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FAQ
- Is it safe to run Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery on corrupted drives?
- I accidentally initialized one of my back up drives; can I recover my lost data from the same?
- Few important files were accidentally deleted and emptied from trash. How do I recover them?
- If I use the demo version to see if the data I'm looking for exists, do I have to rescan with the purchased version?
- Is it possible to recover files using Mac Recovery software from USB formatted with FAT 32 file system?
- I erased one of my storage device using security options of Apple’s disk utility. Can your software recover data from such device?
- File types which I am looking for recovery is not listed in your application. What can I do?
- I need the next steps after recovering the volume and recovering the drive. What's next?
- Can I copy and run the software from a Mac bootable disk, if not is there any other method to recover the crashed drive on my Mac? There is only one drive on the mac and it is not booting?
- The files I have recovered do not work, why?
Is it safe to run Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery on corrupted drives?
Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery is a comprehensive Mac recovery tool designed to work in read only mode. It does not try to repair or modify the file system contents in your logically corrupted drive. Alternatively, this recovery tool just reads the drive subjected to scan and yields the best possible recovery results. In addition, software is embedded with intuitive caution messages at appropriate instances during runtime, which educates you to avoid write operation to the same drive from which data is being recovered which would otherwise result in permanent data loss.
I accidentally initialized one of my back up drives; can I recover my lost data from the same?
Initialized disks is the most frequently occurring data loss scenario encountered by Mac users globally. The reason being, corruption in partition map or catalog B-tree in HFS+ or HFSX volumes. Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery is equipped with a highly sophisticated scan algorithm to handle such cases with ease. This scan engines performs exhaustive search in the corrupted HFS+ / HFSX file system, sector by sector, to reconstruct your lost data as it was before disk initialization.
Few important files were accidentally deleted and emptied from trash. How do I recover them?
When data is deleted, the file access entries are removed from file system whereas the contents of the data remain on the drive, which can be recovered. However, deleted files should not be overwritten. Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery employs combined scan of "Undelete" and "Raw signature search" for effective and unconditional recovery of deleted files from HFS+ /HFSX (Journaled) and HFS+ / HFSX volumes respectively. This software also offers "Raw signature search" on entire physical drive if in case you are not certain about the volume from which files were deleted, also when there is severe corruption and volume reconstruction is not possible.
If I use the demo version to see if the data I'm looking for exists, do I have to rescan with the purchased version?
You do not need to rescan once you have done a scan with the demo version. After you have scanned your affected drive, you can save your scan using the Save Scan feature. After purchasing the full version, you can open your saved scan and get right to work.
Whether you scan for your data with the demo or full version, you still need that full version so that you can actually save your recovery. Disc Doctors provides the demo to give you a fair view of your potential recovery and a chance to try out the software before deciding to purchase.
Is it possible to recover files using Mac Recovery software from USB formatted with FAT 32 file system?
File recovery from FAT 32 volumes is possible by “Raw signature search on physical drive”, an autonomous option that scans the entire drive to locate lost files irrespective of file system. In other words, raw signature search provided with Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery software is a file system independent option, which scans each sector of the drive to locate unique signature of every file type selected. However, fair chances of recovery is possible if the lost files are not overwritten or fragmented. To know more about “Raw signature search” option, Please refer accompanied user manual with the software.
I erased one of my storage device using security options of Apple's disk utility. Can your software recover data from such device?
No, when you choose any security options to erase a drive, the process will overwrite data several times. The patterns are designed to securely overwrite the contents and data residues in the storage device beyond recovery from any application. Security erase is similar to disk wiping or disk purge.
File types which I am looking for recovery is not listed in your application. What can I do?
Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery Software provides flexibility to add a "New file type" to predefined file type(s) list. Few pre-requisites details are required prior adding files to scan engine, which includes, 8byte signature, file type extension name and the approximate file size to find and recover. However, this method is just an attempt and results are based on fragmentation level and health condition of the RAW data. To know more about how to add file types, please refer user manual or contact our support team.
I need the next steps after recovering the volume and recovering the drive. What's next?
Once the recovery is complete, make sure you have a CLEAN volume for your recovered data. The drive you are restoring FROM is NOT a clean volume. It's a good idea to buy yourself a new drive that holds the same amount of data as the disk you are recovering from. If buying a new drive is not an option for you, you can use another hard drive that has free space for your recovered data. Also, make sure that the drive you are recovering to has the same capacity as the affected drive or more. The machine running your recovery will save the data to the second drive after it has finished.
Once you are sure you have all of your data saved in a new location, you can try using Data Sanitizer to completely wipe your original affected drive. This program is Windows only but if you connect your Mac drive to a Windows machine running Data Sanitizer, you can effectively wipe the drive.
As far as reusing the affected drive afterwards, that depends on the kind of damage on the drive. If the affected drive had a physical issue or bad sectors on the disk, then it is NOT good idea to use that drive again. If your drive experienced what is called a logical failure, then it’s possible to get the data back and perhaps use the drive again. Logical failures occur when the hard drive is recognized by the computer but remains inaccessable. You will need to double check your recovered data to make sure it’s all there and working soundly, then you can wipe and re-use.
Can I copy and run the software from a Mac bootable disk, if not is there any other method to recover the crashed drive on my Mac? There is only one drive on the mac and it is not booting?
You should download the demo for Mac Data Recovery directly from www.diskdoctors.net onto an unaffected, bootable drive. DO NOT download Mac Data Recovery Demo onto the drive that needs to be scanned. You can use an external drive that has OS X 10.4 and above already installed.
If you are trying to recover data from a drive that runs the operating system, then loading the recovery software onto the same volume will not work. You will need to install the software onto another Mac and connect the drive from which you wish to recover data. If the affected drive is a boot disc inside a Mac, then you can connect that machine to another Mac running OS X using what is called Target Disc Mode. If you don’t know how to do that, click on the following link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661.
Just to give you a brief overview, Target Disc Mode is achieved using two Macs, each with a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection. Essentially, targeting is a way to tether one Mac to another as an external hard drive. Once you have targeted the affected drive to another Mac, the drive you wish to recover will show up on the desktop as an external drive and you can run MDR on that targeted disk. Once it’s up and running on a separate volume, you should be able to scan and search for missing files.
As always, use the demo version to perform a thorough scan and then save that scan. You can recovery using the saved scan once you are using the full version of the software.
If you do not have a Firewire connection on one or both of the machines, you will need to get the drive out and attempt to connect it as an external drive. DO NOT attempt to remove the drive if you have never done this before. You could end up causing permanent damage to your machine. At that point, take your machine to an authorized Apple repair facility.
If your computer has more than one boot-able hard drive (like a Mac Pro, G4 or G5 Tower with multiple hard drives bays or a bootable external drive ), you can load MDR onto the other volume and run the recovery. This will only work if you have already installed OS X on the other hard drive.
The files I have recovered do not work, why?
It is always important to keep in mind how your affected drive was damaged in the first place. If the data was recovered from a drive with physical issues or bad sectors on the disk, then the data itself could be suspect. Recovery from a volume damaged in this fashion can be difficult and time consuming, if not impossible in some cases. The files recovered by Mac Data Recovery may not work because the erasure or damage caused to those files may have been far too severe to completely restore. Since data on a hard drive is spread out over many sectors, recovery may have only been able to get some of the pieces back in place. What was recovered was all that could be successfully restored from safe sectors.
If the data you were trying to recover was overwritten by new data, then recovery is not going to be possible. Another factor that could prevent recovery is fragmentation. If Mac Data Recovery cannot reconnect the linkage between each data block and it’s data sector then recovery may not be possible. Once again, this could also be caused by bad sectors on the disk.
