Recovering files from your Mac’s internal hard drive is a bit more complicated than recovering it from an external drive or device. The reason for this is that anything you do on your Mac, after you realize that a file has been deleted or lost, causes precious data to be overwritten. Just leaving it running, without any programs open, can still overwrite data. And the data that gets overwritten may be just the file(s) that you are trying to save.
So, if you haven’t already done so, we recommend that you SHUT YOUR MAC DOWN immediately and read through these instructions on another computer or mobile device.
There is only one exception to this rule, and that is if you had Disk Drill installed previous to your data loss and you had Recovery Vault and/or Guaranteed Recovery enabled to protect your hard drive. If this is the case, proceed to How to Use Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery.
If you have a specific file type that you need recovered, check What File Types Can Disk Drill Recover? to see if your file type is supported before you begin.
There are three recovery options you can use, with the best option listed first.
In the best-case scenario, you have a second Mac available, and both Macs have either a FireWire or Thunderbolt port. With this option, you can access the hard drive of the Mac with the lost files, while minimizing system usage. You can buy a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable at most office supply or electronics stores. There are also Thunderbolt to FireWire adapters available.
Alternatively, you might need to use a USB-C cable, those are only available from third-party manufacturers.
Follow this Apple Support Document to learn how to use Target Disc Mode. Once you have successfully connected to the target Mac, you can proceed with downloading and installing Disc Drill on the active Mac.
There are some Macs that don’t have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports. If this is the case (and you are comfortable with dismantling your computer) you could remove the internal hard drive and then connect it to another Mac as an external drive, using a hard drive to usb adapter such as this one.
In either case, when you start scanning, be sure to select the option under Extras to Remount Volume as Read-Only.
If you do not have a second Mac available, and you don’t have Disk Drill already installed, the best thing to do is to install Disk Drill on an external drive. This is called “Portable Mode”. Note that if you are trying to recover from a Mac that is having trouble starting up, you will need to install Disk Drill on a bootable drive.
Once you have Disk Drill running in portable mode, you can then use Disk Drill to make copy of your entire hard drive volume onto the external drive, which will give you the best chances of recovery. Copying your hard drive is optional, but recommended, so have a large external drive ready if possible.
If you already had Disk Drill installed, but you didn’t have Recovery Vault or Guaranteed Recovery enabled, using Target Disk Mode (option #1 above) is still the best option. But if you don’t have access to a second Mac, then launch Disk Drill and start with Step #10 above.
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