Recover Deleted Mac Files Free

Note: In macOS version 10.4 “Mojave” and above it is necessary to temporarily disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). This will allow the application to read the raw device node, something that is required for any data recovery software to run.

Everybody loses files that they want to recover at some point, and because of that mac file recovery software is now highly sophisticated. It is now so advanced that things we would have considered impossible a few years ago look easy. You can just select a disk and click Scan and suddenly start to see thousands of deleted files that you can recover appear before your eyes. Mac Data Recovery Guru is the only software that will generate thumbnails of the recoverable deleted files that you can view, so you can instantly what can be recovered, for free. After ensuring that you can recover the desired files by seeing them you can then choose to purchase the software.

Aug 20, 2021 If you want to recover deleted files on Mac without software, using Terminal is an excellent choice. But note that Terminal command can only recover deleted files from Trash on Mac. If the Trash becomes empty, turn to a Mac file recovery tool for help. To restore deleted files on Mac via Terminal, follow these steps: Step 1.
All you need is a capable free USB recovery software application for Mac. To recover files from a USB flash drive on Mac: Step 1: Download, install, and launch Disk Drill for Mac. Step 2: Click the Recover button next to the USB flash drive you want to recover. Step 3: Wait until Disk Drill finishes analyzing it. Step 4: Look inside the.
Free Deleted File Recovery is an easy and efficient undelete software for Windows or Mac. It supports to recover deleted files after 'shift + del', emptying recycle bin, clicking 'delete' button on the right-click menu or deleting through Windows Command Line or from DOS. Free file recovery could restore various types of deleted file from.

Free Mac Data Recovery provides many of options to help you recover data at your pace and quickly find the files you need. Recover deleted, formatted and lost photos, music, videos, emails and any other files from your Mac computer. With its friendly interface, you can complete the whole recovery process within only 3 simple steps. Is Mac data recovery free? If you lost deleted files to Trash, you can restore them from the Trash for free. When you lost files on a local Mac hard drive or an external storage device, if you apply free Mac data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help, it's free.

Mac Data Recovery until recently

Deleted file recovery used to be done by reading the filesystem of the disk. If it were a Mac OS disk for example, then the HFS+ filesystem would be interpreted by the software, and an analysis would be made to try to determine what data was previously present before the deletion was performed. In this way, each different filesystem would be developed for and interpreted in its own individual way, and each filesystem would have its own success rates and caveats. The success or failure of the file recovery attempt was also generally based on the state of the filesystem at the time. If the filesystem had been heavily modified after the file deletion had taken place, then there would be less chances of being able to undo that deletion. Likewise if the filesystem was heavily corrupted or if it had been formatted, that would often mean that no file recovery would be possible. If the disk had been formatted, then nothing would be recoverable.

It did have some advantages; the folder layout and filenames would sometimes be preserved. Sometimes it would result that getting files back was a quick and painless process. So while it was not so reliable, when it did work it could be very convenient.

This method is generally not possible these days, because filesystems have become more complex, and also because when it comes to deleted file recovery people demand functionality above all else.

How to recover deleted files on your Mac in modern times

Now data recovery has become about pattern recognition of individual file types. This has the advantage of making the recovery more robust and consistent because it is no longer dependent on the filesystem, so it makes no difference if a disk has been formatted or not. Now the only requirement for a deleted file to be recoverable is for it to be present, irrespective of the filesystem. It also makes it filesystem independent. It works on hard disks, USB flash sticks, USB hard disks, Intel Optane storage, & SSD’s, SD Cards, Apple’s APFS disk format, digital cameras, Android phones & tablets, or anything else that can be plugged into a Mac. OS X does not even necessarily have to be able to mount the device, and that way it can work on devices which do not show up in the Finder. For data recovery of digital cameras it is sometimes preferable to put the camera’s SD card into an SD card reader rather than plugging the camera in with a USB cable, but it depends on the camera.

In general It will work on anything that appears in Disk Utility. (Technically speaking: The only requirement is that OS X provides a POSIX node, for example /dev/rdisk3). And since it is fault-tolerant (which gives it the capability of scanning around bad sectors), it can even be used to recover data from faulty media, which is sometimes useful even if the files have not been deleted, because it will successfully read and extract the files irrespectively.

The fault tolerance has been so heavily engineered and tested, that some customers have reported scanning drives with the “click of death” (where you can hear the drive making a clicking sound as it is mechanically failing), and it has taken up to several weeks to finish scanning and recovering the drive, but that it succeeded in recovering the majority of the files.

A few years ago Mac Data Recovery Guru added the feature of being able to scan used space (ie, files) as well as deleted space. So now if you have a disk image that will not mount, or some other file or folder with data inside it that you would like to extract the contents of, it is possible. This also opens up some forensics capabilities of the software as it extracts and decodes everything. If you run it over your browser history, for example, it’ll extract all the text and images from it as well as other file types. This is also useful for digital forensics.

The way deleted file recovery software works these days is by reading every byte on the volume, and as it reads through it searches every byte on the disk for common patterns in each individual file type that it supports (or for patterns in general, for example it can recover all ASCII text found anywhere on a drive). If it encounters the start of a recognizable file it will record the location of that, and then search for whatever middle parts of the file that it can, and search for the end of it to finish it. Once it has a good idea of what the entirety of the file is, it will provide a real thumbnail preview of that file, and display it as an option to be recovered.

This happens in parallel, with interpretations of the same data segments on the disk being interpreted and displayed as different files, and this can occur thousands of times per second. Multiple file outputs for the same data segment on the disk is necessary to have to get good results, because often files will be embedded inside each other, with each interpretation of the data as a file being equally valid, but distinct. (For example, jpegs embedded inside a PDF will be offered as individual jpegs, but that will not interfere with the PDF also being displayed and recoverable as a file itself, with the embedded jpegs included.)

While the premise of this form of file recovery is simple and making a prototype is easy, outputting good results from such a chaotic environment is when it becomes a science and an art form and require years of refinement and development. No less than 6 years of full-time research and development has been put into Mac Data Recovery Guru. And that’s not moving slowly.

In this paradigm of data recovery each file is its own universe. Some files such as jpegs have a beginning, a middle and an end. This is quite a simple file type in that sense. Others are very different. An MP3 for example, is a nebulous entity. While scanning through the bytes on a disk, MP3 frames can be found wholly or partly anywhere on a disk, and if you’re the file recovery program it can be hard to know whether you are within an MP3 or not. But it’s the file recovery software’s job to find the fragments, determine if they are clumped together as a single sound file or multiple, and even parse out the ID3 information in order to correctly preserve it so that the album artwork and song name are correctly displayed after the files are recovered. If you try the software you will see that somehow it does this, and remarkably, does so perfectly.

The most challenging aspect of this approach is that the names that the files were arbitrarily named on the filesystem are often lost, because that is stored in the filesystem itself. We do our best to overcome this limitation by displaying live thumbnail previews of all the deleted files (not an easy feat!), and allowing quick recovery of entire file types in order to later search through them with the OS X Finder and Spotlight.

Recover deleted files on your Mac: First thing to do

Assess how much risk you are at. If you have just deleted a single small document, chances are very good that you’ll get it back even if you’re very casual about everything. Performing steps one and two listed below are optional in this case, and probably wont really make a difference. If you lose many files, or one very big file, this is when it is more appropriate to start acting like you’re in a forensics situation, and following steps one and two below would be highly recommended.

Mac File Recovery – Step one (Optional):

Stop using the disk of that Mac as soon as possible. If it is the start up disk, then stop using that Mac at all. If your computer is downloading or copying anything onto the disk, stop that process. Close your email clients and any programs that may write to the disk, but do not take any unnecessary actions either. Do the minimum to the computer to put it into a position where it will write as little to the disk as possible in the near future. It is not necessary to shut it down.

Mac File Recovery – Step Two (Optional):

Download Mac Data Recovery software. Again, it is preferable to download it to a disk that is not that which you will be recovering data from, because downloading the data recovery program itself is writing to the disk. If the data recovery program is small in size (say less than 5MB), this is not such an issue, because writing say 5MB to a disk with thousands of MB of space on it stands a very low risk of writing over the exact piece of data that you want to recover. Mac Data Recovery Guru is very small in size, so there is little concern if you are downloading this program.

Mac File Recovery – Step Three:

Run the data recovery program. Preferably have a second disk, USB drive or key, or SD card ready to recover the files you want back to (if you are recovering a single small file, chances are this won’t strictly be necessary). You will get a warning from the software if you are recovering the file to the same disk you are recovering it from.

Note: In general data recovery is not possible on SSD drives which support TRIM. This includes most of the Apple MacBook Pro’s sold since around 2012. No data recovery or forensics software in the world can help with the recovery of this data, including Mac Data Recovery Guru.

Tip: Recover multiple folders by holding down the Command key while you click on them. Recovering folders is fast. Just select them then hit Recover.

(Side note: As strict as the suggested steps shown above may be, we recommend them because technically this is the optimal way of ensuring that you have the very best possibility of recovering the data that you want back. Interestingly however, if you download the data recovery software and have a look at the deleted files it shows you, you will most likely see that it lists hundreds of thousands of deleted files, even from years ago. People are generally amazed as they browse through the deleted files it shows them, seeing files which they would never have thought would still be present on their system. Go ahead and take a look even if just for curiosity’s sake, or to get an appreciation of the power of digital forensics technology. It’s easy and free, and may really surprise you.)

If you are using Mac Data Recovery Guru, It is often better to allow the scan to completely finish, select the folders of the file types you want back (hold down the command key to select multiple folders), then hit Recover to recover entire folders of file types you want back, and then search through for specific files using Spotlight or the Finder. This can be quicker and easier than searching through the files using the data recovery software itself. The demo is useful to ensure that the files that you want back are recoverable and visible within the program beforehand.
If what you are searching for is text It is worth taking a look inside the folder called “Raw Text (plain)”. This contains all of the text from the entire system – it even does fancy things like UUDecoding emails, and unzipping zip files on the fly as it scans – to ensure that it gets every byte of text that exists. If you need something from this folder, just recover the entire folder, and then use Spotlight in the Finder to search for keywords.
If there are a lot of files found, but you don’t find the one you are looking for Then one thing you might try is recovering similar files – for example you may be looking for a .doc file but it’s not there but some .docx files are found, then you can manually change the extension from .docx back to .doc and see if that contains your desired file. The reason for this is that in some (relatively rare) circumstances a file may be recovered, but its type may be incorrectly classified.
When you are finished with Mac Data Recovery Guru and have your files back You can easily uninstall it by dragging it to the trash. The application is entirely self-contained and this will remove everything. In practice many people like to keep it around though. It’s not just useful for data recovery, you can use it to view and extract all the data on any device, and in any file.

Now, the first step is to download Mac Data Recovery Guru to see what it can see on your disk.

Download

This article covers the top five completely free data recovery software for Mac, which varies in features, functions, and performance. However, they all have one thing in common: they are free.

Compare the five tools carefully, and select the one that fits your needs best.

PAGE CONTENT:

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free
2. Disk Drill
3. PhotoRec
4. TestDisk
5. Exif Untrasher
3-Step Tutorial of Free Mac Data Recovery

Top 5 Completely Free Data Recovery Software for Mac

When you get data loss on your Mac due to accidental deletion, partition/hard drive formatting, system crash, macOS upgrade, file system or hard drive corruption, stay calm and pick up one of the recommended data recovery software below for help.

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is one of the free top and handy Mac data recovery software that enables you to recover data from the emptied trash bin, Mac notebooks, desktops, hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, memory cards, digital cameras, etc. It works on internal APFS/HFS+/HFS X drives, and FAT/FAT32/exFAT/NTFS file systems used in USB flash drives and external hard drives connected to Mac.

Highlighted Features:

How To Recover Deleted Mac Files

# 1. All-in-one data recovery software

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is fully compatible with the latest macOS 11.0 (Big Sur), 10.15(Catalina), 10.14 (Mojave) and all the former versions. It enables all Mac users to perform a full recovery of lost valuable data in only 3 steps: Scan > Preview > Recover.

# 2. HFS+ Fusion Drive Recovery

The latest update of EaseUS Mac data recovery software has improved its support of Fusion Drive, which makes it work even better in retrieving files from Mac computers that are installed on fusion drives.

# 3. Encrypted Drive Recovery

Another great update in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is that it supports encrypted drive recovery by offering guidance to assist Mac users in decrypting and unlocking their drives with password.

# 4. Data Protection

Once the data protection feature is enabled, it will automatically back up the deleted files to a safe location. If you unexpectedly delete files and want to recover later, you can quickly restore the lost files from the created backup.

Pros:

Support to restore 200+ file types on Mac, including recovering lost Word/Excel/PPT documents, photos, videos, music files, emails, archived files, and more.
Quick Scan + Deep Scan technology greatly enhances recovery probability.
Real-time Preview allows you to preview found files while scanning and before proceeding with data recovery.
No quality-loss recovery brings your lost photos, videos perfectly back in its best performance.

Cons:

The completely free version is limited to a maximum of 2GB data recovery. (The outstanding Windows data recovery free version also provides 2GB free file recovery.)

2. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a popular Mac data recovery application developed to recover lost partitions or files from Mac internal and external hard drives. Also, the Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery options in the free trial version support to monitor the file deletion activity and retain metadata so as to quickly undelete files.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Undelete Protected Data (Not Available in Free Version)

Being similar to the Data Protection feature in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, Disk Drill also contains an undelete protected data feature that requires Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery features to be enabled in advance.

With these two features enabled, Mac users could quickly undelete files from a Trash Bin reference or shadow copy of each file to a user-specified folder.

# 2. Allocate Existing Files

When Finder fails to read data, Disk Utility reports the drive as unformatted, Disk Drill can scan the partition and retrieve data from Mac.

Pros:

Compatible with all the Mac OS X and macOS systems.
Recover 200+ file types.
It is packed with free and useful disk tools for all users.
An intuitive user interface to recover lost files effortlessly.

Cons:

The free version only allows a preview of data recovery.
Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery are not available in the free version.

3. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free, open-source program that works very well in data recovery on older operating systems like OS X, Linux, Free BSD, Net BSD, Open BSD, and Windows.

It allows users to restore most common files, like photos, audios, documents, ZIP archives, and others from internal or external devices, such as digital cameras, memory cards, USB flash drives and partitions/hard disks.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Advanced File Carving

PhotoRec first searches for the data block or cluster size. The program will quickly load value from superblock like ext2/ext3/ext4 or volume boot record like FAT/NTFS if the file system is not corrupted. When the file system corrupted, PhotoRec will check the device at a sector level, using the first 10 found files to calculate the block or cluster size so as to locate and find more lost files.

# 2. Block or Cluster Level Recovery

This program will read the Mac device block by block, cluster by cluster, checking against different file signatures so as to recuperate available files.

Pros:

Support data recovery cross-platforms, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.
100% open-source program, not only the software but also the source code.
Nice tool to recover personal files.

Cons:

Not very user-friendly for ordinary computer users.
Technical skills required. It uses command lines to operate.

4. TestDisk

TestDisk, like PhotoRec, it's also an open-source, freeware product that allows for multiple file types recovery.

It mainly focuses on partition recovery. It enables users to find deleted or lost partitions by fixing the partition tables due to software crash, virus attack, mistaken formatting, etc.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Partition Recovery

When a partition lost or disappeared on Mac due to corrupted partition tables, Mac users can apply TestDisk to rebuild and repair the corrupted partition table.

# 2. Rebuild Boot Sectors

When the Mac bootable drive fails to boot, it corrects problems in bootable drives that are failing to boot.

Pros:

Completely free and open.
Runs on several operating systems, including macOS and Mac OS X versions.
Recover lost partitions and rebuild the partition table.

Cons:

Use the command line to make data recovery.
Not user-friendly for regular computer users.

5. Exif Untrasher

Exif Untrasher is another completely free Mac data recovery tool that mainly restores deleted or JPEG files from digital cameras, external drive, USB stick, SD card, etc. You can easily download and install this software on your Mac running Mac OS X 10.10 and all the later versions.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Highly Efficient in JEPG Recovery

Exif Untrasher is a tool that mainly designed to locate photos in JEPG formats on any kind of storage device like SD card, CF card, memory stick or Mac hard disk.

External storage device needs to be mounted as a volume on Mac for the utility to access and attempt a restore.

Pros:

Simple and quick to recover lost images from the memory card.
Free with no quantity limits.
It is updated by the developer regularly.

Cons:

It only works for JEGP file recovery. It doesn't support extra file formats.

3-Step Tutorial of Free Mac Data Recovery

To help more Mac users to bring their lost files are soon as possible, we are here to show you a 3-step tutorial of free Mac data recovery. If you are eager to bring your lost files back on Mac or external storage devices, apply the brief and innovative EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help.

Remember to connect your USB, SD card, or external hard drive to Mac computer if your lost data were saved on it.

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Click the 'Scan' button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the 'Recover' button to have them back.

Conclusion

On this page, you are presented with the top 5 completely free Mac data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, Exif Untrasher. When you are facing unexpected data loss on Mac, the programs demonstrated above can help you recover lost files effectively.

What's more, if your lost data is less than 2GB, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is highly recommended as it provides the most user-friendly interface and most powerful data recovery function.

If you simply want to restore JEGP images, Exif Untrasher is worth to try.

Recover Deleted Mac Files Free

Mac Data Recovery until recently

How to recover deleted files on your Mac in modern times

Recover deleted files on your Mac: First thing to do

Mac File Recovery – Step one (Optional):

Mac File Recovery – Step Two (Optional):

Mac File Recovery – Step Three:

Top 5 Completely Free Data Recovery Software for Mac

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free

How To Recover Deleted Mac Files

2. Disk Drill

3. PhotoRec

4. TestDisk

5. Exif Untrasher

3-Step Tutorial of Free Mac Data Recovery

Conclusion

People Also Ask

1. Is Mac data recovery free?

2. What is the best free data recovery software?

3. Is there any free data recovery software?

4. How can I recover deleted files without software Mac free?

How To Restore Permanently Deleted Files