Extension name of Session Buddy Save File and Recovery

[Whitney Davis]

Hello,

I unfortunately experienced the issue that session buddy crashed, the only option was to "repair", then I clicked it unsuspectingly and without being warned all my data was washed with the "repair" (also mentioned in the thread https://groups.google.com/g/sessionbuddy-discuss/c/-UJRKrA8yYU/m/QiZv9LwrSvcJ). The tabs I saved included thousands of tabs of valuable research data that spans over 3-4 years, and they are extremely important to me.

Unfortunately, I don't have any system backups. The SB local data user only has new file with another new number and the data (3-4 years worth) in it is completely washed with only the last session left.

As a last ditch effort, I am attempting to use a recovery software, after scanning they came up with a list of deleted files recovered/reconstructed, but they are organized by extension names not filepaths (attached). And I have been unable to find any extension (.xxx) of the SB save data file. So may I ask if the file has any extension name on it when created so I have a target to look for?

Are there also any particular data recovery software for Mac that may be really useful? (It doesn't have to be an offical recommnedation, I am just looking for any advice.)

Also I would genuinely appreciate any other suggestions to recover my data as tremendous effort has been put into it and I value them immensely.Thank you for your assistance.

OS: MacOS 10.12

[jinta...@gmail.com]

When you lost data, you should discontinue the use of the drive it is on, then make a full disk backup. Then, you should run recovery software on the backup. This ensures the highest chance of recovery, as the deleted file might be overwritten when you continue to use the drive.

[jinta...@gmail.com]

A quick search of 'SQLite 3.x database' seemed to suggest that the file name could be the following: .sqlite, .sqlite3, .db, .db3, .s3db, .sl3

.../databases/chrome-extension_edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko_0/11: SQLite 3.x database, last written using SQLite version 3041002, file counter 1352, database pages 25389, 1st free page 14824, free pages 707, cookie 0x7, schema 4, largest root page 12, UTF-8, vacuum mode 1, version-valid-for 1352

[jinta...@gmail.com]

Update: according to the page https://www.cleverfiles.com/help/file-types/, the file extension Disk Drill use is 

• DB3 (SQLite3 Database)

[Whitney Davis]

Thank you for your reply, I have been running three recovery programs simutanously out of desperation but I guess I should stop everything and make a a full disk backup first.

For making the full disk backup, I suppose I still have to continue using the drive (on my macbook)? Because supposedly I have to manually copy everything to anther external hard disk, or am I supposed to do it in a better way? (I suppose I might spend a lot on recovery software at this point so I hope there is a free way to do this.

It also seems to me that running the recovery software on the backup ight not be the same as running the recovery softwae on the original drive.(ie restart my macbook agin to run recovery on the external drive). Because unless I make an exact copy of my macbook ssd to the external drive, it only copies the available files, so the part where the memory is "not yet occupied" (which are in fact occupied containing the deleted files I suppose?) is not copied to the external drive copy. Could you tell me if I am getting something wrong here, or there is some way to copy the macbook SSD entirely including the deleted files to an external drive? Thanks again.

[Whitney Davis]

So does this imply that the file with no extension is a SQLite 3.x database, and these SQLite databses could also be in the form of sqlite, .sqlite3, .db, .db3, .s3db, .sl3 etc apart from having no extension name?

Then when Disk Drill encouteres a SQLite 3.x database no matter in what form it sees, it will split the recovered database out in a DB3 form?

[jinta...@gmail.com]

When I say a full disk backup, I mean a block-level copy, such as using dd or ddrescue. 

Are you using a macbook with SSD? If so, you can give up now. APFS trim deleted blocks automatically, so it's extremely likely that your database is already gone. I encountered a similar issue (accidentally wipe partition) before and several recovery services advised that they are unable to recover data deleted on SSD based on current technology. 

IMPORTANT: APFS trims automatically on mount and your data will be gone for sure. Do not boot into macOS or access the disk using macOS before you make a backup.

If the data is extremely important to you, you might consider doing the following:

1. immediately hard shut down your mac

2. boot in target disk mode

3. connect your macbook to a linux machine, then perform a full disk copy

You might then want to attempt recovery on your own or send in the backup to a lab for data recovery.

[R Wa]

Thank you for suggesting a pragmatic free usable tool like dd and ddrescue.

Luckily I am still on an ancient macos 10.12 which uses HFS+ (APFS begins in 10.13)..

I have already shut down my mac. If I use proceed to use a linux machine to make a copy, can i instead use a windows and install linux on it with some sort of parallel program or dual bbbboot or virtual machine, then use that virtual machine or the linux OS part to perform the copying? Is it supposedly the same?

Also after performing the 3 steps to make an exact copy supposedly I can reboot  my macbook and continue to use it, right?

Furthermore, since you also encountered this issue, I guess you also felt the importance of regular backups at the moment just as I did now. Do you have any recommendations for good Mac Backup software (only one I heard of is CarbonCopy Cloner) or simply use time machine going forward?

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