Mac's hard drive, also known as Macintosh HD, is the primary storage device or database where Mac users save their system and data. Over the years, macOS or Mac OS X has been dedicated to providing the best protection for Mac hard drive to prevent data loss. However, there may be times when your Macintosh HD fails to boot and requires a macOS reinstallation. In this article, you'll first learn how to download Macintosh HD using macOS Recovery on either an internal or external drive. Then, you'll see how to recover data from Macintosh HD with professional Macintosh HD data recovery software – Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.
Many users are confused about the difference between Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data. Here we will explain it briefly. It's necessary to know about it before downloading to or recovering data from Macintosh HD.
On most Macs, whether an iMac or MacBook, the default setup is to have one disk, called Macintosh HD. Macintosh HD stores your system and system support files, which you can't access. The Mac HD - Data stores your files and apps, which you can access like you would with a volume in an older system. Both Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data are on the same physical disk.
macOS Recovery is part of the built-in recovery system on your Mac. You can start up from macOS Recovery and use it to restore from Time Machine, reinstall macOS, get online help, repair or erase your hard drive, and more. Follow these instructions to download Macintosh HD on your Mac now.
Step 1: Start up your Mac from macOS Recovery
Turn on your Mac, then immediately press one of the following key combinations on your keyboard: Command(⌘)-R, Option-⌘-R, or Shift-Option-⌘-R. If prompted, enter your password.
When you see a utility window like the one shown below, you've booted into macOS Recovery.
Step 2: Choose whether to erase (format) the disk
If you're selling, trading, or giving away your Mac, or if you need to erase all content and settings because of an issue, you can choose to erase your computer. Click “Disk Utility” > “Continue,” then follow the on-screen instructions.
Since erasing a disk removes all of its data and renders it unrecoverable, you should think twice before proceeding.
Step 3: Install macOS
You can skip to step 2 and choose Reinstall macOS to start reinstalling macOS right away. Follow the onscreen instructions.
You can also download macOS from the App Store or Software Update preferences. Or you can create a bootable installer disk and use it to install macOS on your Mac or another Mac.
Tip: If you have any queries regarding "Does recovery mode delete everything when reinstalling Mac OS X?" read the article to get your answers.
While you can use the macOS Recovery feature to reinstall macOS or Mac OS X without losing user data, it seems that you can't avoid losing important photos, documents, emails, or videos on your Macintosh HD if you've formatted the disk with Disk Utility in HD Recovery. So, how to solve this problem? How to recover lost files from Mac? Now, you can directly fix all these issues with professional Macintosh HD data recovery software – tools Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.
Mac Data Recovery Wizard is a user-friendly and reliable data recovery solution for Mac users. It can recover over 200 types of data from your Mac's built-in hard drive as well as various external media storage devices. It is compatible with multiple versions of macOS, ranging from OS X 10.9 to the latest macOS 10.15.
Only three steps would resolve the hassle of data loss from Macintosh HD.
Step 1: Search for the missing file
On macOS Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, and the latest Ventura, select the disk location where you lost the file (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device). Then, click the “Search for Lost Files” button.
Step 2: Browse the scan results
Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will scan the disk volume you select immediately, and display the scanning results.
Step 3. Select the files and recover them
Select the files(s) you want to preview from the scan results, and then click the “Recover” button to get them back.
Apart from retrieving lost data from Macintosh HD disk, Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can well help you with file loss due to:
How to Install a Fresh Copy of OS X on Your Mac
Step 1: Turn off your Mac.
Step 2: Press the power button.
Step 3: Hold down the “Command” and “R” keys immediately.
Step 4: Make sure you're connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi.
Step 5: Select Install Mac OS X and click Continue.
In the Finder, both volumes appear as Macintosh HD. The Disk Utility app in macOS Catalina shows that Macintosh HD is the read-only System volume, and that Macintosh HD – Data contains the rest of your files and data.
Add “Macintosh HD” to the Finder sidebar
Step 1: Open Finder on your Mac.
Step 2: Click on “Finder” in the menu bar, and then click “Preferences.”
Step 3: Click the “Sidebar” tab in Finder Preferences.
4. Click the “Hard Disk” option under “Show these items in the sidebar.”