We delete useless files from our Mac’s hard drive in our daily lives. But sometimes important files can disappear along with the useless ones. This can occur to anyone, and most of us usually put up with it, thinking that the file is gone forever. However, there is a way out. You can undelete your Mac lost files with special software, even after the Trash was emptied.
Can my Mac Undelete Lost Files?
No, it cannot. Unfortunately, Mac OS does not have any built-in data recovery tools. BUT there is a variety of data recovery software that can help you get back your precious files.
When you remove files from the Trash in Mac OS, they are not gone forever. Actually such deletion just frees space for other data, whereas the removed file info still remains on the hard drive. If the deleted files are not yet overwritten by other files, then there’s a good chance to restore them. That’s why you should refrain from using your Mac until you find a way to raise your files from the dead.
Why File Loss Happens and Why Lost File Can Be Recovered
Generally speaking, files will be lost because of many reasons like computer system crash, software malfunction, and unexpected shutdown when you are doing some work on the files, virus attack or other natural error for corruption, etc.
Whatever the reason for files loss is, you are not able to access them and this may bother you a lot. Means in future, you can’t watch them again.
May you will say, “But your title says that the lost file can be recovered, then how to get the lost or deleted files back? They are gone and can’t assess.” To solve your problems, let’s keep going to the next topic, why the lost file can still be got back.
Actually, it’s absolutely possible to recover lost files. Why? When the files were deleted, even after emptying the Mac Trash, you may think the files are gone forever and cannot get them back anymore. Actually it is not true. After files were lost (or deleted), the computer (or storage device) just frees up the space for the new data, while its physical data stays on the computer or storage device just to be overwritten with time. So if you found your important files are lost, stop using your machine at once, this can double the chance of lost file recovery.
How to Undelete Files Mac
Actually deleted files recovery is not the work of a moment. Let’s see what file recovery software do when restoring your files.
First of all it searches your hard drive for ALL retrievable files. In most cases you cannot just enter the name of your file into the search, so better arm yourself with patience.
Once the search is finished, you will see the list of all photos, music, documents, movies and other types of files that can be restored. Now your task is to extract your files from the numerous search results.
When the file is found, you should select where to recover it. You cannot recover the file to the same drive where it was lost. Therefore choose another volume or some external storage device such as a USB flash drive.
Finally, activate the data recovery mechanism. The program will collect the tiny pieces of information, byte by byte, and arrange them to the initial state to recover deleted files.
To avoid the lengthy process of data retrieval, you’d better mark your important files as read-only, or create backup copies.
It has never been easier to restore deleted files on your Mac and best of all, you can scan your hard drive or device and see which files can be recovered!
Tips
To undelete Mac lost files successfully, choose a safe path to save the recovered files.
After file recovery is finished, build a backup for your files are strongly needed.