files lost/removed/... recovery?

D

deadeyes

Registered
Hi all,


There is a problem on the mac that im learning on.

The owner of it, had alot of pictures on it.
But another time they werent there anymore he said.
He dont know if he deletede them or moved them or...

I know it is risky to boot from the hard disk if you have deleted files that you want to recover.

Can I boot into Mac os x in read-only mode? so I can search without erasing parts of the files?
Does anyone knows how I can search the hard drive?
Can I use a linux bootable to search the hard drive?
Is there any free software for recovering files.
 
deadeyes,

Press Apple-s to start any OS X Mac in single user mode. As far as recovering lost files. . .

Well, thankfully I haven't had to worry about that in years and years. But I'm not sure. I know there are commercial utilities.

Doug
 
Do I get a console if Im working in single user mode?(if not, how do I get a console?)
and does this also mean that there are no extra services who can overwrite the file?
 
You're dumped into a full-screen console (No graphical interface) and the filesystem is in read-only mode, I believe.

(BTW, I think one of the commercial utilities is called Data Rescue. It's supposed to be really good.)


Doug
 
'I know it is risky to boot from the hard disk if you have deleted files that you want to recover.' - by what experience is this statement based upon?

'Can I boot into MacOS X in read-only mode?' - there is no such thing. All operating systems (may) perform background updating of files; even before the user interface is presented.

'... so I can search without erasing parts of the files?' - you can do such after a standard boot up process. Just do not create and save any 'new' files.

'Does anyone knows how I can search the hard drive?' - 'Command F' for all MacOS X versions. You can also use 'Spotlight' if 'Tiger' (MacOS X 10.4.x) is installed.

'Can I use a linux bootable to search the hard drive?' - can your version of Linux read a HFS+ (with / without Journal) formatted hard disk drive?

'Is there any free [Macintosh] software for recovering files.' - no.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

'Do I get a console if Im working in Single User mode?' - no, you get the UNIX core; thus, your only interface is the command line.

'(if not, how do I get a console?) - you cannot not, you get the UNIX command line prompt.

'... and does this also mean that there are no extra services who can overwrite the file?' - no. Although I doubt that MacOS X is writing over existing deleted files and directories.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

'Data Recover' is a decent utility. There is also 'FileSavage'.
 
Booting from the hard drive *does* risk erasing deleted files because modern OSs such as OS X *frequently* write to the drive, for example, pref files. You risk overwriting something you're trying to recover.

When you boot into single user mode the fiilesystem is read-only (unless you change that).

Doug
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top