Files lost while transferring to External Hard Drive

Question

Level 1

12 points

Files lost while transferring to External Hard Drive

My wife was transferring some files from her Macbook Pro to our external hard drive the other day and ended up cancelling the transfer. Normally, the files stay on the Macbook regardless. (We have done this for years) However, something has changed. Upon cancelling the trasfer, the files completely disappeared from the Macbook and since they didn't completely transfer to the external hard drives they aren't there either.

Any thoughts on why this would happen or where the files ended up? Has some setting changed?

In need of help,

mozingo

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on May 1, 2016 6:57 AM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

May 1, 2016 7:03 AM in response to yomozingo

What method do you use to do the transfer and is this a Time Machine Volume, a clone, or other?

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Answer 2

yomozingo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 1, 2016 7:36 AM in response to macjack

Click and drag method. External HD is Not Time Machine and not a clone. It is a Seagate HD we use to back up photographs to keep Mac Book Hard Drive from being too full.

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Answer 3

May 1, 2016 8:10 AM in response to yomozingo

Don't know if this will work in your case but it might be worth a try:

Start Finder, and from top menu, select Edit.

See if there is something listed to Undo Move.

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Answer 4

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

May 1, 2016 8:37 AM in response to yomozingo

OK got 'ya. Sounds like you unintentionally dropped them somewhere else. Do a Spotlight search for them.

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Answer 5

yomozingo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 1, 2016 10:57 AM in response to KimUserName

Just checked. Nothing to undo. This happened 2 nights ago. We have had a busy couple of days and have used the Macbook to do a lot of work in the meantime.

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Answer 6

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 1, 2016 11:05 AM in response to yomozingo

Sometimes Spotlight does not provide the desired results and I have found the EasyFind often can.

http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html

It is an excellent search application.

Ciao.

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Answer 7

yomozingo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 1, 2016 11:19 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Finder and Easy Find app showed no results.

So what could have changed? In the past, we have often stopped transferring some folders after clicking on them and dragging them to external HD but the original would simply remain in its original place on Macbook. Are their certain settings that control these kind of responses?

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Answer 8

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

May 1, 2016 11:24 AM in response to yomozingo

Yes a command+drag is a move. If you did that and then canceled the copy it could have happened.

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