File Structure - User Data

[alfarom]

I am trying to recover data from a MacBookPro with an HFS+ file system. I have imaged the whole drive and then opened the image using a data recovery program. However, I can't see any user account whatsoever.
I thought ther was a USERS folder with any user accounts in there but I don't seem to see anything. My imaging program seemed to clone nearly all of the disk successfully with only a very small area containing bad sectors (less than 1%). Am I doing something wrong here?

As you can see I have little experience of this OS.

The computer seemed to be running High Sierra.

I've attached a picture of what seems to be there..

 

[ferrarr]

Have you opened any of the Folders? "usr" for example?

 

[alfarom]

Nothing that looked like user data. I'm scanning with another product at the moment to see what that can find.

 

[alfarom]

It also looks like High Sierra only uses APFS not HFS+ which is what this disk seems to be formatted with.. It must be using an earlier OS. I only guessed at High Sierra as there is an installation folder there.

 

[alfarom]

I'm stumped. If I use a data recovery product that works with APFS then it says it can't find any such drive. If I use one that works with HFS+ it just finds the files and folders shown in the image posted earlier. I can understand the files being corrupted and not being available but not the whole user account.

 

[ferrarr]

In my Macintosh HD directory I have,

Applications
Library
Systems &
Users

everything else are hidden files and folders.

Since you don't have a Users folder, you won't have access to any of their data.

 

[chscag]

The APFS file system was optional with High Sierra and then only for SSDs not regular spinning hard drives. It was not until Mojave that all drives were being formatted to APFS.

It appears that your drive is using HFS+, however, you may not have copied all the data on the drive with whatever you used to image the drive.

How about telling us some more information?

What program did you use to image the drive?

Year and model MacBook Pro?

The screen shot you provided above is unfamiliar which is why we are asking for additional info.

 

[alfarom]

I get the same file structure using the cloned disk and the original failing one. I use HDDSuperClone Pro for the imaging on a linux machine (it only runs on Linux) and then tried various recovery software to see if I could get at the user data on a Windows PC. I have tried
Runtimes GetDataBack Pro - claimed it was formatted with APFS but that can't be if it needs an SSD. It crashed after about a minute.
R-Studio - That shows the directory tree in the image but doesn't show any user data
DMDE - Doesn't find anything.
ReclaimMe Pro - (a colleague has this software) didn't find anything.

The MacBook Pro details have worn off but the owner says it dates from 2010 - 2012.

It just seems odd that the whole USERS folder is missing.

 

[chscag]

Yeah, unfortunately those programs and methods for cloning and recovering data are unfamiliar to us.

Let's see if we can sort some things out.....

Is the MacBook Pro bootable at all? (I'm assuming it's not.)

Do you have access to another Mac that is operational?

 

[alfarom]

When I got the mac in it booted to the login screen then crashed. The drive is really badly damaged. Normally, I would have passed it on to a professional data recovery company I use but the customer didn't want to pay those sort of prices. I've only been trying to get the data from it to learn for the future. I've wasted enough time now.

I don't have access to any other MAC's to try it on. I'm just going to stick an SSD in it for him and load the OS. I'll connect up the old drive and the clone of it and see if it can read anything but I think the disk is beyond help..

 

[chscag]

Okay, I understand. The machine is getting old if it's circa 2010 to 2012. Both of those years are considered vintage by Apple and are no longer supported. You might want to advise him or her that it might be wise to start saving for a new or newer machine.

Hopefully you can get it going with a SSD and reinstall of macOS.

Let us know.