{"id":355,"date":"2014-12-23T01:45:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T01:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/installingcats.com\/?p=355"},"modified":"2014-12-23T01:45:42","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T01:45:42","slug":"undelete-mac-files-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/2014\/12\/23\/undelete-mac-files-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Undelete Mac Files Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

To undelete Mac files free, here is a step-by-step guide to using a free Mac undelete program called Photorec<\/em> by Christophe GRENIER<\/a> of CG Security. \u00a0(Huge thanks to Christophe for making this program and making it free to the world.)<\/p>\n

Overview – Undelete Mac Files Free<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Download<\/strong> Mac\u00a0undelete program<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0photorec\/testdisk<\/li>\n
  2. Unzip<\/strong>\u00a0program<\/li>\n
  3. Use Terminal program to run<\/strong> photorec<\/li>\n
  4. Select disk<\/strong> and disk partition to find deleted files<\/li>\n
  5. Select file type<\/strong>s to find<\/li>\n
  6. Select directory<\/strong>\u00a0to put recovered files<\/li>\n
  7. Start<\/strong>\u00a0undelete process\u00a0& wait<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Detailed Steps – Undelete Mac Files Free<\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. Download Testdisk \/ Photorec (both come together in same .bz2 archive file) from\u00a0http:\/\/www.cgsecurity.org\/wiki\/TestDisk_Download<\/a>\n
        \n
      1. \"testdisk-photorec-download-page<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
      2. The file will be saved in your Downloads<\/strong> folder named testdisk-7.0-WIP.mac_intel.tar.bz2<\/strong><\/li>\n
      3. You can see it in Finder<\/strong> like in the below image. \u00a0Double click testdisk-7.0-WIP.mac_intel.tar.bz2<\/strong>\u00a0it to unzip. \u00a0You’ll then see a folder named\u00a0testdisk-7.0-WIP<\/strong>\n
          \n
        1. \"mac<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
        2. Launch the\u00a0Terminal<\/strong> program, found in Applications -> Utilities <\/strong>-> Terminal<\/li>\n
        3. Change directory to Downloads by typing\u00a0“cd Downloads<\/strong>” then press enter\/return button . \u00a0(Capital\/Uppercase letters matters in most cases. Follow commands exactly). \u00a0Change directory to\u00a0testdisk-7.0-WIP by typing\u00a0“cd\u00a0testdisk-7.0-WIP<\/strong>” then press enter\/return. Show the contents of the directory by typing\u00a0“ls<\/strong>” then press enter\/return. \u00a0Each red arrow in image below points to a typed command followed by enter\/return button.\n
            \n
          1. \"mac-undelete-terminal-program<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
          2. To start the undelete mac files program<\/strong>, type “sudo .\/photorec<\/strong>” then press enter\/return. \u00a0At this point you’ll be asked for your password. \u00a0Type it in<\/strong> and hit enter\/return.\n
              \n
            1. \"mac-undelete-program-sudo\"<\/li>\n
            2. You often need “root” access for photorec to see all partitions on your disk and using “sudo” gives you the power of root<\/em> access<\/strong>. \u00a0It is key that you use sudo<\/em><\/span> to run the photorec program\u00a0which will undelete \/ recover deleted files from your Mac drives. \u00a0In some<\/em> cases this won’t be necessary, but it doesn’t hurt<\/strong> and will ensure you see all<\/span> of your disk partitions where your deleted files may be stored. \u00a0In my case, I could not see the partition where my accidentally deleted files were stored as I didn’t use sudo<\/em> and I nearly gave-up and paid the extortion fees for a paid undelete program. \u00a0Don’t torture yourself like I did. Without using sudo\u00a0photorec may return an error of\u00a0“No disk found”<\/strong>. \u00a0Then photorec will restart itself using sudo. \u00a0Enter your password and hit return\/Enter to proceed to the home screen.<\/li>\n
            3. \"mac-undelete-no-sudo-no-disks\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
            4. After launching the photorec program you’ll see the home screen of this free Mac undelete program<\/strong>:\n
                \n
              1. Below\u00a0you see 6 disk partitions (just my particular case as I had 2 external disks connected). \/dev\/disk0, \/dev\/disk1, \/dev\/disk2, plus 3 similar with “r”disk. \u00a0\/dev\/rdisk<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0disks give\u00a0“raw” disk access to the same disks listed just above, but are generally faster to use so it’s recommended to use the rdisk access point to your disk.<\/li>\n
              2. You need\u00a0to select\u00a0the disk that contains the deleted files you wish to recover. \u00a0Hopefully the disk size and\/or order in the list provides you enough information to select the correct disk.<\/li>\n
              3. You main Mac computer disk will be the first on the list<\/strong>. \u00a0You can see its size which may help identify it. \u00a0My Mac is a Macbook Pro from 2012 and I chose the 250GB disk option so I recognize the disk as the first disk in the list which reads: Disk \/dev\/disk0 – 251GB<\/strong> \/ 233 GiB (RO). \u00a0If you want to see what your disk0, disk1, diskX, etc. disks are named, use Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility), then click to highlight your disk of interest (the lines with disk icons that are not<\/em> indented) and click the circle i button to get info. \u00a0The first line within info will show the disk name and the third from last line at bottom will show what disk number<\/strong> it is. \u00a0That disk number corresponds to the disk numbers listed in photorec undelete program, like \/dev\/disk0<\/strong>, \/dev\/disk1<\/strong>, etc.<\/li>\n
              4. \"mac-undelete-home-screen\"<\/a><\/li>\n
              5. Use the up\/down arrow keys<\/strong>\u00a0to select & highlight the disk with deleted files to recover<\/li>\n
              6. The number<\/strong> after “\/disk” such as “\/dev\/disk2<\/b>” is the order in which the disk was plugged or “mounted” on your computer<\/strong> (known as “mounted”), counting from 0<\/em> onwards. \u00a0In my case, it’s the second external disk drive I connected which contains deleted files I want to recover so , I highlight “Disk \/dev\/disk1 – 2000GB \/ 1862 GiB (RO)”. \u00a0Note<\/strong>: I should<\/em> have used \/dev\/r<\/strong>disk1 but I didn’t know that rdisk was raw\/faster access to disks at the time. \u00a0I’d recommend trying the rdisk version first.<\/li>\n
              7. \"mac-undelete-2nd-disk-selected\"<\/a><\/li>\n
              8. Hit enter\/Return<\/strong> to proceed with the highlighted disk.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
              9. Next you’ll see the partitions on the disk you selected and need to choose the one with deleted files.\n
                  \n
                1. Three or more partitions may\u00a0show up. \u00a0First will be the entire disk (i.e. everything), second will be a system partition and after that, any partitions you happened to create. \u00a0In my example below you’re looking at an external drive split into 2 partitions, one named “2TB WD Passport” and another “TimeMachine”. \u00a0I want to undelete files from a partition I named “2TB WD Passport”, which is where I knew I\u00a0accidentally deleted my files from. \u00a0So using the up\/down arrow keys I highlight the interesting partition.<\/li>\n
                2. \"mac-undelete-partition-select-screen\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                3. Using the right arrow key<\/strong>, move the bottom command highlight from [Search] to [File Opt]<\/strong> which is where you will choose the deleted file type(s) to search and recover<\/strong>\/undelete files from my Mac.\n
                    \n
                  1. \"mac-undelete-program-file-option-screen\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                  2. Press the\u00a0enter\/return key on your keyboard to go to File Options screen, which looks like the following:\n
                      \n
                    1. \"mac-undelete-file-type-screen\"<\/li>\n
                    2. By default, all file types are selected.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                    3. Select only the file type(s) you want to undelete. This makes the file search & recovery process on your Mac much faster.\n
                        \n
                      1. In the File Opt screen, press “s” to un<\/span>select all<\/em> the file types.<\/strong><\/li>\n
                      2. \"mac-undelete-no-file-type-selected\"<\/a><\/li>\n
                      3. Then use the keyboard up\/down arrow keys to move the\u00a0highlight bar to the file type you want to recover. Press the x key or spacebar on your keyboard to mark that file type for search & recovery. Repeat for as many file types as you want. (Example below shows only\u00a0jpg<\/em> files selected for recovery). \u00a0photorec will then\u00a0search only for\u00a0deleted files of the\u00a0type(s) you have selected to undelete\/recover. \u00a0Huge note<\/strong>: some file types are grouped under a file category<\/em> and may be difficult to see. \u00a0For example, MP4<\/em> files are under the .mov<\/em> file category. \u00a0Scan this list carefully for the file type(s) you are looking to undelete.<\/li>\n
                      4. \"mac-undelete-jpg-file-selected\"<\/a><\/li>\n
                      5. When you’ve marked all file types you’re interested in recovering\u00a0from deleted state, press the “b” key<\/strong> on your keyboard to save the file type list to search for. \u00a0You will see a confirmation screen as below. \u00a0Press enter\/return to go back\u00a0to the main screen<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
                      6. \"mac-undelete-file-types-selected\"<\/a><\/li>\n
                      7. Then press enter \/ return to return to the file selection screen. \u00a0Press enter \/ return to Quit and return to the home\/search screen.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                      8. Now you are ready to Search. \u00a0Using the left arrow key<\/strong>, move the command highlight bar at the bottom of the screen to\u00a0“Search”<\/strong> and press enter \/ return on your keyboard to continue.\n
                          \n
                        1. \"mac-undelete-partition-select-screen\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                        2. photorec will ask you to confirm the\u00a0type of file system it is searching. \u00a0By default, photorec will recognize a Mac filesystem as “Other” FAT\/NTFS\/HFS+\/ReiserFS\/…<\/strong> \u00a0Mac file systems are generally HFS+<\/strong> (Hierarchical File System). \u00a0Press enter \/ return to confirm the filesystem as “Other”.\n
                            \n
                          1. \"mac-undelete-partition-type\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                          2. Next, we need to choose a location to put the recovered files<\/strong> that are undeleted. \u00a0photorec starts by showing you the directory where the undelete program itself is running from (next image visible below). \u00a0By default this would normally be \/Users\/[your user name]\/Downloads\/testdisk-7.0-WIP. \u00a0Pressing “C” key chooses the current\u00a0directory as the place to save recovered files. \u00a0A new sub-directory will be created for your recovered files to be stored within named recup_dir.1<\/strong>. \u00a0Your recovered files will be inside<\/em> of recup_dir.1. \u00a0 If you run photorec multiple\u00a0times, recovering files multiple times,\u00a0you’ll have a recup_dir.X directory (where “X” is a number) created for each time you recovered files through photo.<\/li>\n
                          3. To choose another directory to save recovered\/undeleted files<\/strong>, use your up\/down arrow keys to select “..” (two periods) which when you press enter \/ return you will move you one directory level up to \/Users\/[your user name]\/Downloads\/. \u00a0You can continue to select “..” to travel further up the directory hierarchy structure, or you can choose a directory at the level you are currently at.\n
                              \n
                            1. \"mac-undelete-recovery-location-select\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                            2. To select a directory to save your recovered files under<\/strong>, you need to actually enter<\/em> that directory before pressing “C” button which chooses a location for saving files into. \u00a0Simply moving the highlight to a directory and pressing “C” will choose the current<\/em> directory you are within, not the directory you see highlighted! <\/em>This may be confusing.\u00a0 You must be inside<\/em> the directory you want to save files to. \u00a0In the below image I’ve chosen\u00a0and entered\u00a0“\/Users\/[your user directory]\/Downloads\/my-recovery-file-location” as the place to save recovered files.\n
                                \n
                              1. Do not<\/em> select a directory that is on the disk partition that you are recovering files from!<\/strong> In order for deleted files to be recovered, they must not be overwritten by other data. Saving recovered files to the disk where you accidentally deleted files and are trying to recover, will likely make it impossible to recover some or most of your files. Be careful! I used a separate external disk to 1) ensure I wasn’t overwriting my deleted files permanently and 2) because I needed more space to save recovered files than my main disk had free.<\/li>\n
                              2. \"mac-undelete-recovery-location-chosen\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                              3. The search for deleted files on the selected partition will start. \u00a0photorec will display how many files are found of each file type you selected. \u00a0In this example, mov file types (which includes MP4’s\u00a0that I wanted to recover and undelete\u00a0in my case) are being recovered and undeleted.\n
                                  \n
                                1. \"mac-undelete-recovery-started\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                                2. To pause<\/strong> the search \/ recovery procedure, press “enter \/ return” which stops the recovery process. \u00a0You’ll be asked whether you really want to quit\u00a0or resume\u00a0the recovery procedure.\n
                                    \n
                                  1. \"mac-undelete-recover-paused\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                                  2. photorec will now step through your disk partition, sector by sector, looking for deleted files of the type you have chosen. \u00a0Hopefully files will start appearing in your chosen recovery location. \u00a0The recovered files will not<\/span> have the same filename as before they were deleted<\/strong>, but will have the correct file extension<\/em>. \u00a0For example, JPEG image files could\u00a0be named something like\u00a0f389401384.jpg. (I believe the filename has some relation to the sector of the disk partition where the file was found, but I’m just guessing). \u00a0File search and recovery time for a\u00a01TB drive running at 7200RPM on a USB3 connection was about 2.5 hours in my case. This time will vary depending on your computer speed, disk size, disk speed, disk format and connection type. \u00a0Keep in mind I didn’t<\/em> use the rdisk method of accessing my disk, so recovery time could have been much shorter. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                    To recap, Photorec is a Mac OS X file undelete program that is completely free of charge. If you’ve moved files to Trash and then emptied the Trash, Photorec is the only truly free program on Mac OS X to undelete your files. \u00a0It requires the use of Mac’s built-in Terminal program.<\/p>\n

                                    Let me know if you have any questions (ben -at- installing cats.com) or suggestions about using Photorec.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                    To undelete Mac files free, here is a step-by-step guide to using a free Mac undelete program called Photorec by Christophe GRENIER of CG Security. \u00a0(Huge thanks to Christophe for making this program and making it free to the world.) Overview – Undelete Mac Files Free Download Mac\u00a0undelete program\u00a0–\u00a0photorec\/testdisk Unzip\u00a0program Use Terminal program to run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[234],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/installingcats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}