Loss of data is always painful. Whenever an operating system crashes, be it Windows or Mac OS, the loss of important data, pictures, image files, music and so forth is always difficult to bear with. Here, we would explore the possibilities of recovering lost files from Mac Operating System.
Symptoms of an affected Mac OS
The Mac OS is based on Hierarchical File System (HFS). The previous version of this technology is known as HFS Plus file system. HFS is used not only on the hard drives, but also on removable media. It is a stable backbone of the Mac Operating System. However, this technology is not 100% robust. It can become vulnerable to power failure, application software failure, virus and malware attacks and improper machine shutdowns. In such cases, you can use Apple Recovery to rescue lost data.
Sometimes the HFS can become corrupt. There are some definite signs by which you can detect a corrupted HFS. The usual signs are:
- The files contain garbage data
- The files are abnormally truncated or the data is missing
- The files suddenly disappear or appear at an alternate locations
The Apple Mac Recovery system
To treat a corrupt HFS, you need to use the fsck utility from Apple Mac Recovery. You need to restart the system and run the fsck utility. First you need to unmount the HFS file using the unmount command. If the system is running in single-user mode, you need not use the unmount command. You have to run the fsck utility with the –p switch. Usually this step will be able to resolve all the issues. In case, the problems are not solved and you are not able to get back your data, then you may have to consider hard drive formatting.
The Apple Recovery tools use sophisticated scanning algorithms to scan through the entire affected drive. It can detect lost and inaccessible data from the drive. The Apple Recovery tool has a user-friendly interface and is safe to use.