Data recovery from a erased hard drive

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Level 1

19 points

Data recovery from a erased hard drive

So i have a older MacBook Air with a hard drive, that was acting up, (slow, gagging on files etc.). i took it too the Apple Store and visited the Geniuses.

I incorrectly thought that Time Machine was backed up to iCloud as well as all my various back-ups. I was wrong. So when asked about back-ups I said "yes, using iCloud and back-up folders" so we continued to erase my whole drive and reinstall the OS system and then reload from the cloud.

Well, when it moved everything back on the laptop, many, many, many things were not there. Lots of stufff I don't care about was. All my personal finance and business files were gone. Old email that i thought I had archived were gone etc, etc.

So, i had the drive recovered and I now have a storage drive with a whole bunch of recovered files that I don't recognize and can't open. Any thoughts on how i can find Quicken and Quickbooks files that are maybe there.

Any thoughts on finding my data. And yes, I know i didn't back it up right and iCloud doesn't work the way it does with iPhones and iPads. So, save the lectures.

MacBook Air (2018 – 2020)

Posted on Apr 2, 2025 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 2, 2025 8:18 PM in response to Crain Smith

When data recovery software retrieves data from a low level extended scan, most of the data recovered will lose all of its file names & folder structures. You will need to manually go through each & every item. Since MBAirs all use SSDs (at least all but the original MBAir), there is no way to recover data from an erased SSD due to how SSDs work. All that was recovered will be items from after macOS was reinstalled and restored from a backup. Most of those files are probably temp & cache files from using the computer since it was restored.

I cannot believe any reputable data recovery service would have even offered to provide service if you informed them of the situation.

FYI, iCloud is not a backup for macOS (iCloud is a backup option for iPhones/iPads). iCloud is just a file syncing service.

It is unfortunate your Time Machine backups were not sufficient. Many people prefer to have multiple backup methods just in case one method has a glitch, then there is a chance the other method won't have that same glitch. While TM is easy to use and is a good option for many people, TM does have some issues & limitations so a third party backup option may be needed or preferred by some users. Many contributors on this forum utilize the third party backup software Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

229,464 points

Apr 2, 2025 11:24 AM in response to Crain Smith

It's extremely unlikely you will be able to do so.

Ask whoever "recovered" the drive.

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Data recovery from a erased hard drive

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