgsecurity.org
Click to expand...
Thanks, will have a look at that
 
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