Need Advice from MAC Users: Freeware Data Recovery

Pontiac | 6/28/2010 | Pontiac

[Borderline]

I’ve been using SynchronizeProX from www.qdea.com as our company backup software for many years, 8 +. Being pro level software means it is more prepared to keep up with Apple and security updates, more likely to not have an issue that sits for months and leaves your backups at risk, like freeware or shareware will.

SuperDuper is the next app on my list though. Surely have a lot of customers who speak highly of it.

Backup backup backup. That is the rule.

I would warn that resellers like NewEgg seem to almost only carry and sell OEM drives. And they make it hard to know if a drive is OEM or retail at times. By definition, a drive bought in the OEM marketplace can be different than a retail drive. We see OEM drives causing more problems than just about anything else - from higher frequency of failures to strange behaviors.

An OEM drive can also have custom firmware - based on whatever the OEM wanted. No desktop computer has a bus spec’d to work with a drive that doesn’t have a really standard desktop firmware. So weirdness can be the result or even the rule, with OEM drives.

Best to you and yours.

[freejohn12]

I hope I didn’t interrupt this thread but I really want to add some more information (hoping it’s helpful). I found the Mac data recovery software recommended here are not truly freeware which means you have to pay for that and usually the price not cheap. As to 100% free Mac data recovery software, see this article and give some a try (I’ll recommend Exif Untrasher in Pontiac case)

http://data-security-freeware.blogspot.com/2011/05/truly-free-mac-data-recovery-software.html

Moreover, the first thing you should do is taking the memory card (or stick) out of the digital camera and do not attempt write more data to it. After you recover your files, do remember to backup regularly! Regards

- John Z

[jsdream]

First things first: DO NOT take any more photos with the memory card(within your camera) that you want to recover photos from. Take the card out of your cam and put it in a safe place. Because if you take any more files or save any data to your memory card, you may quite possibly ruin your chances of recovery.

Then download a file recovery program such as Data Recovery for Mac ( http://www.datarescuetools.com/mac-data-recovery.html ) to recover your lost files. If you will be recovering files from the boot drive you will want to install the file recovery software on a different Mac and connect the drive you will be recovering from via Target Disk Mode. You will also need to save the recovered files to a different drive then the drive you are recovering them from. Some file recovery programs offer bootable CD’s to help in recovering from your boot drive without the use of a second computer.Hope you good luck. Regards. J.S.