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  1. 04-26-2010, 10:18 AM #1
    macwannabe is offline

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    urgent need help
    i have a friend with a serious problem where she plugged in a external HDD and accidentally clicked save hard drive as time machine. all of her life's work was on there is there any way to get it back... please help

    any knowledge will be appreciated.
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  2. 04-26-2010, 10:37 AM #2
    benparko is offline

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    So to be more clear....

    She backed up her mac with TimeMachine and saved it to her external HDD overwritting all of the data originally on the external HDD?

    :/
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  3. 04-26-2010, 10:41 AM #3
    dtravis7 is offline

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    I did not even know that Time Machine would do that unless it warned it would kill off all the existing data. I have ran Time Machine on a drive with data before and none of it was gone. I will have to check into this and see what I can find.
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  4. 04-26-2010, 10:41 AM #4
    bobtomay is offline

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    It would overwrite if the drive was not formatted as HFS when it started the operation and had to format first. If it was already formatted as HFS and ready to be used by Time Machine, it should not have overwritten any of the existing data.

    1st - stop using the drive immediately - do not write data to the drive...

    Have never had to use any of this software...

    The two I would probably check out are:

    Computer Data Recovery, Mac Data Recovery Software, Mac Data Rescue, Digital Data Recovery Disk for Mac - Data Rescue 3 - read the info provided there

    and

    Mac Recovery Software-Recover Mac Drive-Apple Mac Data Recovery-Data Recovery Mac - has a free download which will show you what it can recover prior to purchase.

    If her stuff is that important and/or new data has already been written to it on top of being formatted, it could be time to employ the professionals at great expense and no guarantees.
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  5. 04-26-2010, 10:48 AM #5
    dtravis7 is offline

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    Quote Originally Posted by bobtomay View Post
    It would overwrite if the drive was not formatted as HFS when it started the operation and had to format first. If it was already formatted as HFS and ready to be used by Time Machine, it should not have overwritten any of the existing data.
    Ok Bobtomay, that makes sense. My drives were all formatted HFS so that is why it never asked me.

    Good advice on the recovery programs.
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  6. 04-26-2010, 05:05 PM #6
    sau124 is offline

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    hold on - Time machine will not format the drive unless specifically mentioned to do so. If not, then it will just create a folder in the existing drive and backup all the data there. I would go in finder into the external hard drive to check if she has actually lost all the data. Did time machine format or not is the first question before you worry about recovery option.
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  7. 04-26-2010, 05:28 PM #7
    macwannabe is offline

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    thanks for the help ppl..
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