My Wifes Gonna Kill Me

Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Ok so here what happened...i have a wd 250gb external hard drive that has all my pictures of my daughter from the day she was born...I went to disk utility to partition the external hard drive...I split it into two and now there BOTH EMPTY. im sorry for the caps but really i could destroy my car with a flamethrower and my wife wouldnt care...but these pictures there pricless..what can i do? ( Idk if this is the right place for this post)
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Ok so here what happened...i have a wd 250gb external hard drive that has all my pictures of my daughter from the day she was born...I went to disk utility to partition the external hard drive...I split it into two and now there BOTH EMPTY. im sorry for the caps but really i could destroy my car with a flamethrower and my wife wouldnt care...but these pictures there pricless..what can i do? ( Idk if this is the right place for this post
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
The way you used the disk utility probably killed the original partition and made two new ones!

I know of apps on Windows that might bring it back but never had that issue on OSX. Hopefully someone else can give you some help.

This is all I can find right now. All cost $$$

Macintosh Partition Recovery Soft: Apple Mac Recovery Software, Kernel Macintosh - Data Recovery Software, Mac File Recovery Software, Partition Recovery Software, ...

This has a free trial.

Download Boomerang Data Recovery MAC OSX Free Trial - Boomerang Data Recovery software is the fastest and easiest way to recover lost or deleted files from your Mac! Now you can...


Anyone else know of something to help the OP?
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Disk doctor mac data recovery demo version IDK what that means and im sure if it does find my files it wont let me have them unless i pay...which i will sneak it on a friends account so my wife wont know if i have to...but i dont even know what features to use...im searching for volumes and it says 6 hours remaining!
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Here's another.

Mac Data Recovery Software, Mac Data Rescue, Digital Data Recovery Disk for Mac

I'm not sure how good any of these will be grabbing data from a re-partitioned/formatted drive. Definitely e-mail a couple of them and ask their tech support if their software can do it and what steps you should take. Make sure you tell then what format was on the drive (e.g. FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, etc) and what you formatted the new partitions as.

In the meantime, DO NOT write any data to that drive.

The next step after these and a couple of other apps is going to be paying through the nose for a data recovery specialist.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Good advice Bob. I forgot to warn him about not writing ANYTHING to the drive at all till he recovers his data. Very important point!
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
I used disk utility to partition idk anything of why type i did...i screwed up pritty bad if anyone knows of a trial that will do it and how to use it PLEASE I BEG OF YOU share with me..
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Here's another.

Mac Data Recovery Software, Mac Data Rescue, Digital Data Recovery Disk for Mac

I'm not sure how good any of these will be grabbing data from a re-partitioned/formatted drive. Definitely e-mail a couple of them and ask their tech support if their software can do it and what steps you should take. Make sure you tell then what format was on the drive (e.g. FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, etc) and what you formatted the new partitions as.

In the meantime, DO NOT write any data to that drive.

The next step after these and a couple of other apps is going to be paying through the nose for a data recovery specialist.

how do i find this out?
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
For example - go to the Contact Us page on each of the sites that have data recovery software.

For ProSoft's Data Rescue II - this page.
They have an e-mail form, a toll free sales number, a support phone number.

Stellar Date Recovery
They have a toll free number right there on the front page.

You need to be as specific as you can when you talk to them.
Ex. Have an external drive that had a single partition formatted as....
It got partitioned into 2 partitions using OS X's Disk Utility formatted as ....
Let them tell you if their software can help or not.

(I wouldn't expect that you'll get out of this one without a price. But, that's better than being killed.)
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Ok so here what happened...i have a wd 250gb external hard drive that has all my pictures of my daughter from the day she was born...I went to disk utility to partition the external hard drive...I split it into two and now there BOTH EMPTY. im sorry for the caps but really i could destroy my car with a flamethrower and my wife wouldnt care...but these pictures there pricless..what can i do? ( Idk if this is the right place for this post)

What format was on the WD drive before you used Disk Utility on it? In other words, were you using the standard Mac HFS+ format or FAT-32? If the drive was formatted as FAT-32 and you created two partitions from one, all you did was rewrite the partition table on the drive. All the data would still be intact as long as you did not re-format the drive. Or, make any attempt to write to it. (as you have already been advised) It may be possible to undo the partitioning with special software.

Let us know.

Regards.
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
HFS plus...and iv looked on the drives and they are both blank...I think disk utility automatically formats before it partitions...If im wrong please correct me...and thnx for the soft ware ideas im running them all over night and hopefully one gets something
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
3,184
Reaction score
93
Points
48
Location
Central California
Your Mac's Specs
2.16GHz C2D MacBook w/ 2GB RAM & 120GB HD. HTC Droid Incredible.
If all else fails just tell your wife that the hard drive has crashed. May not bring back the pictures but you will still be alive after.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
HFS plus...and iv looked on the drives and they are both blank...I think disk utility automatically formats before it partitions...If im wrong please correct me...and thnx for the soft ware ideas im running them all over night and hopefully one gets something

Well, it depends on how you ran Disk Utility. It is easy to erase the drive while partitioning. Doesn't matter now as the partitioning scheme used for HFS + is different than FAT-32 and generally can not be undone. Press on with the recovery software ideas. It's going to get expensive to recover those photos but if they're valuable to you and your wife, it may be worth it.

From now on, burn your photos to a DVD for backup. Good luck on the recovery.

Regards.
 
Joined
May 31, 2009
Messages
203
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Vancouver, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
15" Unibody (Jan 09)
You should really invest in a nice 1.5TB external for Time Machine. It may be expensive, but it will save you manyyyy times :)
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
You are right. She is gonna KILL you big time!!
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
We'll keep our fingers crossed. This is one that she'll never forget.
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
well i ran data rescue II and nothing and also stellar phoenix....nothingI havnt put anything on the drive and dont plan it...I guess I will have to take it into a Best buy or something and see if the geek squad can send it out and recover something ANYTHING! geez im so stressed over this..more than mostly anything else in my life i can think of...so trivial but so important!
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Calm down and ease up on the stress. The recovery specialists should have no difficulty getting your photos back. I have seen hard drives which totally crashed (head crash) and the recovery specialists able to retrieve everything from the drive. The only downside to all of this is the cost. Be prepared to pay big $$ to get your data back.

Also, I'm not so sure I would give the drive to Best Buy. Might be best to send it out yourself to a data recovery service. Be sure to shop around first and get an estimate. Also might be a good idea to tell your wife what's going on. O:)

Regards.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top