

When a file is deleted on Mac, the metadata associated with it (including original file name and other attributes) might be lost unless a backup is taken. Then again, not all recovery solutions can restore the file in the exact same state as it was before deletion. The difference lies in the user experience, speed of disk scan, and additional features offered by each of them. As far as data recovery is concerned, most of the popular recovery solutions give almost similar results. The results may then be filtered by file location or type.ĭata recovery solutions for OS X usually provide a set of common features, such as disk scanning (quick and deep scan modes), listing of scanned files, file preview, and file recovery. It is only after scanning through all the disk sectors on which a particular file is fragmented across, that a certain recovery solution can list the file in the scan results. The actual data can reside anywhere on the hard drive even be fragmented across several sectors.

The directory structure is only a logical representation of the stored files, as provided by the Operating System. However, it is not possible to scan only particular folders for lost or deleted files. The software even allows users to scan specific folders and recover data. It supports quick and deep scan modes for recovering deleted files from internal and external storage devices. Recuva is a decent data recovery software for Windows that allows you to scan and recover deleted files and folders for free.
