Page 1 of 1

Recovery from an HFS disk - after there was an OS install try on it

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:41 am
by wokati
Hi,

A user had an issue with his Macbook, basically couldn't find file system, so couldn't boot. Tried to reinstall the OS multiple times, and it failed. Can't repair, can't format, things are bad.

Noticed at some point that our backup software messed up ("hey, I see the computer on the network, so everything is alright! No need to send alert even if I didn't save any file for one month!"... ) so we need to try to recover the files from the hard drive.

Issue being the few install attempts.

When plugged in on a Windows computer it doesn't show anything (don't have spare Macbook). I was somehow able to mount the volume on Linux, and I can get back files using photorec so not everything is lost. But I need the directory structure too. This user had a huge number of files.

So it it possible to use R-Studio to get back files with directory structure (or at least file names) on an HFS+ volume that was erased / formatted by OS install? Is there a way to check if it will work before we buy it (maybe using the demo version to see what it can find?)?

Not sure if it was really formatted since file system was broken and I don't know what OSX does during install attempt.

Re: Recovery from an HFS disk - after there was an OS install try on it

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:29 am
by Alt
wokati wrote:
Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:41 am
So it it possible to use R-Studio to get back files with directory structure (or at least file names) on an HFS+ volume that was erased / formatted by OS install? Is there a way to check if it will work before we buy it (maybe using the demo version to see what it can find?)?
R-Studio for Windows can work with HFS+ disks. What actually R-Studio can actually recover, depends on each particular case. You may try it for free in its Demo mode. See this topic for more information: What to do if I don't know if R-Studio can recover my files?.

Re: Recovery from an HFS disk - after there was an OS install try on it

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:34 pm
by Data-Medics
Unfortunately, when HFS disks are formatted the cabinet file is mostly all overwritten. So getting back file names and folder structure is rare with any data recovery software. You can't rebuild structure that no longer exists.

Re: Recovery from an HFS disk - after there was an OS install try on it

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:56 am
by Alt
This case is described in our article "Data Recovery from an Erased HFS or HFS+ Disk.