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Help! Recover files deleted from Trash on High Sierra

PurpleHillsMac

PurpleHillsMac

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 7, 2018
49
6
Hi all,

I deleted some files on my Mac that I had copied off my external hard drive. I didn't think I needed it and wanted to free up space. A couple days later, the external HDD died with all my files in it. Now I want to recover those files that I just deleted from the Mac.

My Mac had been set to exclude that folder from Time Machine so there isn't a copy there. The only thing my Mac has done since the delete of those files is a Time Machine backup.

Can anybody suggest software to scan and replace the deleted files?
Any advice will be hugely appreciated.
 
Which Mac do you have? Reason for asking... If your Mac is currently using a SSD and TRIM is in use, your files are likely gone and can not be brought back except possibly by a Data Recovery Service. Otherwise, with a regular HDD, you might give Data Rescue 5 a try. They have a free Demo you can download to see if it can recovery your files.
 
chscag said:
Which Mac do you have? Reason for asking... If your Mac is currently using a SSD and TRIM is in use, your files are likely gone and can not be brought back except possibly by a Data Recovery Service. Otherwise, with a regular HDD, you might give Data Rescue 5 a try. They have a free Demo you can download to see if it can recovery your files.
Click to expand...

It's a 2015 Mac Book Pro with an SSD :(
 
Yeah.. that might be bad news. However, since the Demo version of Data Rescue 5 is a free download, it won't hurt to give it a try anyway.
 
chscag said:
Yeah.. that might be bad news. However, since the Demo version of Data Rescue 5 is a free download, it won't hurt to give it a try anyway.
Click to expand...
I definitely will, thanks so much for the immediate reply! I'll try tonight tomorrow after I get home. I'm away and was using a different Mac so at least the Mac at home hasn't been used since the data was trashed.

Will post back with results.... Any other advice will also be appreciated.
 
way past time to back things up (sorry, hard for me to believe that anyone in this day & age doesn't back up their stuff)

meanwhile, don't do anything else with that mac, try data rescue first....
 
fisherking said:
way past time to back things up (sorry, hard for me to believe that anyone in this day & age doesn't back up their stuff)

meanwhile, don't do anything else with that mac, try data rescue first....
Click to expand...

Yes, I heartily agree with you. I had initially thought I had a second copy of that disk, but I didn't.

Looking to purchase a couple WD Blacks to make a backup of the rest of my data.... won't risk this again... lesson learned :(
 
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PurpleHillsMac said:
Yes, I heartily agree with you. I had initially thought I had a second copy of that disk, but I didn't.

Looking to purchase a couple WD Blacks to make a backup of the rest of my data.... won't risk this again... lesson learned :(
Click to expand...

yeah, and sorry, did not mean to be an ass; good luck with this!
 
@fisherking No worries at all ;) No offense taken...
Thanks for chiming into the thread!
[doublepost=1527215801][/doublepost]An update- I'm sending in the dead disk to a recovery center to get an estimate of the cost to extract the data... will see what happens. They check it free and give an estimate and if I choose not to extract the data, I just have to pay return shipping.
I still have hopes I can recover the deleted files, but hope is slim so I'm getting a plan B ready. Data recovery fees suck...
 
Can anybody suggest some good software to test HDD health?
I'd like to keep an eye on my HDD's health. Don't really like sudden surprises like this.
I know it's possible that HDD's can die on the spot with no indications but chances are that if I'm monitoring the health I'll have a better idea what's gonna be happening,

P.S. The dead disk is on its way for a recovery estimate. It's a Dec. 2011 disk (stated disk)... I didn't use it much, but that's still pretty old.
 
DriveDX.app is the one I use. Right now it's on sale for $19.99 (single license). The app will check spinning drives and SSDs and give you a fairly comprehensive list of things pertaining to the drive's health. I believe they also have a free trial that you can test with to see if it meets your needs.
 
chscag said:
DriveDX.app is the one I use. Right now it's on sale for $19.99 (single license). The app will check spinning drives and SSDs and give you a fairly comprehensive list of things pertaining to the drive's health. I believe they also have a free trial that you can test with to see if it meets your needs.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll buy that and give it a try. I believe I've seen this recommended somewhere else on the forums too.
I'm still fairly new to Mac so haven't gotten used to all the good apps ;)

Always wanted to switch to Mac but never really got the chance until last year. My personal laptop will be a Mac going forward, that's for sure...:)
 
Many Mac users have also been Windows users. What you will see here in these forums and other Mac forums is that quite a few folks use a Mac as their personal machine but are tied to a Windows machine at their job. :apple: :)
 
chscag said:
Many Mac users have also been Windows users. What you will see here in these forums and other Mac forums is that quite a few folks use a Mac as their personal machine but are tied to a Windows machine at their job. :apple: :)
Click to expand...
Same here. Would way rather use a Mac at my job. I did for awhile but then it was taken away to give to a new staff :(
Have a Dell XPS... not bad but, it's still Windows.
[doublepost=1527231941][/doublepost]One more thing, would you guys recommend a WD Gold or Black for long-term storage?
 
The lesson here is that any disk can fail at any time, regardless of age. In addition to TM backups, it is also a good idea to clone your main HD to an external disk. The investment in a HD and Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper if you prefer) will pay off in peace of mind. The other thing I do (YMMV) is all of my documents are in the cloud as well as on my computer and in my case twice - once in Sugarsync (very cheap for me as I am a legacy user) and once in iCloud drive. Documents don't take up all that much room (as opposed to video or photos). I have many years of dox that take up less than 15G. For a few dollars a month, it is good insurance.
 
OP wrote:
"It's a 2015 Mac Book Pro with an SSD"

Situation:
Macbook certainly has TRIM enabled.
You put files into the trash and emptied it SEVERAL DAYS AGO.

Outlook:
You're not getting those files back from the MacBook Pro.

It -might- be possible to resurrect them from the failed external drive.
BUT -- it will take time and money. If you use a data recovery firm, it may take A LOT of money. Are they really "worth that much" to you?

What failed on the external?
Wouldn't mount any more?
Did it start making loud noises?
What...?

OP also asked:
"would you guys recommend a WD Gold or Black for long-term storage?"

I would not recommend ANY WD drive for storage.
Try Toshiba or Hitachi (HGST) instead.
 
@Fishrrman wrote
"Are they really "worth that much" to you?"

Yes, it has some pictures on it and documents that are valuable.

Fishrrman said:
What failed on the external?
Wouldn't mount any more?
Did it start making loud noises?
What...?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what failed. It still spins and I can hear the head moving but it seems to be seeking back and forth and not reading. It won't mount, won't show up in disk utility either.

Fishrrman said:
I would not recommend ANY WD drive for storage.
Try Toshiba or Hitachi (HGST) instead.
Click to expand...

Regarding the replacement, the disk that died is a Toshiba, so it's shaken my faith in their brand. The disk was old but had very low runtime.
In my 2009 Mac, I have 2 1TB WD Blacks that are original and working perfectly, which gives me confidence. I want to buy a replacement disk right away and backup everything I have. The WD Blacks are 9 years old so they could fail any day.

I am interested in the HGST 7k1000 2.5" 1TB as a portable. Is it any good? I have read Hitachi is at the top for quality.
 
WD bought out the HGST (Hitachi's HDD business) back in 2012 (some of the 3.5" HDD manufacturing facilities were sold to Toshiba). For a time, they had to keep it running as a separate entity as Chinese regulators didn't allow a combination of operations but that restriction ended in 2015 so really a HGST drive is a WD drive. The last Toshiba HDD I had did not last as long as I expected (other HDD's I used for a similar purpose - storing audio files, have lasted years longer). In addition, Toshiba has been undergoing a bit of turmoil for a few years now, courtesy of the Westinghouse Nuclear Power division that they bought. I don't know what effect that has had on the quality of their HDD's but as it is a mature business, I wouldn't expect that the division has had a lot invested in it recently. (If I had to guess, I would say they probably have shopped the division around with nobody willing to give anything near a decent price or maybe it's somehow tightly integrated with their chip business, which a lot of people were interested in.)

In addition to Toshiba and WD, Seagate are the only remaining HDD manufacturers, which Toshiba having about 5% of the market.

Your best bet is to have one or more backups for your HDD's with some type of software that will keep the HDD's in sync (such as cloning software) and with a procedure that makes it as easy as possible to backup the drives regularly.

UPDATE. I'm pretty sure I read that Toshiba's market share was 5% (maybe $ not unit sales?), however, a recent Forbes article says the market share for WD, Seagate and Toshiba (in unit sales) is 40%, 37% and 23% respectively.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2018/02/05/hdd-growth-in-nearline-markets/#1ea5c56d2997
 
Last edited:
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Buying HD's (to me) is a little like playing Russian Roulette. The odds are in your favor from the start, but you never know when that one bullet is going to get you... This applies to any of the aforementioned brands.

That said, I've had the least luck with Toshiba's, but consider that the very next poster may feel the same way about any other brand.

My most recent drive failure was a Hitachi drive. It died at EXACTLY 18 years of age. I have the matching Hitachi drive (bought as a pair 18 years ago) still working fine (albeit slow due to old spec) in bay 2 right now.

I also have some Seagate/WD drives that are 20+ years old, and they work fine. Just small and slow these days.

If I were going to buy right now, I'd get a Seagate or WD for home use (but I lean towards Seagate), although many people will only go with HGST. They're all (sans a few bad WD runs) decent drives. Price and capacity would be my only considerations. They are used for Archival purposes only for me. Working drives should be SSD based these days (IMHO).
 
crjackson2134 said:
Buying HD's (to me) is a little like playing Russian Roulette. The odds are in your favor from the start, but you never know when that one bullet is going to get you... This applies to any of the aforementioned brands.

That said, I've had the least luck with Toshiba's, but consider that the very next poster may feel the same way about any other brand.

My most recent drive failure was a Hitachi drive. It died at EXACTLY 18 years of age. I have the matching Hitachi drive (bought as a pair 18 years ago) still working fine (albeit slow due to old spec) in bay 2 right now.

I also have some Seagate/WD drives that are 20+ years old, and they work fine. Just small and slow these days.

If I were going to buy right now, I'd get a Seagate or WD for home use (but I lean towards Seagate), although many people will only go with HGST. They're all (sans a few bad WD runs) decent drives. Price and capacity would be my only considerations. They are used for Archival purposes only for me. Working drives should be SSD based these days (IMHO).
Click to expand...

Thanks for chiming in. I totally agree that HDDs are for archival purpose only. I use AHCI SSD for OS and 2.5" SSD for scratch. I'm leaning towards getting an 8TB WD Gold for archives and the 7k1000 Hitachi as my portable.
 
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I always have 2 drives for everything. 2x boot drives (same size), 2x backup drives (same size), 2x scratch drives (same size), 2x archival drives (Sam size).

However, the pair aren’t ever same brand (for a good reason). When I purchase a set of drives, I’m aware that a vendor can have a bad run or manufacturing lot. By mixing vendors, I’m practically immune from this. Yes, I learned this through experience MANY years ago. Most of my pairs are Seagate/WD as a set. I also had a set of Hitachi drives but one died. They were old. I lost no data.
 
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crjackson wrote:
"My most recent drive failure was a Hitachi drive. It died at EXACTLY 18 years of age"

18 years?
I wouldn't complain.
That drive had a LONG service life!
 
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No complaints at all... I bought 2 as a set for raid0 back then, the other one still works like new and lives in bay2 as an exFAT drive to share files between macOS and Win 10.
 
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