General Question

divinepk3r's avatar

Lost external hard drive files due to "partition"?

Asked by divinepk3r (373points) March 2nd, 2019

Hello everyone,
Earlier today, I tried to transfer photos from my sister’s mac to an external hard drive. After figuring out it was not working because of the files formats was different, I tried to reformat the external hard drive by clicking on “partition”. Afterwards, I clicked on the AFPS format and clicked to reformat. As a result, my external hard drive has been entirely wiped of its 800gb data which I really need to recover.
Two obstacles I’ve encountered so far are the fact that the external hard drive is now encrypted and I’m unable to see it on my window laptop.
Secondly, when I try to recover files through the mac using softwares, it cost ridiculous amounts.
Are there any free ways to recover files in this situation?
Thank in advance!

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

3 Answers

Yellowdog's avatar

Well, I’m sure you know, that ‘reformatting’ is what did you in.

Don’t do ANYTHING to it right now, and get professional help recovering the lost data. It may not be as expensive as you think.

My father, who taught at a well known technical school, helped me recover my files in pieces some years ago. It may be tedious or it may be relatively easy for some but I’m sure its a common occurrence they’ve dealt with before

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

1)
First I would try utilities like these
Lifehacker – The Best Free Data Recovery Tools [2017]

2)
Otherwise, if it is encrypted, and you do not have the key, it’s gone. I would look instead on any other places the files may exist.

Other drives, other computers, USB sticks, cameras, phones, etc.

Response moderated (Spam)

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther