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Accidentally wiped external hard drive? Please help!

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Hi everyone,

Have been using a WD external hard drive to edit with FCP on my mac book.

Today my completely un-techy boyfriend was trying to import some footage into i-movie on his mac book but found his system disc was full. As I was in a hurry to get to work I just lent him my hard drive rather than help him work out what to delete. Now I have come back from work and it is EMPTY!!! It says it was last modified at 09:26 am so I don't think he actually did anything to erase it after I left.

Has it re-formatted because it was connected to a different computer?

Is there any way to get the data back? Any idiot's guide step by step advice would be sooooooo gratefully appreciated!

Thanks very much.
 

Raz0rEdge

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Just connecting an external HD to another computer shouldn't cause it to be formatted..you might want to get some details on what exactly he did (which commands/programs) he ran in association with the drive so we can properly see how badly you're going to be hurting while recovering the data..

Regards
 
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He was just running i-movie, and other apps like safari, word and mail were open.

He can't really think what else he could have done. Would it have been because the computer went to sleep while it was connected?
 
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He imported a few chunks of footage into i-movie then did "export as movie" to the hard drive in a new folder I had set up this morning. Then he left it and went out and when he got back it was gone... He doesn't know what he could have done so I can only think it must have been a slip of the finger??!!
 
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Maybe he accidentally moved some folders to another place on the drive. Have you browsed through the drive (via finder) and really checked if the files are gone?
 
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I'm pretty sure the drive is completely empty. There's nothing at all coming up in finder.

When I left click on the drive and go to "get info" it says there is 48GB used on the drive. When I go to "Quick Look" it says there is 1.8TB available- the whole drive... Confusing!
 
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A good reason for keeping others off your computer.
 
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In this thread the person said they found some software to recover files. Perhaps check that out.
 
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chas_m

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When I left click on the drive and go to "get info" it says there is 48GB used on the drive. When I go to "Quick Look" it says there is 1.8TB available- the whole drive... Confusing!

No ... it's a 2TB drive, and if you're using Snow Leopard then all 2TB would show up if the drive were in fact empty.

That 48GB is something. Use a program like Grand Perspective to find out what it is. You never said how much of the drive was full before you loaned it to the bf.

In any case, my bet would be that the 48GB will turn out to be either the export or the "few chunks" you refer to. And that your bf is, um, deliberately omitting a portion of "everything" he did to the drive while you were gone because he knows what would happen if he told you.*

*disclaimer: I don't know your boyfriend and don't mean to cast aspersions on his character -- but I know men and their fear of punishment. :)
 

bobtomay

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...
*disclaimer: I don't know your boyfriend and don't mean to cast aspersions on his character -- but I know men and their fear of punishment. :)

roflol
 
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Chas I actually think you are probably right!!!! That is just what I suspected. It's frustrating he either doesn't know or won't admit what he's done... Does make me laugh though, and fortunately everything on there was projects I had edited for him anyway.

I ran Grand Perspective but it is saying 0B. Maybe I'm almost as un-techy as I accused him of being. hmmmph.
 

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