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Help! I need to recover data from external hard drive on Mac
Quote from sorotkin81 on April 12, 2026, 5:50 pmOk, does anyone know how to recover deleted files from an external hard drive on a Mac? I’ve got a Seagate 4TB external HDD (almost full, lots of personal stuff), and I somehow managed to lose everything. Not sure what exactly happened, but now all files are gone. Any help would be appreciated!1
Ok, does anyone know how to recover deleted files from an external hard drive on a Mac? I’ve got a Seagate 4TB external HDD (almost full, lots of personal stuff), and I somehow managed to lose everything. Not sure what exactly happened, but now all files are gone. Any help would be appreciated!1
Quote from em_on_pc on April 12, 2026, 6:16 pmWait, what exactly is going on with the drive? Is it a case where the drive is visible, but no files show up? If yes, did you check the Trash first? Deleted files from an external drive still end up there. Or is your external hard drive not mounting, and you can’t even access it? These are two very different situations, and the approach to external hard drive recovery depends on which one it is.
Wait, what exactly is going on with the drive? Is it a case where the drive is visible, but no files show up? If yes, did you check the Trash first? Deleted files from an external drive still end up there. Or is your external hard drive not mounting, and you can’t even access it? These are two very different situations, and the approach to external hard drive recovery depends on which one it is.
Quote from sorotkin81 on April 12, 2026, 6:22 pmQuote from em_on_pc on April 12, 2026, 6:16 pmWait, what exactly is going on with the drive? Is it a case where the drive is visible, but no files show up? If yes, did you check the Trash first? Deleted files from an external drive still end up there. Or is your external hard drive not mounting, and you can’t even access it? These are two very different situations, and the approach to external hard drive recovery depends on which one it is.
The drive shows up in Finder, but it’s empty. No files at all. I already checked the Trash, it’s empty too, so now I’m looking for other ways to recover data from the external hard drive on the Mac. I did some reading, and I don’t see any obvious signs of file system corruption on Mac, so I guess I might have just misclicked or hit something on the keyboard and deleted a bunch of files by accident 😬
Quote from em_on_pc on April 12, 2026, 6:16 pmWait, what exactly is going on with the drive? Is it a case where the drive is visible, but no files show up? If yes, did you check the Trash first? Deleted files from an external drive still end up there. Or is your external hard drive not mounting, and you can’t even access it? These are two very different situations, and the approach to external hard drive recovery depends on which one it is.
The drive shows up in Finder, but it’s empty. No files at all. I already checked the Trash, it’s empty too, so now I’m looking for other ways to recover data from the external hard drive on the Mac. I did some reading, and I don’t see any obvious signs of file system corruption on Mac, so I guess I might have just misclicked or hit something on the keyboard and deleted a bunch of files by accident 😬
Quote from em_on_pc on April 12, 2026, 7:11 pmAh, got it. In that case, it’s actually one of the easier scenarios. Just type something like how to restore data from an external hard drive Mac into Google (or whatever browser you use), and you’ll get a bunch of guides right away.
Here’s one of the first ones I found.
Ah, got it. In that case, it’s actually one of the easier scenarios. Just type something like how to restore data from an external hard drive Mac into Google (or whatever browser you use), and you’ll get a bunch of guides right away.
Here’s one of the first ones I found.
Quote from em_on_pc on April 12, 2026, 7:12 pmI also checked YouTube and there are tons of guides there too. Might even be easier to follow if you prefer seeing the steps instead of just reading. Here’s the first one that popped up for me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok2zoOwJWyI&t=13s
I also checked YouTube and there are tons of guides there too. Might even be easier to follow if you prefer seeing the steps instead of just reading. Here’s the first one that popped up for me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok2zoOwJWyI&t=13s