02-02-2011, 10:15 PM

I deleted all files off of my Maxtor external HD and began reformatting...all while my brain was turned off of course. I know there are a million file recovery software options but I wanted some recommendations from someone that has maybe used one that can run on Macs..i wanna try and recover my pics and videos...any help would be awesome!

02-03-2011, 12:05 AM

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Data Recovery has the best name however it is not freeware, but you my wish to try th demonstration version:-


http://www.datarecoverymac.org/where-to-buy.php

02-03-2011, 12:46 AM

I did a similar thing whilst in the process of transferring images/data from Windows to my then brand-new Mac... brain-fart. On advice of members here, I d/loaded a trial version of StellarPhoenix and gave it a burl. The trial found all the data I needed, so I happily shelled out the requisite USD$99 purchase price and left it (for a looooong time) to do it's thing. Very satisfied with the results.

One cautionary note however: whatever else you do, utterly isolate the drive containing the data you need to recover until you are ready to start the recovery process!!! Any read/write operations prior to that will lead to data-loss.

Good luck!

02-03-2011, 01:47 AM

I've gotten more positive feedback about this data recovery program than any other:

Data Rescue $99
Mac Data Rescue, Computer Data Recovery, Data Recovery Disk - Prosofteng.com

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________

02-04-2011, 10:58 AM

I've used the free, open source "photorec" utility before with pretty good luck. As long as you don't write anything to the drive in question you can try several utilities without risk of losing data, so it'd be worth a shot. You can learn more about it here:

PhotoRec - CGSecurity

Good luck!