If you are unable to boot up your Mac in order to try any of our suggestions in the story lined to above, your next port of call is a data recovery app. Luckily there are a few options here, some of which have trial versions that may be able to recover some files, and should, at least, be able to indicate that it will be possible to recover what you need before you pay a penny.
Key attribute of an ideal mac data recovery software : Recovers all types of data Photos, Videos, Documents, Audio, Emails, Archives, etc.
Let’s check a few of the apps: You can download the basic version of 508 Software (aka Cleverfiles) Disk Drill for free to find out what data is recoverable, including details about file names and modification date. You may also be able to preview the lost documents in order to confirm that they arent corrupted. But you will need to update to Disk Drill Pro to perform deep scans, export the data, catalogue rebuild, and search lost partitions.
The free version can also back up failing volumes to a disk image backup as a DMG on an external drive.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery
This data recovery Mac software has a personal edition that is free for use only on one computer and with a maximum restore capacity of 100MB. Is that why its called a Mini Tool? Possibly. The developer also offers commercial, enterprise and technician editions of the software.
MiniTool can recover photos, music, videos, emails, documents, and other types of data from Mac computers or other common storage devices. The free version only offers support via email.
This data recovery software for Mac works in four different modes. The first, Undelete Recovery, can be used to quickly recover data lost due to accidental deletion. The second, Damaged Partition Recovery, recovers lost data from existing partitions. The third, Lost Partition Recovery, recovers lost data from lost or deleted partitions, subject to success in finding them. And finally, the Digital Media Recovery mode, recovers multimedia files from portable storage devices.
Overall, MiniTool offers a valid option for the casual accidental delete, in cases that dont involve big volumes.
What we recommend:
Do Your Data Recovery for Mac Free 6.7 – Efficient free Mac data recovery software to completely recover lost files from Mac hard drive or storage device due to deleting, formatting, volume loss, OS crash, power failure etc. https://www.doyourdata.com/mac-data-recovery-software/free-mac-data-recovery-software.html. Do Your Data Recovery for Mac Free is the most reliable free Mac file recovery software that can recover lost files from both Mac machines and storage media. It is very simple to use, only three steps to get your lost files back.
Step 1: Select file types that you want to recover – All File Types are selected by default. If you only want to recover one or two or three etc file types of files, please select them on the interface. For example, if you only want to recover photos, you just only select ‘Images’, then the program will scan your drive or device and find only photos/images for you. It will save your time and get more focused scanning results.
Step 2: Select the drive or device where you lost files – Select the drive or device where you lost your files to start scanning. You can recover lost files from local/external Mac hard drive, as well as retrieve lost files from SD card, USB drive, digital camera, memory card or other storage media. You can even recover lost files from deleted/lost Mac volumes.
Step 3: Preview the files and recover them – You can preview the files to check their quality before recovery. Then recover what you want and save them on your computer or storage device. Please don’t save the found files on the disk where you lost your data, in case you overwrite the original data.
Do Your Data Recovery for Mac is a simple piece of Mac recovery software with a clean, intuitive interface and quick scan and recovery speeds. More info on Award-winning Mac Data Recovery Freeware.