Macbook replaced my 100 GB folder with an empty one!

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Level 1

4 points

Macbook replaced my 100 GB folder with an empty one!

I was transferring my files from one of my external hard disks to another one ( and this wan't my time doing this, but first experience with my new fast macbook)

so the point is, there was an empty folder with no size alongside other folders which i dragged there and were moving and there was a folder with the exact same name in the distenation and the huge folder's content disappeared immediately! I am wondering how this ((phenomenal)) os of apple managed to deleted the whole 100 GB in a sec 😐 and there's no way to get it back even with recovery tools!! How is that the system choose 0 bytes over 100 GBs. Am I nuts to do this?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Sep 3, 2015 11:20 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

215,754 points

Sep 3, 2015 11:29 AM in response to aeirya

You told the system to replace the 100 GB folder with the 0 bytes folder and it did. It just followed your instructions. However, the files that were in the 100 G folder should still be on the drive if they haven't been overwritten and should be recoverable. They just aren't listen in the directory file for the EHD.

there's no way to get it back even with recovery tools!!

Did you try a recovery tool? What happened? How is the EHD formatted?

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Sep 3, 2015 11:31 AM in response to aeirya

Apparently, you didn't read the prompts. OS X (and most UNIX based file systems) do not behave like Windows.

If a if you copy a folder named "A" from one drive to another, and a folder named "A" already exists on the destination, the source will replace the folder on the destination. The two folders are not 'merged' as they are if you try the same operation in Windows.

As for how to get it back, that's what backups are for.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Sep 3, 2015 11:39 AM in response to aeirya

When you move or copy folders ones that exist in the destination already will be replaced - the Finder does not choose based on size or any other criteria. It simply replaces the same named items, in the case of a folders that includes all enclosed content.

If you want to merge files or folders you can use a third party application, such as ChronoSync or a command line tool such as rsync or ditto.

http://econtechnologies.com/

Other ideas & explanations…

http://superuser.com/questions/117621/how-to-merge-and-not-replace-folders-when- copying-on-the-mac

Recovery tools should be able to find the files (via file carving) however the filenames may be reset so the files that get recovered may simply be randomly named. You will need another disk to recover onto to avoid overwriting the deleted files. It is a large involved task to recover data, but it may be possible to get some back if desired.

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