Windows - Mac Data Recovery

[chrisaroz]

I've searched around on the web and here and can't find any info.

*Note, I've not tried ANY tools yet, the customer is dropping off the drive later today.

Customer had files on an external drive attached to her Windows machine. They decided to hook it to the Mac to view some. See where I'm going? When the Mac asked to format, she clicked yes. Anyone know of software to recover? I assume it's in HFS now, not FAT or NTFS. Any tips or advice appreciated.

 

[ThePCRehab]

I haven't used this but came across it. It claims it will allow you to recover HFS files even through a windows computer.

http://www.data-recovery-software.net/

If you try it and it works let me know what you think.

 

[chrisaroz]

I'll look into that.

The problem is, it's a HFS file system because she let the Mac format it (there are no files on there now), but all the files were on the FAT32/NTFS partition that got erased.

 

[ThePCRehab]

From what I can tell the current format isnt as important as the format you are trying to recover. I would highly recommend giving
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm a try as well.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

We use Data Rescue II with a lot of success. Its not free though. Data Rescue III is now available (wanting to get that really soon). You would need a Mac to run it on.

 

[chrisaroz]

Thanks anon, looks like they have a PC version as well.

 

[chrisaroz]

Just a follow-up. The programs listed here seem to be the best around, but when I got the drive it turns out the enclosure was fried. All it took was attaching the drive directly to my bench machine and I just transferred everything to a new portable drive.

Thanks for everyone's help, I've saved all these programs for future use.

 

[zfrogz]

If the format was as "quick" format and no data was written to it, then you can delete the partition and run TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and perform a scan which should be able to restore the previous partition structure. R-Studio and Ontrack easy recovery have also helped me recover deleted data in the past.