I am an idiot or recovering deleted files

D

dltolar


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I did not see a heading for stupidity, so please forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask my question, and send me in the right direction...

I deleted ALL of my movie files from imovie, most importantly the project I was working on. I could explain how that happened, but I don't believe an excuse will help recover my files. Anywho, within a few minutes - before I realized that I had moved all my movies and data into the trash bin, my mac froze and I had to do a hard reboot. Big mistake, because when I reopened imovie EVERYTHING was gone. Poof! Up in smoke. I've searched online for clues to reverse this, no luck. I opened Time machine (didn't know about this, this is my first mac) but I guess it was set to the default, which is off.

I've tried two file recovery programs, Data Doctor and Stellar Phoenix. They both "hangup" at a certain point and stop. Not far enough to retrieve what I need.

Oh yeah, I also subscribe to Mozy online backup. So far, they've been completely useless. Their restore also "hangsup" and doesn't download any of my requested files. Not to mention it's last backup didn't seem to include my most recent projects.

ANy ideas? Other than I should never be allowed near a computer again?
:'(
 
pigoo3

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dltolar said:
Anywho, within a few minutes - before I realized that I had moved all my movies and data into the trash bin, my mac froze and I had to do a hard reboot. Big mistake, because when I reopened imovie EVERYTHING was gone. Poof! Up in smoke.
Click to expand...

If you haven't actually emptied your trash...then the files/data could still be in there. Basically...just because you delete something, doesn't mean that it's gone...it could just be sitting in your trash can.

Apple has multiple layers to prevent this sort of thing from happening by mistake:

- First you send something to the trash can
- Second you have to say "Empty Trash"
- Third you get a confirmation window that asks "Are you sure!"

So you really have to do THREE "stupid things" in a row...before you accidentally get rid of something.;)

Hope this helps,

- Nick
 
osxx

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As pigpoo3 stated open trash and see if they are there then drag them out and open if all is intact move them to their proper location. I would definetely hook an external drive and
set up Time Machine it has saved my butt twice for not paying attention when I send something to the trash.
 
RadioSaigon

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osxx said:
...and Stellar Phoenix. They both "hangup" at a certain point and stop. Not far enough to retrieve what I need...
Click to expand...

I too have used Stellar Phoenix to recover my own finger-trouble issues... it's performance is, IMO, Stellar -but mind-numbingly SLOW. It strikes me that a lack of patience was at the root of your problem (that was a v.big job you asked to OS to do -it takes time!) as much as a lack of patience again appears to be afflicting your recovery efforts. IT TAKES TIME!!!

The recovery of my images forced me to leave the computer running unattended and processing for well North of 24 hours -it was worth it. It did a beautiful job of finding & recovering my files. Given that you are trying now to recover movies -and more than one- it may take considerably longer than my recovery of a few thousand images.

IT TAKES TIME. You'll need Patience -maybe lots of it.
 
OP
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dltolar


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Thanks!

dltolar said:
I did not see a heading for stupidity, so please forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask my question, and send me in the right direction...

I deleted ALL of my movie files from imovie, most importantly the project I was working on. I could explain how that happened, but I don't believe an excuse will help recover my files. Anywho, within a few minutes - before I realized that I had moved all my movies and data into the trash bin, my mac froze and I had to do a hard reboot. Big mistake, because when I reopened imovie EVERYTHING was gone. Poof! Up in smoke. I've searched online for clues to reverse this, no luck. I opened Time machine (didn't know about this, this is my first mac) but I guess it was set to the default, which is off.

I've tried two file recovery programs, Data Doctor and Stellar Phoenix. They both "hangup" at a certain point and stop. Not far enough to retrieve what I need.

Oh yeah, I also subscribe to Mozy online backup. So far, they've been completely useless. Their restore also "hangsup" and doesn't download any of my requested files. Not to mention it's last backup didn't seem to include my most recent projects.

ANy ideas? Other than I should never be allowed near a computer again?
:'(
Click to expand...

Thank you for the replies...

BTW, I DID look in trash to see if they were there, but when I did the hard reboot before I realized the files had been moved to trash, it apparently emptied the trash for me!

I will allow Stellar a longer time to scan. It seemed stuck at 1% for a couple of hours, but I'll restart the scan and give it the day, see if that works.

I do have a external hard drive for movies and big image files, but I have been in the practice of only putting the finished movie and supporting files in there AFTER I finish editing/publishing.

lessons learned: Always have time machine ON, always make a copy on my ext hd of all raw files and pay attention to what i'm doing!!!!:[
 
RadioSaigon

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dltolar said:
I will allow Stellar a longer time to scan...
Click to expand...

Like I said before it may take a VERY long time!!! Be prepared for that -if you want to recover your lost files.
 
toMACsh

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dltolar said:
BTW, I DID look in trash to see if they were there, but when I did the hard reboot before I realized the files had been moved to trash, it apparently emptied the trash for me!
Click to expand...

No, not really. But I've heard complaints that sometimes things that are deleted don't go into the Trash. They're just gone.
 

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