Lost Folder on Ext Hard Drive

[JacquiB]

Hi all, just new to this forum and wondered if anyone is able to help me with a problem I encountered this morning?

I'm a photographer, running a MacBookPro (for on-the-go) and an iMac in my home office. Have been out and about this last week and have been working from my MacBook, storing any work on an external HD.

The HD was starting to fill up, so thought I'd delete some old files. Problem is, my folder (JMB Photo) with my ENTIRE photo catalogue on it (on the ext HD) has now disappeared. It's not in the trash. It doesn't show up in finder when I click on the ext HD icon, although when I control+click > get info, it shows that the ext HD is just about full, showing that there are only 257.2MB available and that I've used up 639.69GB out of a possible 639.95GB, so the information is still there but it's not showing up anywhere. I've done a search for the missing folder but nothing shows. I don't know where to go to next.

Help? Please? I'm pretty sure that I've back up the files up until 3 days ago, but still don't really have some pretty important files to retrieve.

I'm not a techie at all so have no idea where to start looking for a solution. Can anyone help? Please?

 

[Kaveman]

open a widow on the drive, type the name of the folder in the search box???

 

[JacquiB]

Thanks Kaveman - have already tried that. No joy.

 

[Kaveman]

We use Disk Warrior, and you'll need a drive big enough to hold your recovered files.

This can happen if the cable or power is accidentally removed.

 

[JacquiB]

Thank you. Do I download Disk Warrior? Obviously, this program will search the Ext HD for the missing files/folders? It wasn't a cable/power thing - not exactly sure what happened but the data is still there because it shows that the disc is just about full.

 

[Kaveman]

fingers crossed, it can recover it.

http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/ (not affiliated)

you may find other recovery apps

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi JacquiB... I moved your thread out of Introductions and over to the Mac OS X section

Similar to Kavemans advice but maybe still worth a try, you could try using Spotlight to find one of these hidden files, then right click (Control + click) on the file and select Open Enclosing Folder.

This will open a new Finder window containing that file. Then go View ~> Show Path Bar.

This will put a string at the bottom of the Finder window showing exactly where the hidden file is physically located.



Also, if you feel confident enough, maybe enabling the showing of hidden files, using Terminal, may be of help?

Open up the Terminal application found in Applications/Utilities and then type

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Hit Return, then type

killall Finder

Hit Return. Now the Finder will display all hidden files.

DO NOT MESS WITH THOSE HIDDEN FILES. Just look for the lost photos then, on your external drive.

Put things back to normal and hide the hidden files when you are done, go back to the Terminal application and type

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

Hit Return, then type

killall Finder

Hit Return.

 

[Kaveman]

I don't think the Folder is hidden, I think its lost its entry in the Catalogue. I wouldn't go messing with the drive in any way, if anything writes to the drive then you may lose the files.

Note: Mounting and Un-mounting the Drive to try things will write hidden files to the Drive and possibly limit your recovery options.