I’m constantly written to by people with a specific data recovery problem. Usually these problems are centered on a Windows based computer. Every so often a Mac owner writes to me with the question as to whether or not an available program will allow them to recover a certain type of Mac file. Mac data recovery software is far more complicated than programs used on Windows. Part of this reason is simply because there are fewer Macs in existence and the Mac OS X system is far different than most coding options. Even down to the fact that many Mac computers do not use Intel processors and as such do not handle binary code in the same ways as Windows based PCs there are problems.
My advice for anyone attempting Mac digital photo recovery or recovery of any file type whatsoever on a Mac Computer is as follows: photo recovery on Mac computers and recovery of non image files can best be done with software able to operate from a Mac platform. Programs that must be downloaded onto Windows based PCs and then connected to a Mac are not directly applicable to successful Mac Data recovery.
Where do you need to recover deleted files from? The most common place that files are accidentally deleted from is a computer’s internal hard drive. This usually happens when one empties the Windows recycle bin without first taking one last look at its contents. Another very common place for files to be perhaps not accidentally but still deleted from is a USB flash drive or camera memory card. In both of these cases deleting a file bypasses the Windows recycle bin.
Perhaps you are still using three and ½ inch floppy disk drives and have had difficulty rescuing data from one of these. All of these circumstances requiring deleted files recovery can be dealt with fairly simply by using Remo Software’s Windows recovery or Mac recovery tool. Just by following a few quick steps even the most inexperienced computer user can locate, preview and recover important and previously deleted files. Whether you need to find and recover one file or all of the files on a reformatted hard drive Remo Software has the tool you need to recover deleted files.
Sometimes I help out at our support desk so as to keep in touch with our software users. A common theme that seems to continue over the years is the habit of people to automatically reload Windows when their PC will not start up. Obviously this is a good and logical choice as the Windows prompt from the error screen is telling you that you are missing operating system files.
But it seems a universal gap in thinking that we reload Windows without realizing that the process of reformatting our hard drive as part of that reload will basically delete all of our stored files. We then are faced with a more difficult hard drive recovery task. Hard drive recovery software will read all of your reformatted files as deleted and offer them up for recovery. But wouldn’t it be far easier to open that hard drive and access the files before they are reformatted? Yes of course it would and that same program used for hard drive recovery after reloading Windows will do an even better job if used before.
Apple Mac files are cataloged using a system known as the type/creator method. This is in contrast to the Windows system you which uses a file extension. So how then could a Windows data recovery software program recognize and recover accidentally deleted Mac files? Simply put, it could not. Windows data recovery programs will not open and operate on a Mac Computer. But even if they could do it they would not be able to recognize Mac application files.
For Mac data recovery you must use a software program that is a universal application for Mac meaning it will open up a Mac computer. That Mac recovery program must also be able to scan a complete Mac driven internal hard drive and return from that scan Mac type/creator files. The specialized design qualifications of Mac data recovery software are the reason Mac recovery programs cost a bit more than those used to recover lost or damaged files on Windows.
I remember years ago I was involved in a business that require taking hundreds of digital photographs for items that would be sold on Ebay. Because at the time camera memory cards were extremely small, each series of photos basically filled up the entire card and we would have to continually be running back and forth downloading images into folders. The folders were created using a time and date system by the camera maker’s included digital photograph management software. An odd thing occurs when using this software which is that one can download an assortment of images and upon looking for them the next morning they will have disappeared.
This problem still occurs and the cause of of it is a file limitation size set by the photo management software. Once that file size is exceeded the program ejects older files and deletes them. One can imagine the difficulty this would create when the photograph was of a special vacation or even needed for reuse in business. To recover digital photos lost in this manner you will need a digital media recovery program that recognizes file types as converted by the twain software. The photo recovery program will then scan through your computer’s hard drive and create for you in list of all recently deleted image files.
Data recovery is a complicated process. But like most difficult tasks broken down into smaller pieces it can be attempted by almost anyone. Considering the costs of sending out computer components for file recovery are so expensive as to make them implausible, one is well served by learning how to recover lost files on their own. The first step is to determine easily enough which operating system your computer uses. These can be broken down into three familiar types, Linux, Mac OS X, and of course Windows. Do not ever be misled by any software program promising to recover damage or deleted data from all three of these applications. Windows data recovery requires a file recovery tool designed exactly for use with Windows operating systems.
In fact many data recovery tasks are so difficult that one should try to purchase a program that narrows down the field of endeavor. What we mean by this is that while a general Windows recovery tool can be very helpful when searching for common and popular file types such as Windows documents and jpegs, once we are trying to locate and recover more complicated files such as high end camera manufacturer RAW files we need a Windows recovery program designed to do only that. This same thinking applies when attempting to recover emails on special programs such as Microsoft Outlook.
Very often a virus will enter your PC and the result of this is that your emails start arriving into your Microsoft Outlook inbox in somewhat of a hit or miss fashion. Usually you can restore your mailbox to full operating status by simply removing the virus. But sometimes the virus will manage to write itself directly onto your Microsoft email application. It does this by scripting a line or two of code into the Outlook PST file. When this occurs you have several options. One is to migrate your archived Outlook messages and customization settings to a safe location. After this is done you can reload Microsoft Outlook.
Another option is to use an Outlook recovery program to repair the Outlook PST file itself. Usually the process of putting a corrupted Microsoft Outlook program back into operation requires a little bit of both and for that you will need a quality PST repair program. This will allow you to repair Outlook inbox functions as well as locate deleted Outlook messages and import and export all Outlook files.
Experienced information technology repair technicians very often use not compatible operating systems to access files on computers with hard disk drives that will no longer allow access. This situation is usually shown by appearance of the Windows black or blue error screen. Often the technician will start up a computer that is unable to load its own Windows operating system by means of a smaller OS directly fed into that computer’s RAM. This system is fine for experienced technicians, but how does the average PC owner recover files from a crashed hard drive?
Until recently crashed hard drive recovery on a do it yourself basis was simply too complex. Today thanks to the merging of powerful data recovery programs with easy to follow graphic user interfaces almost anyone can find and recover on their computer damage or deleted files. The same programs are used for crashed hard drive recovery.
To recover formatted data from a Windows or Mac based computer you must read that situation as if it were a simple file recovery problem. Actually formatted data recovery is exactly that. When you reformat your computer’s internal hard disk drive or any other digital storage device you are essentially marking all of the locations on that device as available for the writing of new information. This is exactly what basic file deletion does.
Fortunately the original information will still be located magnetically or in a case of solid state storage as flash memory, on that drive. Superior data recovery tools can read that original information along with the original file or folder names. These tools can then offer that information as able to be copied or recoverable to a new safe location. Usually you will want to copy files from digital storage before reformatting which should you accidentally forget to do so you can recover formatted data easily.
Certain types of files are much easier to undelete than others. Perhaps the easiest files to recover are those that have been deleted from smaller digital storage devices such as USB flash drives. Because file structure must be individually scanned it is obvious that a 4GB USB flash drive can be looked through much more quickly than a 500 GB hard disk drive. Not only is the USB flash drive far smaller because it has no moving parts, solid state memory is accessed far more quickly than that which is stored on a spinning hard disk platter.
This is not to say that you cannot undelete files from your computer’s hard disk drive regardless of its size. What we are saying is that in choosing the best data recovery tool for your purpose you must make certain that the program you intend to purchase uses fast and accurate scanning algorithms. This one difference when attempting to undelete files can literally mean reducing the data recovery process from hours to minutes in time required.