Hello, I pressed the initialize button... (so sad)

[citizen0322]

Hello, I pressed the initialize button... (so sad)​

Hello, I pressed the initialize button.
You shouldn't press it.
Could you tell me the meaning of the initialize button?

I wonder why there is no warning that this behavior cannot be reversed.


I'm using an apfs type of external ssd.
I wonder if it can be restored.

 

[paardenkapper]

It seems that no partition has been found on the disk you inserted - initialize means that the disk gets a partition table so that it can be formatted. This is happenening from time to time, if a disk cannot be read properly.

There are tools to undo this but I know none on mac - there is TestDisk / PhotoRec.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Hello, I pressed the initialize button."

That's not a good thing to do unless you want to erase the drive and everything on it.

"I'm using an apfs type of external ssd.
I wonder if it can be restored."

APFS -and- an SSD?
And you erased it?
The chances... well, let's say they're not very good.
Maybe a little better than zero.

Were you using any encryption on the drive?
In that case, you aren't getting the data back. Period.

There are "data recovery companies" that might be able to get it back, but you are going to pay lots and LOTS and LOTS of money. Is it really worth it?

There are "data recovery" apps out there, like Data Rescue and Disk Drill.
However, I don't believe they can work with APFS -- only HFS+.
That's WHY I always recommend that if one is going to store data on an external drive, it should be in HFS+ format -- because disk maintenance apps can "get at it". APFS -- might as well forget it.

So... what can you do?
First off, don't do anything with the drive -- don't write any files to it.
I'd suggest you try downloading BOTH Disk Drill and Data Rescue.
See if they can do anything with the drive.

But again... I wouldn't be optimistic about this...

 

[floral]

I have no idea why "initialize" means "totally nuke" in macOS terms...

 

[okkibs]

Initialize only opens Disk Utility. The disk is not modified by pressing this button, whatsoever, AFAIK.

 

[floral]

Initialize only opens Disk Utility. The disk is not modified by pressing this button, whatsoever, AFAIK.

Oh. So how did they go from a disk viewer to deleting the whole drive by accident?

 

[okkibs]

Oh. So how did they go from a disk viewer to deleting the whole drive by accident?

The disk was already uninitialized at the time it was plugged in, hence the popup asking whether it should be initialized. What caused it in the first place is obviously something only OP can know. I was merely pointing out that this button is nothing more than an "Open Disk Utility" button.

 

[Tagbert]

I have no idea why "initialize" means "totally nuke" in macOS terms...

On an old Dos or a Windows machine the word would be "format". Is that better?

 

[paardenkapper]

There is a difference between formatting and initializing. Before a file system can be written to a disk / partition you need a partition scheme (GPT or MBR) which has not been found.

I had the same problems with really old or corrupted harddrives or pendrives.

 

[Nermal]

What caused it in the first place is obviously something only OP can know.

Judging by the visual style of the window, I'd guess that an APFS drive was connected to an older machine that doesn't support APFS.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP disappeared. Was he trolling...?

 

[floral]

OP disappeared. Was he trolling...?

Maybe? Or could be they aren't native to English and thought initialize meant something else, so got confused and started hitting random buttons when the disk utility popup appeared, resulting in a push of the "format" button.