File Recovery Question

Hi there, before I ask my question, let me explain my situation:
I lost all of my data off my hard drive partition, and used the program "Stellar Phoenix Macintosh 4.0". It is a recovery program that allowed me to view and retrieve my lost files from my deleted partition.
It managed to recover EVERY file in its original file structure.
Now, when I try to view pictures, play songs, or do ANYTHING with these files, they don't work, however the FILE SIZE makes sense: Pictures are 1mb-5mb. Songs are 2mb-15mb, etc.
For example: I get this error when trying to view jpgs:
The file filename.jpg could not be opened.
It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize.
I changed the permissions on the file so everyone can "read & write" but that still didn't help. I tried copying the files to another drive, but still no luck.
If someone could help me either with making the files readable, or a different setting on the recovery program, that would be great.
Is it possible that the files were viewed in 10.6.2 and I recovered them in 10.6.0?
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

30 day trial, no money spent.
So why would anyone buy this Keith, if they could get full use out of it for up to 30 days, when just 30 hours would probably do ? Excuse the rhetorical question.
What is noticeable about the various file recovery programs is they let you sample them but mostly require payment if you want to seriously use them.
It is remarkable in the software universe of freeware, and OpenSource ware, that software recovery are the exception and give no free lunches, or at least none that I know.
*I suspect you will have to pay for this app to facilitate your file recovery*.
I'm not sure which one, but there is one that lets you restore one file, just to prove itself, but to get the rest you have to buy the software. Can't remember which one that is but see if you can find it, at least to prove something is recoverable before you fork out the money.
On the matter of creating a backup image using Disk Utility, did you do it according to these procedures?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553
Still, if it has no mountable file system, I doubt if it can be created after the fact.
Sorry to be unable to throw some sunshine on your problems, but gee you are gonna have a great backup strategy in place after this. ...a little ray there.
P.S. You need to contact the providers of these software to clarify things - your expectations, payment, whatever.
Message was edited by: roam

Similar Messages

1 song file missing from my library. Sync & recovery questions.

I found 1 song missing from my iTunes library. File recovery software doesn't find it. It's still on the iPod.
If I do a sync, will I loose it from the iPod too? It's still present in my iTunes song list, but shows up as not found.
After I've done a sync IIRC I can put the iPod into hard-drive mode. Will that let me copy the song to my PC?
Since it's only for a $.99 song, I'd gladly use a free 3rd party application, but only want to buy software for this sort of thing if I have a bigger need.

I've never had the need to do it myself but, from what I've heard, the aggravation is worth more than 99 cents. However,
*Courtesy of PT...*
Copying from iPod to Computer threads...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5044027&#5044027
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=893334&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797432&#797432
Also these useful internet articles...
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/
http://playlistmag.com/secrets/2006/12/twowaystreet20/index.php
http://playlistmag.com/help/2005/01/2waystreet/

File recovery and file structure?

Bummer: Some combo of Excel, Google Earth, and my involvement have left my Sandisk thumbdrive corrupted. Disk Utility sees the drive but can't mount it and can't repair it. I used Sandisk's RescuePRO software which pulled off lots of files, but most of them had been deleted and few were actually the latest copies. Lots of the recovered files had odd file types like .MOF, .ANM, and Illustrator and Codewarrior files were just gone. And (finally, here's the question): is there any way to handle Pages and Keynote files when you're in a desperate file-recovery situation? They are bundles of xml, tiff, and other files, and on recovery, all these bits seem to emerge as separate files. Is there any way to put Humpty Dumpty together again, or are data from these apps particularly bad news when disk failure happens?
Thanks for any advice, philosophy, tips or tricks.

Is your SanDisk drive formatted MS-DOS or Mac OS Extended? If the former you will have a major problem because Mac files are not properly saved on MS-DOS formatted disks. If the SanDisk recovery program is not a Mac program, then it probably knows nothing about Mac files. All of this would seriously complicate trying to recover file created by Mac programs.
There are file recovery programs for Mac OS X, but I have no idea if they can recover files from an MS-DOS formatted thumbdrive. You would need to talk to the developers about it. Your choices are Data Rescue II (www.prosofteng.com) and File Salvage (www.subrosasoft.com.)

Re Mackeeper Smart Uninstaller have done Files recovery how do I get it all back as before?

Question. I know this might sound really dumb but I installed MacKeeper thinking it was an Apple product. I used Smart Uninstaller to removed what I thought was a list of unnecessary stuff from my laptop. When I realised it wasn't unecessary I ran the Files Recovery. It took 24 hours in total and now there is an enormous list of items to be restored. I want to just put it all back, is that possible? I am confused - do I need to buy an external drive to do this? PLEASE HELP. Thanks B

Read this user tip for info.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3039

HT1752 My MacBook on startup shows file with question mark ,, what now?

My Mac shows file with question mark, what now.

Press the power button down to force a emergency use only hardware shutdown.
Press and hold the Option/alt key on the built in keyboard, boot the machine.
If MacintoshHD appears, select it and click the arrow, then in System Preferences > Startup Disk reset that. Done.
Sometimes a NVRAM reset is required then the above done again.
Folder with question mark issue
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
If MacintoshHD doesn't appear, or if it boots to gray screen or other issues, then it's more complicated of a fix, but once inside OS X then reset the Startup Disk.
Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
You might need this if you don't have a recent backup and your problem is software related, Disk Utiltiy can't fix the drive and recommends you backup, erase and install.
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If Disk Utility + Hardware Test shows no boot drive, then you have a dead drive or cable, or Mac issue.
My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

Possible file recovery for Excite AT300

Unfortunately my AT300 started freezing up during startup and I had to face the invetiable and do a factory reset after two years of usage. Unfortunately I didn't back up anything. My main concern was after resetting it was that I had lost text files of writings etc. I am wondering, however, is if it is even possible to recover anything after a factory reset? The only thing I could think of would be to attemp to connect the tablet to a laptop and try to use file recovery software if the laptop can even acknowledge the AT300. Has anyone attempted this?

30 day trial, no money spent.
So why would anyone buy this Keith, if they could get full use out of it for up to 30 days, when just 30 hours would probably do ? Excuse the rhetorical question.
What is noticeable about the various file recovery programs is they let you sample them but mostly require payment if you want to seriously use them.
It is remarkable in the software universe of freeware, and OpenSource ware, that software recovery are the exception and give no free lunches, or at least none that I know.
*I suspect you will have to pay for this app to facilitate your file recovery*.
I'm not sure which one, but there is one that lets you restore one file, just to prove itself, but to get the rest you have to buy the software. Can't remember which one that is but see if you can find it, at least to prove something is recoverable before you fork out the money.
On the matter of creating a backup image using Disk Utility, did you do it according to these procedures?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553
Still, if it has no mountable file system, I doubt if it can be created after the fact.
Sorry to be unable to throw some sunshine on your problems, but gee you are gonna have a great backup strategy in place after this. ...a little ray there.
P.S. You need to contact the providers of these software to clarify things - your expectations, payment, whatever.
Message was edited by: roam

Windows 7 Offline Files Recovery

Thanks for all your help!
Facts: Domain Network, Server 2012, Folder Redirection Enabled (Docs Only), Shadow Copy Enabled, Windows 7 Clients
I have a domain user who was not syncronizing with the server through Folder Redirection. We deployed a GPO to disable Offline files and sure enough, she reported that her files went missing. We looked at the Shadow copies only to find that the folders are
in fact empty.
Attempts: Shadow Copy, HBCD (to access the CSC folder offline, turned up empty)
Are there any tools or techniques that I am missing here to recover her files? Remember this is Windows 7.
All your help is much appreciated.

Hello all,
Just thought I should come back and share my findings.
FolderRedirection can be a useful tool, but can be a pain if used or removed improperly. I found that permissions can play a role in Syncing documents, if permissions are modified for whatever reason in the server, it will not always sync properly and the
user will mostly not notice. This will cause your system to hold "temp" files on your pc.
I had success with Recuva for file recovery but mostly the classic HBCD, this allowed me to browse the contents of CSC without hassles, and move to the local drive. The particular machine in question did not turn out successful, but these methods worked
for the remaining.
Thanks to all for your help.

Checkpointing - control file contents question

Some clarification is needed if possible...
When you commit a transaction:
- commit scn is recorded in the itl of the data block and undo segment header
- lgwr records the committed scn (for all data blocks involved) to the redo log
Checkpoint Event
- (3 seconds or possibly less passes by) CKPT wakes up and signals DBWn to write dirty (modified and committed)
blocks to disk
- CKPT records the scn of those blocks in the control file (data file and redo thread sections) and the data file
header (task of checkpoint when a log switch occurs)
- Checkpoint position in the Redo Log is forwarded
Control file contents question:
When LGWR writes the commit scn to the redo log, who writes the scn to the control file? LGWR or CKPT?
Also, when is the redo thread scn written?
Matt

Matt,
This is my understanding of the stuff. Feel free to correct me.
Checkpoint SCN , as I mentioned in my last reply is the marker of the point till which the data is "chekpointed" to the datafiles. This marker tells the controlfile that in the case of the crash, where to start recovery of the datafile and have to go which extent in the redo stream? This is only available in the datafile header and in the controlfile. This doesn't get recorded in the redo log file/stream.
I mentioned checkpoint queue in my reply too. Though I couldn't find any reference directly mentioned between this and in the checkpoint SCN but I believe my theory , if not totall, partially is correct. The incremental checkpoint is the stuff which makes the decision that how many redo blocks needs to be applied to the datafile if its closed without a proper checkpoint. So this part is maintained in the Datafile header itself in the form of the checkpoint SCN. When not matched with the conrolfile checkpoint SCN, which is always higher than this, a recovery is reported.
I hope its somewhat correct. Do let me know your views too.
Cheers
Aman....

Improvement request: add a capability which defines if the connector supports file recovery

A capability which defines if a connector supports file recovery makes sense when using Bridge. In Bridge, when you remove a file, it shows a confirm dialog with the question if you want to remove it to the project trash. When you confirm this, the file is immediatly deleted without any further notification as our DAM does not support file recovery (IRestoreHandler is not implemented).
If Bridge knows that file recovery is not supported, it could simply show a confirm dialog that the file will be immediatly removed, just as Finder and Explorer do this.

I don't have any answer for you, but if you want to report this issue to Apple's engineering, send either a bug report or an enhancement request via its Bug Reporter system. To do this, join the Mac Developer Program—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Since you already have an Apple username/ID, use that. Once a member, go to Apple BugReporter and file your bug report or enhancement request. The nice thing with this procedure is that you get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering.

I got new hard driver for my MacBook I don't have the cd but I do have flash drive that has the software I need help because when I turn on my laptop it shows me a file with question mark how can I install the software from the flash driver?

I got new hard driver for my MacBook I don't have the cd but I do have flash drive that has the software I need help because when I turn on my laptop it shows me a file with question mark how can I install the software from the flash driver?

Hold down the Option key while you boot your Mac. Then, it should show you a selection of devices. Click your flash drive and it will boot from that.

Can I use gpt to recreate/unerase a partition table? (Rebuild the GPT/GUID partition table?) I don't want to do FILE recovery.

(Yes, I've googled a bunch and read threads like this one already.)
Can I use gpt or some other app to recreate/unerase a partition table? That is, how can I rebuild a disk's GPT/GUID partition table?) I don't want to do FILE recovery.
What happened: Instead of erasing a single partition off a disk with many partitions, the entire partition table was erased (using Disk Utility, w/o deleting the underlying files). Somehow the "Erasing a disk deletes all data on all its partitions." warning message was missed.
I have a copy of the output of df, with the number of blocks in each partition, from just prior to the erasure, so I should be able to recreate the GPT/GUID partition table. Editing the GPT with a hex editor is not feasible. Simply recreating the partitions with Disk Utility will overwrite the key filesystem tables on each partition, and I don't want to do that, plus Disk Utility doesn't allow me to specify exact partition sizes anyway.
Surely there's an app for rebuilding the partition table (other than emacs' hexl-mode!) for recreating/unerasing a partition table when the partition sizes and orders are known? I've looked at the advertising for a bunch of recovery software and none of them clearly indicate that they will do what I want.
I guess I can try using gpt on a copy of the reformatted drive I've made with dd, and see what happens. But perhaps someone knows of a tool that should do what I need, or knows if gpt is that tool or not.
There are answers and tools that will do FILE recovery - search for files and recover the ones that aren't fragmented or deleted. As far as I can find, they just look for files on the disk, and don't pay much, if any attention to the filesystem info or directory heirarchy, which in this case is valuable. Of course I could send it in to DriveSavers, or the like. But none of that seems necessary, and the scavenging file recovery apps won't do the job well,
E.g. some are mentioned here:
I don't want to do FILE recovery.
Thanks for any help.
The links in this post are to pages describing the underlined term, e.g. the man pages for df and gpt.
dd output includes:
Filesystem
512-blocks
Used Available Capacity Mounted on

Aperture has the ability to work with files in their existing location. They are called "referenced masters." When you import images, you should select the "In their current location" in the "Store Files:" drop down box. Have a read of the documentation for full specifics. Unsure how you can resolve your duplication; might be some work but next time have a read of the manual first
Information for versions is stored in the Aperture database (library file). The masters can be inside the library file itself, or they can be somewhere else.

File recovery after system recovery?

One of our students has a laptop that has had a system recovery performed on it by someone else by holding the zero key while pressing the power button. I'm trying to see if any file recovery is possible using standard forensic tools or suites. I haven't been able to find out exactly how the system recovery process works so I don't know what I have to work with. Does anyone know how the original partition is cleaned up before copying the files from the hidden backups?
Thanks in advance for any help or information you can offer.
Bill
[email protected]

Same thing happened to me except that they were audio MP3 files. Where did all those WAV files go?

File Recovery Software

A software bug has apparently erased one of my email folders. I don't use Apple Mail.
Can anyone recommend a good, reliable file recovery program that might be successful in recovering the previous file?
I'm avoiding that partition in hopes of preventing any overwriting of the deleted data.
Thanks.

a brody wrote:
If the mail was stored on the server, ask the internet provider for their tape backup. Any messages you didn't open between the time it arrived and was taped will be safe.
If the mail was stored on the server, but was checked before it was taped, the internet provider might be able to do a data recovery on their own machine to see if they can find a trace of it.
If it was stored locally, you need to know the local file name of where it was stored, and recover it to the location that it stored it.
Definitely stored locally. I've become very security conscious, and avoid almost everything cloud related. This year, plan on doing taxes and next years records on an OS many have never seen, and not connected to the internet. So, it's been a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong time since anything identity related has been stolen from me.
This isn't the first time I'm used recovery software, but the first time on a Mac. First experience doing it was on an Atari 800.
What e-mail program did you use? These programs can recover such files, if not too much else has been written to the hard disk since the file was lost:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689
Leaving the machine on lessens the chances it can be recovered locally.
I use Thunderbird, but I seriously consider switching if I could find an equivalent program. That has been a fruitless search.
The attempts at recovery using TB quite possibly overwrote the needed file at the outset. It all depends on how the filesystem selects the vacant sectors to write changes to.
Have you used any of the programs listed in the article?
I've opted to not try to recover the data, and have installed a back up from Time Machine. But, because I was troubleshooting issues copying massive amounts of data between hard drives, I'd turned off Time Machine, so the back up is missing some emails for all accounts. But, I have the accounts set to leave messages on the server, so just have to learn how to get those messages. I'd forgotten I'd done that, so hopefully there will be a way to just get the ones that are missing.

What's a good file recovery program for a MacBook Pro running IS 10.7.5?

Hey gang - I ordered a miniStack 4TB external hard drive from OWC a few months ago during a long overseas trip. I finally unwrapped it and started dumping data to the drive from the 1TB drives (also from OWC) I used via my MacBook Pro. I connected the 4TB to the laptop with FW800.
I came back from the gym (gone about two hours) and saw a "the drive wasn't disconnected properly..." window. There was a clicking noise coming from the drive, which means mechanical failure.
I went into Disk Utility and the drive is there but it's grayed out. I changed cables to USB 3.0. Unplugged the drive. Shut down the laptop. Then went through the start up and nadda.
So before I run off a disk repair place in town and spend $1000, what's a good hard drive recovery program to use to pull the data? I only dumped 1.5TBs until the 4TB and have other drives to dump that data too if I need to.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Bill.

General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service, such as Data Recovery by DriveSavers, which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

I forgot my password recovery questions and i need it so i can purchase stuff on my ipad

i forgot my password recovery questions and i need it so i can purchase stuff on my ipad

Alternatives for Help Resetting Security Questions and/or Rescue Mail
     1. If you have a valid rescue email address, then use this procedure:
         Rescue email address and how to reset Apple ID security questions.
     2. Fill out and submit this form. Select the topic, Account Security. You must
         have a Rescue Email to use this option.
     3. This is the only option if you do not already have a valid Rescue Email.
         These are telephone numbers for contacting Apple Support in your country.
         Apple ID- Contacting Apple for help with Apple ID account security. Select
         the appropriate country and call. Ask to speak to the Account Security Team.
Note: If you have already forgotten your security questions, then you cannot
         set up a rescue email address in order to reset them. You must set up
         the rescue email address beforehand.
Your Apple ID: Manage My Apple ID.
                         Apple ID- All about Apple ID security questions.

File Recovery Question

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