Program & Data Recovery - ANSWERED

Either my mother or her cat seem to have unknowingly restored her computer back to factory settings early this morning. Her data (from all programs) is gone. All of the programs that I installed for her are gone - Firefox, a few games, Photoshop, etc. Even her network settings had reverted back to factory settings.
A full scan with Norton returned to problems. I do not believe this is virus related.
System restore only had one restore point from 20 minutes ago, and it did nothing.
Any ideas on what happened or how to correct it?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Never mind. It seems the disk truly was reformatted and that I just need to redo the installations and salvage what data I can from the old computer.

Similar Messages

DVD data recovery program for Mac?

h'lo all
I've burned a Memorex DVD+R DL on my old G5. It burned and verified just fine, but it won't mount on my new MacPro (or any longer on the G5). All of the data recovery programs that are specifically for DVD data recovery seem to be PC only.
Does anyone know of a Mac (OS X) program for DVD data recovery?
thanks

Prosoft Data Rescue II, Subrosasoft Filesalvage, and Boomerang's Boomerang may be able to extract data from the DVD. Make sure the drive in question is capable of reading the DL media burnt at the speed you burnt your disk, and faster. http://www.macsales.com/ has Firewire DVD drives that are among the fastest Mac compatible drives in the market.

Need a good free data recovery program

Can anyone suggest a good free data recovery program? I have some deleted images on a camera card that I'm trying to revive.
Thanks!

If there is any chance of recovery at all your best bet is Prosoft Data Rescue 3 . There is a free trial to see if it can recover what you need. But don't do another process on that drive until you've downloaded and run it.
That means that ideally you should use another bootable drive to download and run Data Rescue. Or booted from another Mac in firewire mode. Also, there is always the option of ordering or going to the store to purchase the DVD. Then running from the optical drive.
-mj

Is there an effective data recovery program for iPod Touch?

I accidently deleted a video and I've tried a couple different data recovery tools and havne't had any luck. Has anyone ever been able to use something that like that and if so what did you use? I'd even be willing to pay a little as it has sentimental value, but I'd like to have a first hand review saying it actually works.

iPod data recovery software support Windows based operation system with all Apple iPod models such as iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Mini, iPod Touch, iPod Mini. iPod Recovery software restore all songs, photos, pictures, images, music & videos files from corrupted, formatted, deleted or inaccessible iPod
drives.
Download:- http://www.pcrecoverytools.com/ipod-data-recovery.html

Time Machine Recovery (after data recovery)

Several months ago, Disk2 and Disk3 in my 2007 MacPro 1,1 (OSX 10.7.5) became unreadable by the computer. To make matters worse, the Time Machine external backup became equally as unreadable. All at the same time! Drive 1, with the operating system, seems to be unaffected. The two unreadable drives showed up as "media" in disk utility, but didn't show up in Disk Warrior or any other similar programs (partition repairing) using the "terminal." I sent the Time Machine drive (WD Mybook Essential 3Tb) to DataRecovery.com and they found no phyical issues with the drive. There was, however,"Data Corruption in the file tables and data area" (according to the evaluation report). This was corrected and the TM drive was supposedly completely recovered.
Upon receiving the external drive (now replaced by a newer 3Tb Mybook), I replaced disk2 and disk3 with new 1TB drives (formatted with a single partition) and tried to perform a restore for these two drives. No such luck.....The drive was readable by the computer but would not actually enter into "Time Machine." I examined the actual drive and found an inordinate amount of Unix executable files, especially when going into the individual backups. The drive does show that they recovered 870Gb of information, but nothing seems to be readable much less recoverable.
I'm wondering if there is a workaround for any of this or whether I should contact the data recovery people to resolve this. I appreciate any help on this as it's become expensive and a bit deflating.......I still hold out some hope, though. Thanks. The drives were most likely corrupted by a generator that kicks on once a week (automatic maintenance) and temporarily cuts power long enough to turn the computer off...I've since gotten a UPS.

A general look at backup files......

Data recovery - HELP!

Hi there
I have done the stupidest thing EVER! I back up my entire MacBook on an external hard drive - so far, so sensible. Only I've updated what I've backed up by replacing folders with newer versions and I've only just realised. I've lost four years' worth of digital photos and I'm praying there's some way of recovering them. Please help me! I'll name my future children after you and put you in my will!
Here's what I've done in full:
- I upload all my photos to iPhoto, edit them and then save them into a folder within a folder on my desktop
- I started getting very low on operating memory so I got an external hard drive with a fire wire and began backing everything up. I took all my photos in the Photos folder off my desktop altogether and trashed them, so I had more operating memory.
- I did this in May/June
- I also had photos from 2004/2005/2006 on there which were from before I had a Mac and uploaded to iPhoto
- I've since overwritten this folder with a new (thus virtually empty with only a few recent photos) version and I think I've done it twice since I originally backed everything up, but I've only just realised I've been overwriting everything.
- I've looked in that iPhoto library in Pictures that I have and I can recover some photos, but there appears to be a lot missing and because I'm a keen photographer who is anal about editing and organising (the irony!) my photos, they're all mixed up - which is why I had them in separate folders in the first place
Is there ANYTHING I can do?
Can they be recovered from the hard drive itself?
Is there software that can be downloaded free or paid for to do this?
I've googled it a bit and it looks like there's stuff you can download for a PC. I have access to a PC, so I can have a go on that if that's what it takes.
If they can't be salvaged from the hard drive, will I perhaps be able to find them in a secret place on my MacBook from the time I trashed the original folders a couple of months ago? 'Secret place' is about as technical as I get!
I can't get an appointment at the Genius Bar for a while. Any help on this would be much appreciated. I know I'm an idiot - but I was half way to being a non-idiot by backing up in the first place...so small victories...!
Thanks,
Rachael

Basics of File Recovery
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
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.
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.
Since it sounds like you overwrote files and folders then the data that were overwritten are gone for good and can not be recovered.
In the future you should make multiple backups including an archival backup on DVD media that can be stored away safely. It's good that you have some backups, but your backup plan is obviously inadequate.

Data recovery from external hard drive

I'm sick! I was attempting to format my flash drive and I accidentally chose the wrong drive and formatted my Toshiba 3.0 external USB hard drive with over 350GB of data on it. Is there any way at all to recover my files?

Lots of programs out there from which to choose. In the meantime, don't access the drive.
18 Free Data Recovery Software Tools
-Jerry

Data recovery from corrupt boot partition

The boot partition on my MacBook running 10.7.6 has a corrupt volume structure and will not mount, much less boot. The recovery partition boots but really doesn't let me do anything. Disk Utility can't repair nor even complete verification. I have lots of images which I need to recover, so am looking for a utility which might help.
Everything was apparently ok until the failure and the drive hardware checked out ok, so I'm hopeful my files are recoverable. A week or so ago I optimized the volume with TechTool Pro and the directory with DiskWarrior, and last night attempted to sync 1Password on my iPad with 1Password for Mac. This did no t work, probably because of my unfamiliarity with the procedure, but seemed to do no damage. When I ran TTPro last night from its eDrive partition it reported a volume structure problem on the partition which I started to fix with the program but then cancelled the analysis and decided to use disk utility instead. Disk utility also reported a problem but stopped the verification with the instruction to do a repair which it again could not complete. When I rebooted the system partition would again not boot but this time I got grey screen with a message that the debugger had loaded and <panic>. A message box said power down and restart, but that only repeats the process.
I'm thinking of attempting to install a system on an external boot drive and accessing the corrupt partition with a data recovery utility. Any insights, ideas or shared experiences appreciated. Thanks in advance for any desperately needed help.

The safest thing to do here is to install a new disk in the system and do a clean install of OS X. From there, you can put your corrupted volume in an external USB enclosure and mount the file system to try and recover as much data as you can.
It's likely obvious now, but it's REALLY worth investing in a large-capacity external storage or Time Capsure to use with Time Machine. Backups are essential. Hardware always eventually dies. We all need an effective strategy to deal with that.
A long time ago, I was backing my Linux system up to 4mm DAT. When the inevitable HDD crash came, I thought I was ready. Unfortunately, I hadn't tested recovery from tape and I ended up losing everything. Which is to say, until you know you can restore, you don't even have a backup. I lost thousands upon thousands of photos of my kids growing up.
BTW, if it is essential that you recover as much as possible, consider taking the disk to a data recovery service. Be warned: It's expensive.

Data recovery of trashed files

I recently lost some data on a Hard Drive by inadvertently tossing a folder in a the trash and emptying it. ( there is no software for carelessness). My back up software just mirrored the affected drive and erased the data from the back up drive. I have turned the drive off and am now seeking a great utility for recover trashed data. I have used the demo version of Data Rescue II by Prosoft which indicated there might be some data to recover but want more information on data recovery software before I make the buy.
I am also looking for a good data recovery strategy in the event I find myself in this predicament again. Any thoughts out there.
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I find myself in the same predicament after deleting the trash and realising I had placed files in there by accident. Have you solved your problem yet?
I came across some free Quick Recovery for Mac software at http://3d2f.com/programs/30-815-quick-recovery-for-macintosh-download.shtml. Has anyone used this?

Any Tech Geeks out there ever done a DIY data recovery from a trashed drive

Hi,
I have a iMac G5 that went belly up about three weeks ago. The problem was undoubtedly the hard drive, which was totally missing even when I used third party recovery programs like Diskwarrior and Data Recovery. I pulled the drive and replaced it. BUT, now I am desperate to get things off the dead drive. I DID back up, but my delightful 2 year old "ate" my back up disks and they are beyond repair.
sigh
I simply don't have $300 to pay for professional data recovery and the missing data has sentimental value, but not much beyond that. I can't justify a price tag of $300 for old pictures and word documents.
Anyone ever done a DIY data recovery and can share the details with me??
I suspect the drive is physically damaged because it makes the ugliest noises when you try to power it up.
Tricia

You can purchase data recovery software such as Data Rescue II or File Salvage ( VersionTracker or MacUpdate ) and attempt to recover the files.
In order for recovery software to work the drive must be physically accessible and connected to your computer. Because you've removed it you would need an external enclosure for the drive (Firewire or USB.) However, if the drive is non-functional (won't run) then recovery software will not help.

Data recovery / disc repair help

can anyone recommend the best data recovery and repair program to use with ext hard drives ?
thanks

Check out File Salvage
Regards
TD

Data recovery help and options

If you don't want to read the entire diatribe, please answer: Any suggestions as to which data recovery app is appropriate for a ThunderBolt Seagate GoFlex 1TB? It's been 21 hours, should I stop and restart First Aid?
I have a MBP15R that is about a month old. With it, I purchased a Seagate GoFlex 1TB drive with Thunderbolt adapter. I was away from the house for 24hrs, and had shut my MBP off prior to leaving. Upon return, I started the MBP and began my work. About an hour in, I realized I couldn't find a few recent files. I went to Finder, and realized the SGF wasn't mounted. It would not mount, and prompted me to run First aid. The log for this so far is:
2012-12-17 15:27:13 -0800: Disk Utility started.
2012-12-17 15:27:58 -0800: Mount of “FreeAgent GoFlex Drive” failed
2012-12-17 15:28:12 -0800: Verifying volume “FreeAgent GoFlex Drive”
2012-12-17 15:28:12 -0800: Starting verification tool:
2012-12-17 15:28:12 -0800: Checking file system
2012-12-17 15:28:12 -0800: Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
2012-12-17 15:28:12 -0800:
2012-12-17 15:28:12 -0800: Disk Utility stopped verifying “FreeAgent GoFlex Drive”: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
2012-12-17 15:28:43 -0800:
2012-12-17 15:28:51 -0800: Verify and Repair volume “FreeAgent GoFlex Drive”
2012-12-17 15:28:51 -0800: Starting repair tool:
2012-12-17 15:28:51 -0800: Checking file system
2012-12-17 15:28:51 -0800: Volume repair complete.
2012-12-17 15:28:51 -0800: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
It's now been 21 hours, and the boot support partitions for the volume as required has not completed.
I live-chatted with Seagate. The pertinant text is:
You: The question: with approximately 90% of the drive filled from backup, etc., how long should the process of 'updating boot support partitions for the volume as required' take? we're pushing 21hrs now.
Jason H: That is really hard to say. There is not a way to give a time on that, but I can tell you that it should not exceed 5 hours. At that point either the drive is unrepairable, or may be corrupted.
Jason H: It could be a bad drive.
You: ...hmm...your recommended course of action at this point? i'm an it director, am familiar with seatools, but unless i'm mistaken, you don't have a version of seatools for mac
Jason H: That is correct. The only thing we recommend on Mac is to use Mac First Aid Repair to try and correct any issues. I would still wait a little longer even though it has been some time. With the drive being 2TB and depending on the system, and what type of data, it could still be updating the partitions.
You: 1TB
You: video, audio, and documents/spreadsheets. the time machine backups took up over .5 the drive in just under a month. ok, so if another 24hrs doesn't resolve it, 3rd party tools to attempt a repair?
Jason H: The only other program that I can suggest, is even though Mac is not listed for Seatools, if you have an Intel based chipset on your Mac, Seatools for DOS can work. Otherwise, the only other thing I can suggest would be to search online for free recovery programs.
You: seagate will charge for data recovery even though the drive is 35 days old from purchase, correct?
Jason H: Correct, data recovery is not covered under warranty.
I'm getting a 2nd Goflex and USB adapter to push the data to once I get the drive operational, then exchanging the 'bad' drive and TB adapter.
Any suggestions as to which data recovery app is appropriate?

Sorry to hear your problem.
IMHO what you should of done was Shut down the Mac, Disconnected the drive from the Mac (Pull out the TB cord), Restarted the Mac and tried to Reconnect it once the Mac had started.
Could of simply been the drive was trying to draw to much power from the TB port, that is IF that drive did not have it own AC adapter, while the MBP was starting. But once it was up and running it may of been able to supply the correct power to the drive.
sorry I don't have any suggestions for Data recovery.

Data recovery on iPhone 5

Just before Christmas, I bought an iPhone 5 to replace an iPhone 3g. Intending to copy over my contacts to the new phone, I made the mistake of restoring the previous 3G backup on the iphone 5. When I restored, it erased all the photos and video I had taken the first two weeks I had the new phone. (Oddly enough, the apps I had downloaded survived). Is there any way of recovering this media?

The Camera Roll is for temporary storage. Photos/videos in the Camera Roll can and should be imported by your computer ASAP as with any other digital camera. The Camera Roll is also included with the iPhone's backup, which is updated by iTunes as the first step during the iTunes sync process.
If the photos/videos were not imported by your computer and your iPhone synced with iTunes since the photos/videos were captured by your iPhone, you can use the Data Recovery on iPhone 5 to get them back.
More details of this program visit: http://www.recovery-android.com/recover-data-on-iphone-5.html

Data Recovery on External Drives

I have an external LaCie 200GB FireWire 400 drive, the F.A. Porsche one. While unmounting it before a trip I was in a hurry and unplugged the FireWire cable too soon and it came up with the customary message informing me as such. I paid it no mind as I was in a hurry and I'd done it once or twice before on accident and had suffered no wrath.
Anyway when I got home this evening I went to plug it in and found the drive unresponsive. I got a message saying I couldn't mount the volume but could initialise it in Disk Utility, so I did. The drive was showing but the volume with my data was gone, or rather it was showing up as "disk1s3" instead of "Rei" as it is named.
I tried the following steps to recover my data:
1. Disk Utility: I tried to repair the volume. I received an error saying it could not be done.
2. TechTool Pro: I did the drive test and it came back as having passed.
3. TechTool Pro: I tested the volume, found that the index was corrupted. Made sense.
4. DiskWarrior: I tried to recover it with DiskWarrior. During the recovering process the program became unresponsive and I got the beach ball of doom. After pressing AppleAltEsc I found the program was not responding and highlighted in red. I force-quit the application. I tried again and it proceeded to do the exact same thing. This time I noticed a message stating something along the lines of performance being slowed due to a drive malfunction. I was, once again, forced to force-quit the program.
5. DataRescue II: I attempted to use DataRescue II to see if I could at least view the files and transfer them off the drive and back them up to DVD so I could format the drive and reload all my data. Though it is visible to Disk Utility, DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro it is not, however, visible to DataRescue II.
6. TechTool Pro: I am now having TT P attempt to recover the data. I'm planning on letting it run into the night and hope in the morning it will be fine.
If anyone has any more recommendations on what I can do let me know. I can afford to buy another external to transfer all of my data onto that if I can access it long enough to pull it all off, but I need a program that can at least see the files to grab them.

Hi, Doug.
By not ejecting the drive before disconnecting it, the partition map was corrupted. Short of professional data recovery, you've covered everything and then some in my "Data Recovery" FAQ. If DR-II and TTP can't recover the data, then you're left with professional data recovery, per my FAQ.
I presume you don't have backups of the contents on the LaCie. After you recover from this incident, I suggest you implement a comprehensive Backup and Recovery solution addressing all of your drives. For advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recovery Help

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad.
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Update...
I found a website that offers the following:
http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then goes to a blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.

Program & Data Recovery - ANSWERED

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for