04-04-2012, 06:57 PM

Hi,
I'm new here and a relative newbie in general. Here is my problem:

I have a desktop that is 3 years old, and almost full. I ran Disk Inventory X to try and find what needed to be deleted most. I have a TON of photos, and knew that was a huge area to be culled and deleted. But I also found a game my son downloaded called Battlefield 1942. I found the "area" on the Disk Inventory graphic, and began deleting from there.
Some of the files had the word "picasa.db3" in them, but because they also displayed that they were part (or so I thought?) of the game, I deleted them. I probably emptied the trash, too, but at this point I can't remember...because you probably know where I'm heading: A lot of my photos are gone. When I started Picasa up, it was blank! It did a search for photos, but only some of each album were "found". None of the albums I created (that contained edits, etc.) were restored. Whatever I found in the trash, I drug out into a folder on my desktop, but I don't know what to do with them.

Can anyone help me figure out:
1. If they are still on my computer "somewhere"
2. If so, how to find them
3. What to do with the picasa files I put in that desktop folder

I know when I had a dell, a tech advised me to do something that totally wiped my data...or so it seemed. A friend was able to "find" it elsewhere on the computer, and that's what I am hoping and praying is the case this time...

I backed up my computer to a goflex, but in trying to put it on my other desktop, it appears that perhaps they are not all "there", either! I'm putting everything on that Mac in hopes that they were somehow not in a photo file...we'll see.

ANY thoughts would be most appreciated. As I said, I am not the most mac-literate person, but I will answer any questions I can in order to help you help me...

Thank you so much,

Hisacorn

04-04-2012, 09:17 PM

Stop using the computer! If the files have been deleted, the more you use the computer the more likely you are to overwrite the deleted files.

As for data recovery, I'll have to let someone else take that.

04-04-2012, 09:49 PM

Thank you, Stretch.
So do I need to turn the computer off, or just not use it?

04-04-2012, 10:39 PM

Honestly, the best approach may be to pull the Hard Drive and do your disk recovery on it as an external drive.
If you are running Lion or Snow Leopard you can download Data Recovery Pro from the APP store, but as Stretch said, best to quit using altogether the drive you want to recover from, and the version of Data Recovery available from the APP store won't work on your boot drive.

There are other recovery programs out there, but in all cases you would be better running the recovery APP from a different drive than you are trying to recover lost files from.

04-04-2012, 10:42 PM

Thank you, Razormac.
Can you please explain how to pull the hard drive, etc.?

04-04-2012, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by Hisacorn

Thank you, Razormac.
Can you please explain how to pull the hard drive, etc.?

What model of Mac do you have?

As far as explaining, iFixit.com does a far better job than I ever could, and I will give you a link to the right pages. After you've looked at it I/we will be glad to answer questions

04-04-2012, 10:50 PM

It is a desktop from 2009, I believe the screen is 21".
The version is Mac OS X 10.5.8

Is that what you mean?

04-04-2012, 10:54 PM

So you have an iMac?

04-04-2012, 10:56 PM

Yes, I'm sorry! That's correct...

04-04-2012, 10:58 PM

From the Apple Menu>About This Mac

What model number is showing? A 2009 iMac could be 20 or 21.5 in

04-04-2012, 11:03 PM

iMac9,1
I googled it and it says it is a 20". We got it during the middle part of 2009.

04-04-2012, 11:10 PM

Here is the link
iMac Intel 20" EMC 2266 Hard Drive Replacement - iFixit

I will warn you it isn't for the faint of heart. If you are technology challenged you may want to get some assistance with the job.

04-04-2012, 11:15 PM

OMGEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Okay...I have a new macbook pro. Can i download the app you spoke of above and somehow run it for the iMac??? Without having to take that thing out???

04-04-2012, 11:16 PM

Some other basic info I probably should have covered first.

1) Some or all of your data (photos) may not be recoverable, depending how what has been overwritten. Still, I have had reasonable success

2) You could pay someone to do it for you, but data recovery services aren't cheap

3) Best plan IMO is to pull your old HD and swap in a new drive for your iMac (good opportunity to increase your storage space). You'll do a format and OS install, then install your Data Recovery APP on your new HD.

4) Your old HD goes into an external drive case so you can access it for data recovery

04-04-2012, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by Hisacorn

OMGEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Okay...I have a new macbook pro. Can i download the app you spoke of above and somehow run it for the iMac??? Without having to take that thing out???

I have never done it like that, but I suppose that if you boot into FireWire Target mode you may be able to do it that way.

Hopefully, some of our guys have tried that and will chime in with advice.

EDIT: another potential option that I haven't tried is to make a bootable clone on an external HD and run your recovery from that. I never done it that way so can't really advise. Understand why you would be reluctant to pull the drive.