formatting external drives

Question

Alicat2018 Author

Level 1

8 points

formatting external drives

Stupid mistake! Whilst trying to format a flash drive in MS Dos, I stupidly clicked on MY 2 TB external hard drive that carries all my pictures that are in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Within 2 seconds I realised my mistake and cancelled the action and then ejected my hard drive and switched my computer off.

Now I have rebooted and attached my hard drive which has now come up in MS Dos, showing there is plenty of data still on it but I cannot view it!

How do I change my hard drive back to Mac Os Extended without losing the data on it and thereby allowing me to view my pictures again??

Please help!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, MB Pro Retina 13-inch Early 2015

Posted on Mar 11, 2018 4:11 AM

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Answer 1

Alicat2018 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 11, 2018 9:45 AM in response to Eric Root

It is not partitioned. The disk shows in Disk utility. Please see pics.

I am a real layman - so my question is - if I got into Disk Utility and select my external hard drive and click Erase and change the format to Mac Extended and go erase and cancel the process after a second - will that then change the Disk back to Mac Extended and allow me to view the data? Maybe I am being too simple? And yes I might lose some data in the process but would it work? Am I clutching at straws?!

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Mar 11, 2018 8:14 AM in response to Alicat2018

More possibilities.

Data Recovery – Best

Data Recovery – Disk Drill

Data Recovery – File Salvage

Data Recovery – Stellar Phoenix

Data Recovery - uFlysoft

Data Recovery - Recovering Deleted Files

Data Recovery - Recovering Deleted Files (2)

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Answer 3

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Mar 11, 2018 5:27 AM in response to Alicat2018

You're going to have to try to recover the data before you do anything else. Data recovery software might be able to do it, I recommend https://www.prosofteng.com/mac-data-recovery/

Professional data recovery could cost thousands, are your pictures worth that? If you had kept a backup you could have simply restored from that.

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Answer 4

Alicat2018 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 11, 2018 8:55 AM in response to Alicat2018

The interesting thing for me is that it is actually a 4TB drive and I had about 2TB of data on it. And when I check how much space is left on it, it shows around 2TB. So the data is there. Has it somehow become partitioned?

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Answer 5

Alicat2018 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 11, 2018 5:34 AM in response to SeaPapp

Thanks for the response. I do actually have a back up of that drive but only up to July last year (!!). Foolish I know.

I will have a look at the link you mention.

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Answer 6

Alicat2018 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 11, 2018 8:53 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks. Will have a look.

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Answer 7

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Mar 11, 2018 9:31 AM in response to Alicat2018

If it has 2 TB of free space, it doesn't sound like it is partitioned. Open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility to see if the drive shows there and to see how many partitions there are.

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