How to Use Recoverit for Mac

Recoverit Data Recovery can recover 1000+ types and formats of data from all storage devices in a variety of data loss situations. The main file types can be photos, videos, audios, documents, archives, emails and many more. The storage devices include Windows or Mac hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SSD, digital camera, Drone camera, SD card, CF card, etc.

1. Launch Recoverit on Mac

Before retrieving data on Mac, what we need to do is to let Recoverit run on your Mac. To launch the software, please follow the next simple steps.

• Double click the “Recoverit” icon on the Mac Desktop.
• Not there? Please go to “Finder” > “Applications” > “Recoverit” and double click the software.
• For those who set a password, please input the password and press “Enter” or “Return” to enable Recoverit.

It will take a few seconds to initiate the Mac data recovery program. To recover data on a computer, please follow the 3 steps.

• Select a location
• Scan the location
• Preview & Recover

2. Recover Files on Mac

Generally, the steps on recovering data are very similar no matter which kind of computer you own, Windows or Mac.

To recover data on a computer, please follow the 3 steps.

• Select a location
• Scan the location
• Preview and recover data

However, if your Mac is using the HFS+ file system, it doesn’t allow any program to combine all the data stored on a Mac. So Recoverit provides two kinds of scan modes, namely the all-around scan and deep scan.

Step 1 Select a device

Launch Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer

To recover data from Mac computer, please select a drive under the "Devices" tab or "Desktop" under the "Select location" tab. Click the "Start" button to move forward.

If you know the exact file path of your lost data, you can also choose "Select Folder" under the "Select location" tab. Click "Start" to go on.

Step 2 Scan the location

Recoverit will start an all-around scan. With the advanced scanning and searching algorithm, all your lost, deleted or formatted data can be found.

You can pause or stop the scanning process if you find your data at any time.

Can't find files on HFS+ Mac? Try Deep Scan.

For a Mac with an HFS+ file system, there are two scan modes. After the all-around scan, you can try the deep scan mode on the bottom of the scanning interface. The deep scan can deep dig into the selected device or location to search for all lost data on Mac.

Step 3 Preview and recover files

Recoverit allows users to preview the recoverable files before proceeding the recovery step. You can select the targeted files and click the "Recover" button to retrieve your files back.

1 Preview files on Mac

Recoverit offers four options of previewing undamaged data on Mac

• Thumbnails
• Click the "Preview" button on the right panel
• Double click a single file from the result menu
• Toggle the two preview angles -

As long as the file can be viewed on Mac and it is smaller than 15 MB, Recoverit can help you preview the files on Mac

Preview an image

Preview a video

Preview an audio file

Preview a Word document

Preview an Excel file

Preview a PDF document

2Recover and save Mac files

Once you preview data and confirm they are what you want, you can click on the "Recover" button to restore all of them back. Select a different location to save the recovered files.

Please do not save the files into the hard disk where you deleted or lost the data, in case of the data overwriting

Note: The steps are true of recovering data from Mac computer internal hard drive. If you need to get data back from Mac Trash, external devices or crashed Mac computer, please read a little further.

3. Recover Files from Emptied Trash

Every time you delete a file temporarily, it will leave a copy on the Mac Trash. You can usually go to the Mac Trash to restore it. However, if you delete files permanently or empty the Trash, Recoverit becomes an indispensable tool for you to get them back.

The data present on the Mac Trash can come from different sectors, partitions, hard drives or even external devices connected on Mac. Thus, scanning the Mac Trash for all data will require a much very long time and bring some burden on your Mac.

To fix the problem, Recoverit offers 2 kinds of recovery modes, namely quick recovery and all-around recovery. The quick recovery mode is to scan some frequently used files on the Trash, while the all-around recovery mode can do the deep scan and even dig out the system files.

Step 1 Select the Trash

To restore Trash and retrieve deleted files from emptied Trash, select the "Trash" under the "Select location" tab. Click "Start" to go on.

Step 2 Scan the Trash

When it comes to Mac Trash recovery, there are two kinds of recovery modes. The quick scan will be initiated first. It will take you a few minutes to finish it.

Can't find files on Mac Trash? Try All-Around Recovery.

If you cannot find the deleted or lost files, you can try the "All-Around Recovery" option on the bottom. It will scan and search for more files from emptied Trash deeply, although a longer time is needed.

Step 3 Preview and recover your data

After the scanning, you can locate, preview and select files before recovery. Finally, click "Recover" to retrieve the files back.

1 Locate Files

Once the scan is completed, you can utilize the below features to locate some specific data more quickly.

• File Path and File Type
• Show all files
• Search box
• File modified date
• Thumbnails

2 Preview files with Recoverit

Recoverit supports to preview different types and format data, falling back on different options.

• Thumbnails
• The "Preview" button
• "Double click a file
• Toggle the preview ways

3 Recover and save files from Mac Trash

Then, you can select the targeted files and click "Recover" button to retrieve your data back from Trash.

After recovering files, please do not save them into the same location. A different device like external hard drive is recommended.

4. Recover Files from External Devices

Once you find the data stored on an external device gets lost, don’t worry! Recoverit can help you recover lost data from an external media on Windows or Mac computer. Regardless of the type and model of the external device, you stand a good chance of getting them back using Recoverit. For example, external hard disks, memory cards, cameras, music players, pen drive, etc.

Step 1 Select the external media

To recover lost or deleted files from an external media, you should choose it as the target location for data scanning and searching.

Step 2 Scan the removable media

An all-around scan starts once you make the choice. It usually takes a few minutes.

During the process, you can filter and locate files of your choice.

Step 3 Preview and recover files

After it, Recoverit provides the preview function for you before recovery. A variety of files can be previewed, such as pictures, videos, movies, audios, music, documents, and so forth.

Then, select one or more files you want to restore and click "Recover" to get all of them back.

5. Recover Data from Crashed Mac

Mac computer is less vulnerable to system crash compared to Windows computer. However, it does not mean the Mac crash will never happen. To recover data from a crashed or unbootable Mac, you need to boot it up at first.

Step 1 Preparations for Mac Crash Recovery

• A blank USB flash drive or CD/DVD
• A new computer that is working normally
• Connect the bootable media to the new computer

Step 2 Create a bootable media

To recover lost data on a crashed Mac, you have to use Recoverit to create a bootable drive for starting the Mac up. The below steps can help you do that.

1 Select Mac Crash Recovery

The first step is to launch the data recovery software on the new computer and choose "Recover from Crash Computer" under the last tab. Click "Start" to go on.

2 Start creating a bootable drive

Recoverit can be used to create a bootable media to help you extract data from a crashed system.

• Create a bootable drive to recover data when Mac system is unable to launch.
• Click the "Start" button to get started.

3 Select a USB drive

Please insert a USB drive to create a bootable media drive. Once you connect it to your working computer, it will show beside the "Bootable Media Drive" tab. Insert more than one external drives? Click the arrow to view the drop-down menu and choose a blank one. Click "Start" to go on.

4 Backup and format data

To ensure the enough space on the USB drive, it will be formatted, and thus, all the data present on it will be wiped. So back up important files in advance.

Click "Format" and the next interface will show you the procedure of formatting the USB drive.

5 Creating the bootable media

After the drive formatting, Recoverit starts creating the bootable media drive on Mac. During the process, do not remove the USB flash drive out of your Mac computer.

6 Finish creating bootable media

Usually a few minutes later, the bootable USB flash drive will be created. And you can receive a guide to retrieving your data back.

1. Plug in the bootable media drive to the unbootable Mac and restart it
2. Press and hold the Option key when restarting the computer.
3. Select Recoverit Bootable Media Drive when it appears.

Step 3 Recover lost data from crashed Mac

Now, you have created a bootable USB drive to start the crashed Mac up. You can follow the next 3 steps to begin data recovery.

1 Select a hard disk

You need to select a hard disk or device as the location for scanning and searching. Usually, to extract lost data from a crashed Mac, you can select the hard disk under the "Devices" tab.

If you just want to recover lost data from a specific folder, you can tick "Select Folder" under the "Select location" tab and input the concrete file path. Then, click "Start" to move on.

2 Scan the hard disk

A quick but all-around scan will be initiated immediately. It will last for a few minutes.

But for a Mac based on HFS+ file system, you can also turn to the deep scan to more thoroughly dig into the device for lost files.

3 Preview and recover data

After the scan, you can preview the files in different formats and types. Then, select the data you want and click "Recover" to get all of them back. Please do not save them in the same location to avoid data overwriting.