How to recover files existed prior to formatting and reinstalling OSX on an internal hard drive?

[abedi60]

Hi


I recently formatted the internal hard drive och my MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch, Early 2015 (Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500 GB) and reinstalled a fresh copy of macOSX Monterey 12.3.1. The MacBook had the same OSX before formatting.

Now I need to recover some very important files which existed prior to formatting on the internal hard drive.

When I use an external drive as the startup disk and run utilities such as Disk Drill, they can only find files after reinstalling of the OSX.

Should I remove the internal SSD, put it in an external box and run the same utilities from a different Mac? Does it help?

Or there is a more appropriate recovering application or method which I can apply without needing to remove the internal drive?

Thank you in advance!

/Abedi

 

[Fishrrman]

The files were on an SSD? (and NOT on a platter-based drive)
And you reformatted it?
And... you re-installed the OS afterwards?

You're not getting those files back.
They're gone forever.

NEXT TIME... learn about "backing up" important data before you do something like this...

 

[NoBoMac]

And if you had FileVault on originally, you were not getting the files back no matter the drive type.

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, SSD, erased, then install a new system on that erased drive, is a good way to setup a clean drive, leaving the previous data unlikely to be recovered. AND, if the drive was also encrypted with FileVault, then anything recovered would be (hopelessly) scrambled, not usable through any method.
You could TRY contacting a data recovery service, such as DriveSavers. You will likely get the same answer, from professionals who understand data recovery.

 

[Arctic Moose]

If the drive was not encrypted prior to formatting, you didn’t zero out the disk during the format, the fresh OS install happened to avoid the space where the files were, they haven’t been overwritten by swap and the files contain data that is recognizable by file recovery software there is a chance it would work.

I have saved photos from a formatted CF card this way, but of course only those that had not been overwritten by new photos.

If you want to try, do not boot from that drive again, or do anything else that could risk writing any data to it.

 

[abedi60]

If the drive was not encrypted prior to formatting, you didn’t zero out the disk during the format, the fresh OS install happened avoid the space where the files were, they haven’t been overwritten by swap and the files contain data that is recognizable by file recovery software there is a chance it would work.

I have saved photos from a formatted CF card this way, but of course only those that has not been overwritten by new photos.

If you want to try, do not boot from that drive again, or do anything else that could risk writing any data to it.

Thank you

I thought so. But as I mentioned earlier, when I use Disk Drill, it can only find files that are saved after reinstallation of OSX. Do you know any better utility?

 

[Fishrrman]

"as I mentioned earlier, when I use Disk Drill, it can only find files that are saved after reinstallation of OSX. Do you know any better utility?"

The results are going to be the same with all of them.
The "old" files... are gone.

 

[Arctic Moose]

But as I mentioned earlier, when I use Disk Drill, it can only find files that are saved after reinstallation of OSX. Do you know any better utility?

Sorry, I misread your third and fourth paragraphs. No, putting it in an external enclosure will not produce different results than booting from an external drive.

I can’t recall what I used last time, and it was years ago.

Disk Drill looks like it has all the features, so if that doesn’t find anything I doubt you’d have more success with anything else, although it can’t hurt to try.