There is nothing worse than deleting a file by mistake. But don't despair! We can help. Disk Drill is the fast and easy way to recover deleted files on Mac OS X. You can recover deleted files from your internal hard drive and almost any other type of storage device you can connect to your Mac, including external hard drives, and USB flash drives. Quick recovery is possible for all major file systems including HFS/HFS+, FAT and NTFS. 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 for free!
Download and install Disk Drill
* If you haven't done so already, download the free Disk Drill application. It requires Mac OS 10.5 or later.
* Once it has downloaded, double-click the "diskdrill.dmg" file in your Downloads folder.
* Drag the Disk Drill icon to your Applications folder when prompted.
Connect Your Device to Your Mac
If the deleted files you wish to recover are on an external device, connect it to your Mac now. Skip this step if you wish to perform deleted file recovery from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Launch Disk Drill Application
* Go to your Applications folder and double-click on the Disk Drill icon to launch the program.
* If this is your first time launching Disk Drill, you will be asked some questions. We recommend leaving the first three boxes checked, but uncheck the last box to skip the tour, then click Next.
* Enter your administrative password so that Disk Drill has permission to scan your drive.
* On the next screen, you will be asked if you want to upgrade to Disk Drill PRO. Disk Drill Basic allows you to perform all scans for deleted files, as well as recover files found with Recovery Vault, but only Disk Drill PRO allows you to recover deleted Mac files found with Quick Scan and Deep Scan. Select "No, thanks" if you just want to scan first and decide on upgrading later. Or select "Recover More" if you're ready to upgrade.
* Once you get to the Welcome screen, click the Recover icon.
Select the Drive to Be Scanned
You should see a list of the drives and devices available to be scanned. (If the device you wish to scan is not shown, look on the bottom-right of the screen and click on "show them" to reveal any hidden items.) Select the drive (and then the partition if necessary) that you wish to recover your deleted Mac files from.
Quick Scan for Deleted Files
If you can't Undelete from Recovery Vault, Quick Scan is your next best option. Quick Scan is a powerful tool that allows you to recover your files with their metadata intact - including file names. It can now be used on HFS/HFS+ file systems (the most common type of system for Mac internal disk drives), as well as FAT and NTFS file systems. Click "Quick scan for deleted files" to begin scanning. Note: If Quick Scan is grayed out, or if it didn't locate the files you need, try Deep Scan, which may find files Quick Scan could not.
Deep Scan for Lost Data
If you were unable to use Recovery Vault or Quick Scan, or if those scans didn't produce the files you needed, don't lose all hope. Deep Scan may still be able to restore the deleted files on your Mac. Deep Scans take quite a bit longer, so be prepared to wait a while for it to finish. Note that deleted files recovered by Deep Scan will most probably not have their original file names - they are instead assigned generic file names such as "file123.doc". Click "Deep Scan for Lost Data" to begin scanning.
Select Your Deleted Files
At the end of a scan, Disk Drill will show a complete list of the deleted files it was able to find. There are several ways to sort the results to make finding the particular deleted files you need easier
Restore Your Deleted Files
Once you have selected your files, select the location where you want to store the recovered files and then click the Recover button in the lower-right corner. If you are using Quick Scan or Deep Scan and have not upgraded to the PRO version of Disk Drill yet, you will be prompted to do so. Once you complete your upgrade, click Recover to begin the recovery of your deleted Mac files. You'll see a message of "Finished" when the recovery process is complete and you will find the files stored on your Mac in the folder you specified. Congratulations, you now know how to recover deleted files on your Mac OS X.
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