Files and directories in Downloads directory missing after accidentally removing thumb drive

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bomgaroto Author

Level 1

8 points

Files and directories in Downloads directory missing after accidentally removing thumb drive

Hi, I plugged in my Toshiba USB thumb drive into my Macbook Pro.

And then from the downloads directory, I copied several files and directories.

And then pasted with the Option button.

That is, I moved the files to the USB drive. But as I was in a hurry, I accidentally removed the USB drive!

Now I there are files in the Toshiba drive that are greyed out and have size 0 bytes.

And the original files and directories in the Mac are gone!

Should not Mac OS store these files someone in cache. And only when the files are successfully moved, remove them from the Mac?

How can I recover my files and directories?

Posted on Apr 27, 2020 4:34 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

bomgaroto Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 28, 2020 4:22 AM in response to bomgaroto

Sorry. I searched in the Toshiba USB Thumbdrive. The timestamp directory was actually created in the Thumbdrive and not the Downloads directory in the HD. Maybe the MacOS found the USB drive and continued with its move operation until all the files were moved successfully.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

60,284 points

Apr 27, 2020 11:19 AM in response to bomgaroto

If you were "moving" the files instead of copying then it seems like they are gone. Ideally the original files should remain on the drive until the new copy has been confirmed, but things don't always work as expected.

Restore the missing files from a backup. If you don't have a backup then check to see if you have them stored in the cloud.

FYI, I would never trust a USB thumb drive with the only copy of my files as USB sticks very unreliable.

If you don't have a backup and your laptop has an internal hard drive, then stop using the laptop immediately so you don't overwrite the missing files. Try booting from an external drive so you can use a data recovery app such as Data Rescue to recover the files. If your laptop uses an SSD, then the data is most likely cannot be retrieved from the SSD due to how SSDs work.

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Answer 3

bomgaroto Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2020 10:47 PM in response to HWTech

My problem is resolved. After I removed the USB thumb drive, I had immediately put in back in the adaptor slot.

About an hour after I posted my question, I did a search for a missing directory in the Downloads directory in the MacIntosh HD.

I was so glad that the missing directory was found in a sub-directory named by a timestamp. I don't know how it ended up there.

Maybe the Mac OS placed the files after it recognized that the move operation failed. I am so glad I got my files and directories back.

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Files and directories in Downloads directory missing after accidentally removing thumb drive

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