Jennseay0393

Q: Accidentally deleted startup disc

My startup disc was too full and I was getting error messages and computer running slow.

I went to recovery mode startup (where you hold down command and r) and then disc utility and erased the entire thing!

There was no option to just do free space, it was greyed out.

Somehow I thought it would be ok and only erase extra.

How can I get my data back? Can this be reversed and I go back to my full startup disc and then Ican save important data first then I don't mind erasing and rejsgalling mountain lion.

I did not have a time machine backup or external backup. No backup except iCloud.  Was workin on dropbox when this all happened, but apparently did not complete all of their required steps to fully activate my account.

 

Please help!!

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Oct 12, 2013 5:03 AM

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Q: Accidentally deleted startup disc

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  • by R C-R,Helpful

    R C-R R C-R Oct 12, 2013 5:20 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Oct 12, 2013 5:20 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    If you do not have a backup, there is no way to reverse the erase. If you did not use one of the secure erase options, you may be able to get some or all of your data back by using file recovery software like Data Rescue 3, otherwise there is no hope of getting it back.

     

    Note that if you want to try to recover your date, you must not do anything that will write anything to the drive, including reinstalling the OS. That means you can't start up from it or restore any of the files back to it until the process is complete, so you will need an external drive to copy the recovered files to, & possibly an external DVD reader to run the recovery software from.

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 12, 2013 5:26 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2013 5:26 AM in response to R C-R

    Oh no! There's no other disc or place that keeps files and stuff?

    So when I restart computer I go directly to Safari and Data Rescue 3 and download? Is this a free program? I have not reinstalled Lion yet. Do I have any other options?

    Thanks!

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 12, 2013 5:46 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2013 5:46 AM in response to Jennseay0393
  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 12, 2013 5:57 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2013 5:57 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    You said you backed up some data to iCloud.

    Also Apps purchased from AppleStore can be re-downloaded and most other Vendors have ways to re-install Apps.

    OS X can be re-installed.

     

    So, the question is, how much data is there that you did not back up to iCoud (i.e. pictures, music, worksheets, etc), this is what you want to try to recover with Data Rescue.

     

    Also, as you have a MacBook Air, and no system installed, by installing OS X you will write over data you are trying to recover, so you should install OS X and  Data Recovery to a USB stick (you'll need a 16GB stick, $20)

     

    Prosoft (makers od Data Rescue) have instructions on how to do this here:

    http://www.prosofteng.com/support/datarescue3-bootable-usb.php

     

    Other Data Rescue guides: http://www.prosofteng.com/support/datarescue3.php

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 12, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Tony T1

    More info on installing to a USB stick: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911??

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 12, 2013 6:24 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2013 6:24 AM in response to Tony T1

    It's been awhile since I did this, but I think all you need to do for a bootable USB with ML is to Boot into Recovery on you MacBook Air, Format the USB as GUID, then when you select Intall OS X, choose the USB to install to (this will take awhile).  Then once installed, reboot your Mac while holding the option key, and select the USB drive with OSX.  Then use Safari to go to the Data Recovery Website and install Data Recovery to the USB

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Oct 12, 2013 6:45 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Oct 12, 2013 6:45 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Jennseay0393 wrote:

    Oh no! There's no other disc or place that keeps files and stuff?

    So when I restart computer I go directly to Safari and Data Rescue 3 and download?

    The only place that keeps backups is iCloud, Time Machine, etc. If you have not been making backups there is no other place it is stored besides on the drive you erased. That's why it is so very important to regularly make backups!

     

    Also, just to be sure you understand, you cannot write anything to the drive until you have attempted to recover data from it. That means you cannot install the OS & Safari on it. That means you can't start up from it (because you erased the OS that runs the machine), or reinstall the OS from the Recovery partition, or in any way involve that drive besides reading data from it with a utility like Data Rescue 3.

     

    You will need to purchase Data Recovery 3, a suitable external drive for the recovered files, & something like a USB stick to install the OS on, like Tony T1 suggested. I suggest getting an external drive twice or larger than the capacity of your built-in drive so you can use it later for Time Machine backups.

     

    If, after reading all the Prosoft instructions, you still have questions, you can contact the company's product support -- after all, you are paying for the product so you might as well get your money's worth.

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 13, 2013 1:38 AM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2013 1:38 AM in response to Tony T1

    Thank you, that is a good question. I'm really not sure what else besides what is backed up with the cloud I need. There are a few files and data that is not extremely important, but for the most part iCloud should've take care of all of it right? I haven't tried yet, but will ASAP to go to iCloud website  (from another computer or my iPhone ) and see what was backed up. It might not be necessary, as well as cheaper to let what was erased be erased.

     

    Thank you.

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 13, 2013 1:45 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2013 1:45 AM in response to R C-R

    Yes, all of what you suggested sounds great! I know I definitely need to find another way of backing up to prevent anything like this from happening again. What an awful feeling to have your whole computer whiped out almost instantaneously!

    I think I did start back up my computer from the same disk, I will have to check. So the chances of there being any data on there is slim anyway. ? I guess there's not much I can do about it now except learn a valuable lesson.

    I will try and follow what you have suggested, thank you so much.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Oct 13, 2013 7:26 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Oct 13, 2013 7:26 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Jennseay0393 wrote:

    I think I did start back up my computer from the same disk, I will have to check. So the chances of there being any data on there is slim anyway. ?

    If you mean the internal disk in your MBA, you could not have started up from it after it was erased (except possibly in Recovery mode.)

     

    In case it isn't clear to you, the "OS" is the operating system of the computer. A computer can't do anything without an operating system except find, load, & run one. It must come from somewhere, like the hard disk drive inside a Mac, or an external USB drive. The internal drive usually has Mac OS X on it. If Lion or Mountain Lion was installed on it, it should also have a tiny little Recovery partition, which contains a "mini" version of the OS that can only run the few applications included on that partition.

     

    (A partition is a subdivision of a hard drive that acts like a separate disk. So if Mountain Lion is installed, the main partition, called the startup disk, has the Mountain Lion OS on it, & the hidden Recovery partition has the "mini" OS & the apps it can run on it.)

     

    If you erase the startup disk (which it seems you have done), the Mac can't possibly start up from it, so to do anything you have to start up from another disk, like the USB stick Tony T1 suggested. And to start up from that, it has to have an OS on it too, which is where the Recovery partition is useful. Assuming it is still on the internal hard drive, you can start up from it (by holding down the Command & R keys when you start up the Mac) & install the Mountain Lion OS on the USB drive.

     

    If instead you reinstall Mountain Lion on the regular startup disk inside your Mac, that will write over at least some of the data you might otherwise be able to recover. (When you "erase" a disk normally, the data isn't actually erased; instead, the space on the disk where that data is stored is marked as unused, so subsequent writes to the disk may use it, replacing the old data it contained with the newly written data.)

     

    Since there is no way to predict how much old data gets replaced (because it could be stored anywhere on the disk), there is no way to predict how much of it remains & could be recovered, except by using recovery software like Data Rescue 3.

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 16, 2013 9:58 PM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2013 9:58 PM in response to Jennseay0393

    The only really important data that was on my MacBook was a TextEdit document, but I think it might have been deleted already when I interrupted my attempt to use FileVault backup  because I couldn't find the document after that.

    Any chance there is my text edit document still?

    Otherwise I will go ahead and reinstall the Mac OS software and start fresh.

    Thanks.

  • by Tony T1,Helpful

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 17, 2013 2:27 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 17, 2013 2:27 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    You would have to use Data Rescue 3 to find out, but if you had your disk encrypted or used FileVault, I don't think even Data Rescue would be of any use.

  • by Jennseay0393,

    Jennseay0393 Jennseay0393 Oct 20, 2013 12:53 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 20, 2013 12:53 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Ok, so I booted my MacBook in recovery mode. From this point I have a few choices. One of them is to restore with Mac OS X base system.

    I this a good option for me? Can I recover some lost files and/or data by doing this or am I better off just reinstalling the entire Mac OS X and start from scratch. I am still new to the awesome features of my Mac, and I'm still not even sure what the Mac OS X base system is.

    Thanks

  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Oct 20, 2013 5:24 AM in response to Jennseay0393
    Level 6 (9,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 20, 2013 5:24 AM in response to Jennseay0393

    Since you "erased the entire thing", threre is nothing to recover (with OS X Recovery Mode).

    Where are you seeing Mac OS X base system

    I thought that the options were:

     

    • Restore from Time Machine Backup
    • Reinstall OS X
    • Get Online Help
    • Disk Utility
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