Data Recovery

[IAlly]

Hi, in attempting to format a new expansion drive, I have mistakenly formatted (don't ask...) the wrong drive and lost over 300gig of images.

Have been looking at recovery data software many with mixed reviews, has anyone had any experience and can reccommend any.

Many thanks, feel a right muppet!!

 

[Slydude]

First off don't make any changes to that drive. Don't add or remove anything.

You might give the demo version of Data Rescue a try. That should give you some idea how much can be recovered. I've also had decent success with the recovery portion of Drive Genius as well.

 

[IAlly]

Thanks

I 'd read the bit about not writing to the drive,

Ironically I got the extra drive to back up my images....

 

[IAlly]

Just another thought - this was a drive originally used on a windows system prior to my recent change to a mac, will that make a difference as it's now formatted to OS X ??

 

[Slydude]

That depends. Have the files been on the drives since you converted it for use with OS X? If they were on the drive under Windows/NTFS and have never been on the drive since it was set up for OS X that probably reduces the likelihood of a successful recovery.

 

[IAlly]

They have been on the drive when I was using it under windows, was my main storage for my images.

It was one of the reasons I was looking to back up images onto the new one so I could format it to use on the mac.

:-(

Fearing the worse now....

 

[pm-r]

+100 for Data Rescue.
Mac File Recovery Software | Prosofteng

I've actually been able to rescue data with DiskWarrior but that's getting desperate, so stay with Data Rescue.

 

[chscag]

ProSoft has a new version of Data Rescue available. This version is shipped on a bootable flash drive, but you still need an external source to copy recovered files to. I would upgrade my copy but as usual they love their stuff. Upgrade costs $49.95.

 

[Slydude]

The fact that the format was converted from NTFS to HFs+ might be a problem. I'm wondering if it might be better to give a Windows utility a crack at the drive first. Before you do anything let someone with a bit more experience at this.

I'm thinking that a utility that is NTFS aware might be the place to start.

 

[pm-r]

The fact that the format was converted from NTFS to HFs+ might be a problem. I'm wondering if it might be better to give a Windows utility a crack at the drive first. Before you do anything let someone with a bit more experience at this.

I'm thinking that a utility that is NTFS aware might be the place to start.

No problem if the re-formatting from NTFS to HFS+ was done on a Mac, the NTFS will have been blown away.

And I doubt that any non-Apple OS can even write a HFS+ volume, at least by any normal Windows user.

I'd also doubt that Data Rescue would have any problem as long as a decent compatible recovery volume is available. And as I recall, Data Rescue won't even run otherwise, at least with my older versions and I'm sure it hasn't changed.

 

[chscag]

And as I recall, Data Rescue won't even run otherwise, at least with my older versions and I'm sure it hasn't changed.

The latest version of Data Rescue (4) can also recover data from Boot Camp NTFS formatted partitions.

 

[pm-r]

The latest version of Data Rescue (4) can also recover data from Boot Camp NTFS formatted partitions.

Wow!! I didn't know that, and thanks for the info. But I don't know many if any clients that run Boot Camp so that may save the upgrade $$.

 

[Slydude]

Didn't know that. Might make it worth the upgrade for me. Don't need the capability to work on NTFS drive often but that might come in handy now and then.

 

[IAlly]

I've been in touch with a guy I know who works forensics for the police.

He seems confident that he can sort things out - I'm guessing they must retrieve all sorts of data from pc's etc.

He's out of the UK at the moment, so have decided to wait until he gets back next week - will update when he's had a look, many thanks for all your responses.