Bought an WD Elements a couple of years and have many important backups on it. It is only 500GB and I have to free up space on it for new backup. I accidentally deleted a few folders from my Mac. Unfortunately, I don’t find those deleted files in Trash bin. How can I recover deleted files on my Mac?
When you delete something from an external drive like a WD Elements, it skips the Trash and gets deleted right away. Don’t use the drive anymore, that’ll help keep the lost files from being overwritten. To get them back, try a recovery tool like Stellar or Photorec. Install it on your Mac, plug in the WD drive, and run a deep scan. You can preview what’s recoverable and save the files somewhere else (not on the same drive). If you use Time Machine, check there too.
Deleted files are not gone immediately when they are being deleted. This means it is highly possible to recover deleted files on mac. And the data recovery technology has been advanced for many years.
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When files are deleted, the space they occupied is marked as “available.” Until that space is overwritten by new data (like your new backup), the files are still physically there and can be recovered.
- Unplug the WD Elements drive.
- Do not copy, add, or modify any files on it.
- Do not run Disk Utility’s First Aid on it yet, as it might overwrite data.
To recover deleted files on mac. You will need to use data recovery software that scans the drive for these “deleted but not overwritten” files. The good news is there are excellent options for macOS.
If you have Time Machine set up and running, this is your simplest and most reliable method for recovering deleted files on mac. It retrieves the file exactly as it was.
- Open the folder where the deleted file was originally located.
- Enter Time Machine by clicking its icon in the menu bar (looks like a clock with a counter-clockwise arrow) or by opening it from Applications > Time Machine.
- Use the timeline on the right edge of the screen or the arrows to “travel back in time” to a date before you deleted the file.
- Find the file, select it, and click “Restore.”
Why it’s great: It’s a built-in data recovery tool available on all Mac. If you aren’t using Time Machine, set it up now to prevent future stress.
TestDisk is a powerful open-source data recovery tool that can help recover deleted files on Mac, especially if the files were on a partition or the partition table itself is damaged. However, TestDisk is mainly designed to recover lost partitions and make non-booting disks bootable again. It can also recover deleted files on Mac from certain filesystems. It’s more command-line oriented and can be a bit complex for beginners compared to GUI tools like Disk Drill.
How to Recover deleted files on Mac via TestDisk:
- Download TestDisk (the Mac version)
- Extract and Run TestDisk:
Open the downloaded archive.
Launch the testdisk executable from Terminal or Finder. - Run TestDisk:
In Terminal, navigate to the folder containing TestDisk and run: sudo ./testdisk
Enter your administrator password when prompted. - Select the Disk:
Choose your WD Elements external drive from the list. - Choose the Partition Table Type:
Usually, TestDisk auto-detects this. Confirm if prompted. - Analyze and Search for Partitions:
Proceed with “Analyze” to look for lost partitions or files. - File Recovery:
Use the “List” or “Recover” options to browse files.
Select files or directories to recover and save them to a different drive.
