Mac Hard Drive Recovery: Restore Files from Internal/External Hard Drive on macOS

Part 1: How to Recover Files from Mac Hard Drive

Losing important business files, music, photos, or videos from your Mac or Windows PC can be utterly devastating. The good news is that tools like a Mac data recovery software make data recovery simple. These utilities can quickly get the job done when you need to recover files from a Mac hard drive – either internal or external.

What Can Cause Data Loss from Mac Hard Drive?

Generally, you may lose data from Mac hard drive due to the following reasons:

• Reinstalling or upgrading macOS/Mac OS X
• Corrupted hard drive file system
• Accidental reformatting of the hard drive without a backup
• Loss of partitions due to improper operations
• Damaged partition table, making data on the hard drive inaccessible
• Malware or ransomware attack...

No matter which issue you encounter, the most effective and reliable solution is to use Mac data recovery software. And Data Recovery Wizard is a smart choice that can help you retrieve over 200 types of files from your Mac hard drive with a high success rate.

How to Recover Files From Any Mac, MacBook, or iMac

With a Mac data recovery tool, recovering permanently deleted or lost data from your Mac hard drive is no more an issue. Plus, you have the liberty to choose to restore files to the original built-in Mac hard drive, a secure external hard drive, or even recover data from Mac hard drive to PC.

Recover Lost Files from External Hard Drive on Mac:

Step 1: Search for the Lost File

On macOS Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, and the latest Ventura, select the disk location where you want to search for the lost file (this can be your internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device). Click the “Start Lost File Search” button.

Step 2: Preview the scan result

Data Recovery Wizard immediately scans the selected disk volume and displays the scanning results.

Step 3: Select the files and recover them.

Select the files you want to preview from the scan results, and then click the “Recover” button to get them back.

What else can Tool Mac Hard Drive Recovery do for you?

Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is an ultimate tool that's friendly and easy to use for all regular computer users, no advanced tech skills required. With just a few clicks, you can use this software to recover unlimited data from your macOS or Mac OS X device.

- Excellent System Compatibility: Works well on all new and old operating systems, from Mac OS X 10.9 to the latest macOS 10.15 (Catalina). - Full File System Support: Recovers data from NTFS, HFS, HFS+, HFSX, HFS Wrapper, FAT hard drives, as well as APFS Drive Data Recovery. - Powerful Data Recovery Ability: Besides hard disks, this software also enables you to recover data from emptied Trash, USB drives, flash drives, SD cards, digital cameras, etc. - Multiple Data File Types Recovery: Supports over 200 file types, including deleted Word / Excel / PPT, photos, videos, music, and other files from both internal/external Mac hard drives.

Part 2: How to Fix an Undetected or Damaged Mac Hard Drive

When your Mac power fails and it crashes, there can be issues. Your Mac hard drive might crash, or an external hard drive might not be detected. To fix Mac hard drive errors, we have the solutions below.

Method 1: Repair Your Mac Hard Drive with Disk Utility

Step 1: Restart your macOS while holding down "Command + R."

Step 2. Launch Recovery Mode. Click on “Disk Utility.”

Step 3: Select the non-working Mac hard drive and run First Aid to repair a damaged Mac hard drive.

In most cases, your hard drive can be successfully repaired.

Method 2: Repair the Mac Startup Disk with FSCK

When Disk Utility can't fix a problem, you can use the FSCK command. FSCK stands for “file system consistency check,” and it's a command-line tool for examining and repairing the low-level structure of a hard drive.

Step 1: Restart your Mac and press “Command + S” to enter Single User Mode.

Step 2: Type in the following command: /sbin/fsck_hfs -fy and press “Enter.”

The command line can analyze the Macintosh HD and return messages about what it did.

While FSCK is repairing a damaged disk drive, it displays the message “Volume (name) appears to be OK.” Run FSCK again until the file system is repaired.

Method 3: Other Quick Fixes to Try

If none of the above work, try these quick fixes to repair your Mac's HDD.

1. Format HFS Drive

1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive you want to format.
2. Click “Erase” and select exFAT as the volume format.

2. Connect the Mac hard drive to the PC

If your hard drive isn't being detected, you may need to remove it from its enclosure and connect it directly to your computer.

• Safely eject the internal Macintosh HD from your Mac. • Get an external hard drive enclosure. • Place the drive in the enclosure and connect it to your computer with a USB cable.

Now you can check your hard drive and copy over any data you need.

3. Recover Data from Mac Hard Drive Again

Tool Data Recovery is an advanced software that supports hard drive recovery for APFS, HFS, and HFS+ formats. It helps retrieve data from your computer's hard drive, USB drives, external hard disks, or any other device you use to store data. It's the best hard drive recovery software for both Windows and Mac computers. For a complete guide, refer to Part 1.

In summary,

With the Data Recovery Wizard tool, it's a breeze to recover data from Mac hard drive. You can quickly restore Mac hard drive data on either Windows or Mac based system. By the way, always create a backup of your data. It's always better to have a backup of important files.

People also ask about – issues related to Mac hard drive recovery.

What is the best data recovery software for Mac? How long does the data recovery process take? You can find the answers here.

What is the best data recovery software for Mac?

Here is a list of the five best data recovery software for macOS: Best Data Recovery Software for macOS.

• Data Recovery Wizard
• Stellar Data Recovery Professional
• Disk Drill
• Data Rescue 5
• Ontrack EasyRecovery

How to recover files for free on Mac?

Recover Lost Files from External Hard Drive on Mac:

Step 1: Download and install the Mac hard drive recovery software.

Step 2. Select the disk location and click on the "Scan" button.

Step 3: Select the files and click on the “Recover Now” button to get them back.

How long does data recovery take?

The time it takes for data recovery depends on the scope and type of recovery being performed. The amount of data being recovered also affects the speed of the process.

How does data recovery software work?

Data recovery takes advantage of the way modern operating systems perform deletion. When a file is deleted, it is marked as inaccessible, and its storage space is freed up by the system when needed. However, the file still physically exists on the disk and can be recovered using specialized data recovery software.