The machine in question belongs to a guitarist I play with, who by his
own description is not at all tech-savvy. He's been using the same rig
for home recording for the past 8 years or so: mac, OS9, some ancient
version of Cubase, Metric Halo mobile I/O. Well, he just called me in
a panic because he was trying to free up space and didn't realize that
all these mysterious AIF files are actually part of his recordings.
(See, I said not tech-savvy.) There are no backups - his backup drive
died recently and he hasn't got around to replacing it.
I'm not a Mac guy (I'm actually a Linux guy, and not an audio pro at
all, I mostly just lurk here), nor have I ever needed to have data
recovery done. What are the odds of getting any / all of those files
back? He claims to have not done anything else with the computer
since then, and has never put it on the internet or used it for
anything except recording (at least he did that much right.) I
advised him to leave it shut off until finding out what the next move
should be.
Any recommendations on who he should call? What's the ballpark cost
for data recovery like this?
> Anybody have any idea what's involved in un-deleting files from a very
> old (2003?) Mac laptop running OS9?
>
> [snip]
>
> Any recommendations on who he should call? What's the ballpark cost
> for data recovery like this?
Before shelling out for professional data recovery, he should try Data
Rescue for Macintosh -- and get a new external drive for the recovered
files. A 2003 Mac laptop ought to be able to run from the bootable
optical disc, although he might want to call or email Prosoft to confirm
this.
Why? Because, in most operating systems, file erasure simply removes the
files' index entries. The files are still there -- so writing new files to
the disk might very well overwrite the ones he's looking for.
There should be an undelete utility which displays "deleted" files and might
be able to recover them. Such utilities are generally free or cheap -- you
don't need to send the drive to a recovery lab.
This is the sort of problem that reminds one that drives should be
periodically defragmented. The defragmentation "reassembles" the scattered
file chunks, and greatly increases the chance of recovering inadvertently
deleted files.
> Anybody have any idea what's involved in un-deleting files from a very
> old (2003?) Mac laptop running OS9?
Ask on uk.comp.sys.mac they are very knowlegeable and helpful.
--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
What Neil said, and furthermore, don't write anything to the HD until
you get a shot at it all with Data Rescue. I wouldn't even use the
machine until I was able to boot it from the new external drive.
Serious HD data recovery is often expensive. As in thousands of dollars.
--
shut up and play your guitar * http://hankalrich.com/
http://www.youtube.com/walkinaymusic
http://www.sonicbids.com/HankandShaidri
First off, don't use the Mac in question until you've had a
shot at it using recovery software.
I don't believe Data Rescue (or any of the other crop of
file-recovery utilities) will run under OS 9.
IMPORTANT QUESTION:
What kind of Mac is he using?
Does it happen to have firewire?
If so, does it have "firewire target disk mode"?
This will allow you to start up the Mac in "firewire target
mode" (Mac doesn't actually boot itself, but instead turns
on in such a way that its internal drive can be connected
through firewire and accessed from an external drive).
If the above is possible, you _might_ be able to "get at"
the disk on a modern (OS X) Mac using modern file-recovery
software.
IMPORTANT:
You _will_ need an external drive of some sort to act as a
"scratch drive" regardless of what recovery software you use.
I suggest your friend get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
They are cheap (starting around $20 or so), they all work
about the same, so just pick one that's cheap.
Then, get a "bare hard drive" from whatever vendor he wishes
(I use newegg.com).
The combination of the dock and the drive will become a
useful "scratch drive". He can also use it as a backup drive
later on.
First order of business -- does his Mac have firewire target
disk mode?
He can test it by pressing the start button, and holding
down the "T" key as soon as the startup sound is heard, and
KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN.
If he has a computer that is capable of it, he should see a
"floating T" icon and nothing else on the screen.
To get out of it, just press and hold the power on button
until the computer shuts back off.
- John
First thing, you say he's not very tech savvy. I assume he tried to free
up space by deleting files that is, putting them in the trash. Is he
tech savvy enough to empty the trash?
If he didn't then just double click on the trash icon and drag the files
back out.
If he has emptied the trash, but hasn't done anything since, not even
turned the machine on, then the files still exist but they've been
flagged to be over written - so he shouldn't use the machine.
If you ask this question at comp.sys.mac.apps there's a lot of
knowledgeable people there.
Googling mac "os 9" data rescue found (amongst 1.5m results):
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10031/virtuallab-data-recovery
(have an os 9 file recovery programme)
http://www.macdiskrecovery.net/
http://www.theosquest.com/2007/05/05/data-rescue-ii-file-recovery-for-th
e-mac/
(Data rescue, they have an os 9 version)
A lot will depend on the mac laptop, whether it has a scsi drive or
something more recent, whether it runs os 9 natively or in Classic - and
he may well need another Mac to run the rescue from.
--
EmmaW
The good news is that the old OS9 filesystem actually does very little
in the background, so the files are less apt to be lost than with a more
modern system.
http://www.dtidata.com/recover_it_all_mac.htm may be worth trying
for deleted file recovery. There used to be a bunch of utilities out
there.
The experts at this are Ontrack Data Recovery. They are very expensive but
do excellent work.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Everthing it did on MS systems can now be done by the OS or free
programs anyway.
--
Tciao for Now!
John.