Suddenly all my Word documents are gone. What happened? Are they recoverable (no back-up hard drive or time machine)
Suddenly all my Word documents are gone. What happened? Are they recoverable (no back-up hard drive, no time machine)?
Greetings,
What happened right before they went missing? (software updates, "cleaning" up the computer, etc.)
Are your other files still there like music, movies, pictures, bookmarks, etc?
I'm sure you've already come to this conclusion yourself, you need a back up. Its easy to do with 10.5.8 and later: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553.
Try searching your account for any ".doc" files (Word documents) by going to File > Find and using the options below:
If you don't find any of the documents you are looking for in the search window and nothing else is missing then it would be wise to get a second opinion ASAP before any chance of data recovery is lost.
Make an appointment with a Mac Genius at an Apple store (they don't do data recovery but may be able to see something we can't see from here) or contact an Apple Authorized Service Provider to see if they can look around the hard drive for you.
If the second opinion reveals that the data is really gone off the entire computer then you will need data recovery software or service:
Data recovery software requires you have a separate hard drive so you'll need to buy one first. Data recovery software examples:
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
http://www.macintosh-data-recovery.com/
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products _id=1
There are many nationwide / worldwide data recovery companies out there. Here are a few examples:
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com
http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
http://www.totalrecall.com/
Best of luck to you.
Similar Messages
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I have had a laptop for years. I backed up the entire hard drive using Time Machine onto an external hard drive. We now have a new iMac and I am trying to put everything from my old lap top onto our new computer. I know it's probably simple but I'm clueless. Please help.
Connect the drive and use the Migration Assistant to restore the backup. This can either be done as part of the setup process or on its own; the Migration Assistant is located in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and will migrate user data into a newly-created account.
(99464) -
Time Machine will not let me restore from backups after June, 2013. I can see the files on the external hard drive but Time Machine skips all of them and goes back to June, 2013. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
rtilghman wrote:
telling me to buy a new router is NOT a solution.
And why not? Apple is selling these things like BigMacs. They can't make enough of them. You've been suffering since May because you refuse to get a decent router.
Can you imagine if a company that makes a refrigerator told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical system to rectify a problem with their device? What kind of response IS that?!?!
What if the problem with their device is that it requires a new-fangled "grounded" outlet and your circa 1890 house doesn't have grounded outlets. Would you refuse to purchase a $ 25 adapter on principle? -
I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret. -
Why does restoring a Hard Drive from Time Machine break all my software registration?
I've just upgraded the hard drive in my MacBook Pro using a Time Machine backup. (In the past I've used Carbon Copy cloner to duplicate the drive before installing it, but this seemed like an easier option.) The restore from TM went fine... but now all my apps are acting as if I've just installed them for the first time. Mail and Dropbox went thru their first time startup screens, and are reimporting all my files/messages. Word and Photoshop are asking for the registration serial numbers. What a hassle!
Does anyone know what Time Machine is doing, and why? Why aren't my apps fully restored? And is there any workaround?I imagine it is because of the way CCC does makes an exact clone of your drive.
Time Machine restores the drive file-by-file and doesn't necessarily restore support files. Most apps know when they've been moved and ask for serial numbers.
However, I have never restored a complete hard drive with Time Machine, so I don't know exactly what to expect.
Pondini may have some info here: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html -
If time machine puts all of my photos onto my external hard drive using time machine, can I then delete the photos from my computer but view them again from the external hard drive? Basically, can I free up space on my mac but not lose years of photos?
To add to Niel's comment bear in mind that if you have a backup copy on an external HD and later delete the orignals on your Mac HD you will then only have one copy - so no backup.
If the pictures are precious you should have at least two copies, and ideally another copy kept off site, -
Do I need to use all the hard drive for time machine or can I partition it
Do I need to use all the hard drive for time machine or can I partition it
You cannot partition a TC disk.
See pondini about mixing data and backups.. but remember this.. the TC has no way to back itself up and TM cannot backup files on the TC. Anything not backed up on the TC will be lost at some future point.
http://pondini.org/TM/TCQ3.html -
hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?
When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.
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Hard drive crashed on macbook pro. now i want to recover all my photos on my iPhone (iPhone photos, favorites, stream, etc..) w/ out loosing. do i simply sync my iPhone? paranoid i will wipe iPhone photos when synching to new hard drive image and new iTunes image.
In addition, i lost all of my music when hard drive crashed (time machine backup was corrupted also), is there anyway to recover iTunes music. Music was a combination of purchased, CD's burned, diverse music library, etc.....
thank you,
JContact Apple Support:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/
Apple - How to Contact Us:
http://www.apple.com/contact/
Be sure to refer to the repair ticket number.
Sounds like a terrible mixup.
Good luck & happy computing! -
I just updated my iTunes and now ALL of my music is gone what happened and how do I fix it ASAP?
Litterly 15 Mins ago all of my music was present. I - in fact - just finished using it to play a song. Then I got a window that popped up saying that my iTunes is in need of an update. So I update it then it said it was all up to snuff...
So I go back into my iTunes to continue using it
but now It's ALL GONE!!!!
what happened and how to I fix it ASAP???
---because this is like 80g's of music man, I spent Months - MONTHS ripping all my cd's and formating EVERYTHING NICELY into iTunes just to have the work poof disapear?
come on!But I do back up everything, as much as I am able...
However, it seems to me I've got to shift everything back into iTunes - Again.
if this is the norm, I would like to see - for others because now I know! - a little warning
"Hi, We're iTunes, and you need an update. So please update, just let it be known however, then when you do - we'll delete your catalog and any playlists. Thanks for using iTunes"
something like that, because now I've gotta re-load everything back... bolics I say bolics. -
I have 2 x 1 TB drive that I use interchangeably. 1 holds Video and the other Photos. I only have 1 connected when I'm working (using Premiere or Lightroom). I have a 2 TB NAS for making redundant copy of the other 2 drives.So far I've been doing the copying manually.
I'm considering of using Time Machine to make proper backup sets (though I'm always only interested in the latest set). I know that I can set Time Machine to backup to Nas over the network and include any external drives connected to the mac at the time.
The questions now are:
Will Time Machine fails if it can't find any of the external drives?
Does Time Machine handle backing up the external drives one at a time - only when it's connected - without thinking the files on the "missing" (or disconnected) volume had been deleted?
ThanksHi Ronald,
I can't answer the TM question, but Tri-Backup handles those situations perfectly...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html -
Does Time Machine erase previously saved files if, say, photos are deleted from the Macbook upon the next update, or will they be stored indefinately despite the current status of the files stored on the computer? Eg. can I bckup photo files to a Seagate 1T disc and then delete them to make more room on the computer in the knowlwdge that they are always going to be on the Seagate disc? Sorry if this is very elementary but I have not used a back up before like this, and am not sure how successive backups are overlaid or retained. Thanks!!
TM is not designed to do what you ask. As Allan wrote TM is an incremental backup not an archival solution.
If you delete a file from the HD it will eventually be removed from the TM backup (if it ever makes it on to the backup at all).
How long before it is removed depends on a number of factors, TM disk drive size being one factor but not the only one.
Material that is impossible to replace and is important to you (image files usually fitting that description) need to be backed up to as least one other drive and preferably more for long term storage. -
My hard drive failed and I had to replace it. I want to restore from time machine but there are some applications and folders I want to exclude from the back up. Is this possible?
Yes. Partition and format the new drive, then install Mountain Lion from scratch. When finished you can restore what you want, manually, from your Time Machine backup.
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless. -
What are the full specs of the hard drives on Time Capsule?
Does anyone know the full specs of the "server grade" hard drives of a 4th gen 2TB time capsule? thanks
DustinIt is just the standard WD green drive.
WD20EARS
It is "server grade" purely in Apple's mind.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4
Mind you I think you will find they do not stick to a single brand of drive. They might also be in the same trouble everyone else is in with HDD in short supply at the moment due to floods in Thailand. -
What do I have to do to set up my old G4 as a back-up hard drive ?
I want to connect my iMac with my G4 with a firewire, but I need to know a few things: a) How do I start up this system ? Do I start up my old computer or just plug it in? Will my iMac recognize the G4? b) Do I need to format the old hard drive? I still have back up information on that and want it saved. I know that I can't use the old Classic system on it, but if I start up the old system on my G4 will it mess up the new iMac? I have never done anything like this before so I'm in need of advice from someone who has had this experience or has the training to advise me. Thank you for your assistance.
As far as saving your old info from the G4, you didn't mention which OS X you are using on the G4, so start by referring to this article:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1872713�
If you're planning on using the entire G4 computer as only a back-up hard drive, that seems as if it would be rather a heavy user of electricity to perform a job such as using Time Machine with an external hard drive. For one thing, the external hard drive for Time Machine needs to be larger than the drive that you'd be backing up. It will also be very inconvenient to always be starting up in Firewire Target mode just to backup with Time Machine.
You could either buy a self-contained external hard drive, or instead a hard drive enclosure (such as an Icy Dock) into which you could insert a bare hard drive which you already own or purchase separately.
Message was edited by: myhighway
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