Battery capcity
2009-2012 non-retina 15" MacBook Pros have a starting battery capacity of 6900. I believe that a 15" Retina 2012-2014 has a capacity of 8727 (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1399560), which is a 26% increase for a retina MacBook Pro, though you loose the Ethernet connection, DVD-RW drive, a line in port, and Firewire 800, but gain an additional Thunderbolt port and battery caacity. I'd assume the processor uses a little less draw being a smaller architecture and that the screen uses a little more, so I would guess that the retina could get better battery life, but I am not sure.
Times
I have an external hard drive with an OSX 10.8 installer, and two bootable carbon copy cloner clones.
On a late 2008 Unibody15" MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo
Time it takes to boot to the 10.8 installer on the external hard drive (holding option), wiping the drive in disk utility, and then running the 10.8 installer- 6:30
(Then I unplug the hard drive as it restarts)
It says it will take 21 minutes
Total time (27 minutes)
Time to format a 320GB drive with 1 pass of encryption zero out data (estimated 1:13:00)
Estimated time to copy 104 GB in Restore Time Machine (1HR) though when running time machine to back up data, it claimed an hour estimate initially but was closer to 1:40.
-There are a few ways of using Time Machine to get your data on a new computer.
One is Migration Assistant which you can use if you already have an computer set up and want to add to it. The imported data, appications, etc, will then be will create a second user account on that computer with all the settings from the other computer and with their username.
During a fresh install of OSX, you have the option to Restore from a Time Machine, or Reinstall OSX. I know Reinstall OSX will also create the restore partition for Mountain Lion. It takes 20 minutes to set up, and then you get to choose a username and everything. I am testing now to see if the Restore will also include a restore partion.
---
Why two bootable carbon copy clones?
If I want to put one of the clones onto a new hard drive,(despite it taking an extra 40 seconds to boot when doing it this way if the OS was set up on a different computer than it will be used in)
1. can boot into the other clone on the hard drive,
2. Open disk utility to format, name, partition etc the new hard drive in the connected computer
3. open the carbon copy cloner app, select the carbon copy clone you aren't booting from on the external hard drive as the source and the newly formatted hard drive in the actual computer as the destination.
4. It will clone the hard drive and usually not ask you for new serials (CleanApp may have asked for a new serial but CS5 didn't)
5. You will now have the system pretty much exactly the way it was when it was cloned. The same programs autostart
6. If you copied it to a different MacBook Pro than the clone was from, you may get annoyed by the long boot time (I have seen it take as long as 1:30 on an i5 17" macBook pro from 2010). Normal bootup should be 40 seconds or less (perhaps 20 seconds if you have an SSD though I have seen less on YouTube)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
4 ways to backup data on a Mac (Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, and drag and drop)
When to use Time Machine vs Carbon Copy Cloner vs Super Duper
Ok, so you want to backup your data on a Mac. What is the best way to do it? Here are some options.
Time Machine is the built in backup application.
Pros: What is nice about it is that it is free, simple to use, and integrated well into transferring data and settings to a new computer during the setup process since the Mac installation manager asks if you have any Time machine drives you want to import. Also, a fresh install on OSX and transferring data from your time machine won't increase your bootup time as significantly as a clone from Carbon Copy Cloner and I assume Super Duper) would. (An extra 40-60 seconds) With a Time Machine 104GB restoration, boot time for 2008 Core 2 Duo is between 48 and 62 seconds 320GB 5200rpm hard drive. Virtual Machines, CS6, etc all seem to work after being transferred.
Cons: It is hard, and sometimes not worth the time, to find files on your backup hard drive. If you backed up a paper under 'Documents' and someone took your computer and you just have your hard drive with your Time machine backup, you will probably have a hard time finding your paper. The Time Machine backup does not backup all your folders in an easily navigable way. It backs up things in an incremental way with the changes saved on the time Machine date it was saved so it had files for differnt dates... it's a mess. Maybe a Find would help... Not sure.
I did notice that in "Mail" it did not copy the e-mail messages stored "On My Mac" section and many of the other folders though it copied the folder names but not the e-mails in the mail folders. I have also noticed that sometimes an application may ask for the product key again, like CS5.
It also does not copy some files that you don't really need like some temporary files and stuff like that you don't need, so it may save a little space.
Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) - This software will exactly copy your hard drive, so you can navigate the folders, find your files on your backup drive, AND one of the coolest features is that it will let you make a bootable copy on a hard drive including your USB drive (or another laptop hard drive). This means you can connect the USB drive with your bootable backup into ANY Mac, hold down "Option" as it is starting up, and you will be able to choose which hard drive you want to boot from, including the backup of you other computer.
It also will install the Mountain Lion backup/recovery partition if you tell it to, which is nice. Usually you need the 10.8 install file for that.
3.4.5 is freeware that I use. Looking at their site 3.4.7 is the most recent freeware version. Newer versions you have to pay for since the company apparently thought they would make more money charging for their product instead of asking for donations.
There is a message that pops up saying that it hasn't been throughly tested with Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) but I haven't had any huge issues.
I have seen the boot times with CCC clones onto main hard drives take 1:00-1:50 which is long...
Super Duper- My understanding is that it is virtually identical to Carbon Copy Cloner. I used it in 2010 to clone my hard drive. I tried it again in 2012 and the version I use would just freeze when I tried to make a bootable backup. One really nice thing it let me do (without freezing) was opt to only backup (and set a schedule to continue to sync after the initial copy) my folders with data I care about and exclude operating system and application files (things you don't want on a new computer if you went through a techie phase where you tried every application you could get your hands on to see if it was worthwhile). This is something I like doing for myself when it is time to wipe my hard drive, reinstall an OS and the applications I actually use, and then replace my personal files (pictures, documents, etc.)
Drag and drop - This can be fine, but there are some exceptions. In 2010, I copied my iPhoto folder from one computer to a new one. When I did that, I got a lot of duplicate pictures, I got a large amount of images of just faces that were supposed to be used to identify people you knew to tag them, but they showed up as images themselves. Also, some pictures came across only at thumbnail resolutions and not full resolution. It was really weird and disappointing.
Interesting notes
You can take a hard drive out of one MacBook and put it into another macbook Pro and it will work. however, it will add about 40 second to the bootup time. This longer boot time also applies if you use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to make a bootable backup on an external hard drive, (that also has another bootable backup on it) then put a new hard drive in a connected MacBook, then start up the computer holding 'Option'
If you are installing OSX, you have the option to "restore from backup" or to "Reinstall OSX 10.8". I recommend Reinstalling 10.8 because it will then also install the recovery partition." the "Restore from backup" will not install the recovery partition.
Time machine time says it takes about 60 minutes to backup, but it takes longer.
2010 17" i5 Macbok Pro too 1:30 to start up with a
Ok, so you want to backup your data on a Mac. What is the best way to do it? Here are some options.
Time Machine is the built in backup application.
Pros: What is nice about it is that it is free, simple to use, and integrated well into transferring data and settings to a new computer during the setup process since the Mac installation manager asks if you have any Time machine drives you want to import. Also, a fresh install on OSX and transferring data from your time machine won't increase your bootup time as significantly as a clone from Carbon Copy Cloner and I assume Super Duper) would. (An extra 40-60 seconds) With a Time Machine 104GB restoration, boot time for 2008 Core 2 Duo is between 48 and 62 seconds 320GB 5200rpm hard drive. Virtual Machines, CS6, etc all seem to work after being transferred.
Cons: It is hard, and sometimes not worth the time, to find files on your backup hard drive. If you backed up a paper under 'Documents' and someone took your computer and you just have your hard drive with your Time machine backup, you will probably have a hard time finding your paper. The Time Machine backup does not backup all your folders in an easily navigable way. It backs up things in an incremental way with the changes saved on the time Machine date it was saved so it had files for differnt dates... it's a mess. Maybe a Find would help... Not sure.
I did notice that in "Mail" it did not copy the e-mail messages stored "On My Mac" section and many of the other folders though it copied the folder names but not the e-mails in the mail folders. I have also noticed that sometimes an application may ask for the product key again, like CS5.
It also does not copy some files that you don't really need like some temporary files and stuff like that you don't need, so it may save a little space.
Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) - This software will exactly copy your hard drive, so you can navigate the folders, find your files on your backup drive, AND one of the coolest features is that it will let you make a bootable copy on a hard drive including your USB drive (or another laptop hard drive). This means you can connect the USB drive with your bootable backup into ANY Mac, hold down "Option" as it is starting up, and you will be able to choose which hard drive you want to boot from, including the backup of you other computer.
It also will install the Mountain Lion backup/recovery partition if you tell it to, which is nice. Usually you need the 10.8 install file for that.
3.4.5 is freeware that I use. Looking at their site 3.4.7 is the most recent freeware version. Newer versions you have to pay for since the company apparently thought they would make more money charging for their product instead of asking for donations.
There is a message that pops up saying that it hasn't been throughly tested with Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) but I haven't had any huge issues.
I have seen the boot times with CCC clones onto main hard drives take 1:00-1:50 which is long...
Super Duper- My understanding is that it is virtually identical to Carbon Copy Cloner. I used it in 2010 to clone my hard drive. I tried it again in 2012 and the version I use would just freeze when I tried to make a bootable backup. One really nice thing it let me do (without freezing) was opt to only backup (and set a schedule to continue to sync after the initial copy) my folders with data I care about and exclude operating system and application files (things you don't want on a new computer if you went through a techie phase where you tried every application you could get your hands on to see if it was worthwhile). This is something I like doing for myself when it is time to wipe my hard drive, reinstall an OS and the applications I actually use, and then replace my personal files (pictures, documents, etc.)
Drag and drop - This can be fine, but there are some exceptions. In 2010, I copied my iPhoto folder from one computer to a new one. When I did that, I got a lot of duplicate pictures, I got a large amount of images of just faces that were supposed to be used to identify people you knew to tag them, but they showed up as images themselves. Also, some pictures came across only at thumbnail resolutions and not full resolution. It was really weird and disappointing.
Interesting notes
You can take a hard drive out of one MacBook and put it into another macbook Pro and it will work. however, it will add about 40 second to the bootup time. This longer boot time also applies if you use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to make a bootable backup on an external hard drive, (that also has another bootable backup on it) then put a new hard drive in a connected MacBook, then start up the computer holding 'Option'
If you are installing OSX, you have the option to "restore from backup" or to "Reinstall OSX 10.8". I recommend Reinstalling 10.8 because it will then also install the recovery partition." the "Restore from backup" will not install the recovery partition.
Time machine time says it takes about 60 minutes to backup, but it takes longer.
2010 17" i5 Macbok Pro too 1:30 to start up with a
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
One reason why you may copyright someone's name
You can copyright a name so you can press civil charges against someone
that uses a name for personal benefit without permission. One scammer,
Ryan Zull, collected donations for memorials (in his front yard) for
personal profit. She was able to press charges against him for using the
name of her son without permission after copyrighting her son's name.
http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/news/war-memorial-at-st-charles-county-home-draws-flak/article_e7784c7d-5d1c-543c-a9af-c10935fd3210.html
The picture she painted was less friendly than the one presented in the article. She believes he grabbed a few names and pictures of servicemen killed in action and asked people to donate
http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/news/war-memorial-at-st-charles-county-home-draws-flak/article_e7784c7d-5d1c-543c-a9af-c10935fd3210.html
The picture she painted was less friendly than the one presented in the article. She believes he grabbed a few names and pictures of servicemen killed in action and asked people to donate
Data and Partition Recovery Software/Programs
There are a lot of data recovery programs out there. Most of them are trialware with limitations.
My goal is to find one that will recover data from a fat32 partition that was accidentally formatted on an external hard drive.
Windows
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GetDataBack - http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm runs on disks with FAT32 and NTFS. I have used this successfully.
Active@ Partition Recovery - www.partition-recovery.com
Remo Recover Windows 3 0 0 119- (couldn't get my hands on the mac version)
My goal is to find one that will recover data from a fat32 partition that was accidentally formatted on an external hard drive.
Windows
-------------
GetDataBack - http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm runs on disks with FAT32 and NTFS. I have used this successfully.
Active@ Partition Recovery - www.partition-recovery.com
EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional 5.6.5 -
AidFile Recovery (Supposed to suppoert Fat32, ExFat, NTFS) http://www.exfatrecovery.com/
AidFile Recovery (Supposed to suppoert Fat32, ExFat, NTFS) http://www.exfatrecovery.com/
Hetman Partition Recovery v1.0 - may hang
Remo Recover Windows 3 0 0 119- (couldn't get my hands on the mac version)
----------------------------
Windows Mentionables
----------------------------
Easeus Partition Recovery - CNET Download.com -Lame because the free version may only recover 1gb of data
Active Undelete?
Recuva-Free undelete program, but I'm not sure if it will restore an overwritten partition
-------
Linux
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TestDisk- Free Linux based recovery tool- http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
---
Mac
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Leawo.Software.Co.Ltd.Data.Recovery.Pro.v3.1.0.MACOSX -Fail! It recognized the 100MB partition on my flash drive (that I can't delete) but failed to find my hard drive or my actual USB drive.
-----------
Background
Have an External hard drive that has a GUID Partition Table (for newer Macs). Master Boot Record is greyed out in Disk Utility.
Windows XP does not
Windows Vista+ recognized ExFAT (which is an improved file format comparable to NTFS but that is *supposed to be read by Mac 10.6+can be read).
I don't know of an ExFAT recovery program.
I don't know of a program that could recover an HFS+ Mac hard drive that had been overwritten with NTFS or some other program. Maybe these could.
XP failed to read any space on the 2.72 ExFAT formatted drive (Which Windows 7 and Mac recognized. (0 MB) in My computer, but XP's Computer Management recognized 2794.32 GB as
What I've done.
-XP offers to format the drive as ExFAT or NTFS by right clicking in My Computer but fails formatting to ExFAT. Does format the drive to NTFS. Fails at formatting the now NTFS 3TB drive to
-Computer Management at one point offered Fat32 or NTFS, but it is only offering to format the now unallocated 3TB to NTFS.
-Made a 200GB partition and formatted it as NTFS
-Windows failed at formatting the 200GB NTFS to ExFAT in My Computer again in XP
-Connected hard drive another MacBook Pro running a Windows 7 and used it to format it to ExFAT again. Mac did not detect ExFat drive. Connected drive back to Windows 7. It was recognized. Connected drive back to Mac. 10.8. It was not recognized.
-Used Mac Disk Utility to convert the drive to a 200GB ExFAT
-Got stuck and found the web page below
"Unfortunately, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 will only format a removable drive in FAT32 if it’s less than 32GB! Hmmm…that pretty much cuts out ALL modern external hard drives!
However, Windows can format a drive that is larger than 32GB in FAT32, but you have to use the DOS command prompt. However, if you have a drive that is 1TB or larger, you may still get an error saying “The volume is too big for FAT32”.
In that case, you can use a free program called SwissKnife that will allow you to format an external hard drive that is up to 2TB in size. Let’s go through both methods. In case you are having problems getting your external hard drive to show up in Windows, read my article on how to change the drive letter for an external drive in Windows.
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/ "
--Before I do that, I use Disk Utility to create a 200GB partition of MS-DOS (FAT) at the end of the hard drive, and another partition of 190GB ExFAT inside of it. I want to see if either of these can be recognized by Windows 7 and Windows XP. The rest of the drive is free space. Still is GUID Partition table. OSX 10.8 recognizes both partitions it just created.
-Pluged into another MacBook Pro with a virtual machine of Windows 7. It auto opened in Windows 7 without me asking where to connect the new drive (Mac or Windows 7). Windows 7 recognizes both the FAT32 and ExFAT partitions.
-I am starting to wonder if something is wrong on the XP virtual machine I have been using. I open an XP Virtual machine on another computer. It takes about 2 minutes after getting the USB drive connected for XP to recognize the FAT32 and ExFAT partitions. Success!! Maybe I just didn't wait long enough for it to be recognized earlier. --Confirmation that a GUID based FAT32 drive created in Disk Utility is readable on Windows XP (at least one of my two) and Windows 7. The ExFAT partition shows up as "Not Formatted" in Windows XP but is readable on Windows 7. Maybe there was an update this XP version didn't install yet that gives it ExFAT support. I will stick with FAT32 for now.
Now I need to test that I can recover photo data from a FAT32 external hard drive and place the backup files on one of these FAT32 or ExFAT partitions.
Prep.
I will format a USB drive (Master Boot Record, not GUID) with FAT32. Copy pictures to it. Then I will format the drive in disk utility by creating 2 new partitions on top of that (and maybe writing something to the second partition to be more real world... but it may just take the recovery longer... but it is just an 8GB drive. May as well get as close to the real things as possible.)
I am formatting an 8GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro (which has a 100MB partition Disk Utility doesn't recognize) as FAT32 in Disk Utility. I am naming this "original" partition ORIGINALDR. I am creating three picture folders on it TestPicFolder1, 2, and 3. TestPicFolder1 has 5 pictures of some artwork I did. TestPicFolder2 has 5 pics of me. TestPicFolder3 has 5 pictures of mountains.
Now I am using Disk Utility to try to shrink the FAT32 volume... and it does not let me like it does with HFS+ (Mac's hard drive format). I click on partition Layout, and change it to 2 partitions. The first will be Fat32, named Part1FAT32 and 3.81GB, and second partition HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) titled Part2HFS and is 4.23GB. (I do that to be able to tell them apart in more than one way if the titles are stripped in the recovery program and just sizes show up of potentially recoverable drives.) Clicked "Apply". Ejecting from this computer with the potentially bad Windows Virtual Machine that may not read the large external drive which will be where we will transfer recovered pictures to.
I will try running the recovery program in Windows 7 x64, though it was probably made for XP x32 because I am curious if it will work. I also don't want to be stuck using XP forever.
Installing Runtime GetbackData for FAT on Windows 7 x64. I select the option for Systematic File Damage (because that is what you are apparently supposed to click if you format a drive you need to recover). It says not data could be written over it. I do not believe data was written over the section I need. My guess is if I did the next most extensive option (sustained file damage), that it would take even longer to run.
I can select the whole flash drive, or just one of the partitions. Since this is experimentation time and I want to save time on the larger actual 500GB drive (and not have it scan an extra 250GB), and I know the data would be underneath only the first partition, I will select the first partition fat32 and see if it can recover the picture folders and images hidden underneath that part of the drive. 5 minute estimate.
I am given two FAT32 partitions to choose from,
one at sector 30,616 (3.53GB) with no data listed on the right of the screen next to FAT1, FAT2, FAT root, or 1st Root Cluster.
the other below it is at sector 14,524 (3.54GB) and does have FAT1 34 (Quality=9%)... which scares me Fat2 (Quality 9%) Total clusters 928,260.
I clicked NEXT for the partition with data.
I got ..fsevesntsd which had 3 junk files in it.
Spotlight V100 with two folders in it.
[0007E5] with some junk data and two junk folders
Glad we tried that. Now I will try the partition with seemingly no data. It finished running in 5 seconds.
I see the folders listed above and TestPicFolder1 through 3. All of them have 5 pictures. I can double click and open each one. Success!
Turns out the folder is automatically created on your destination drive/folder when you select the files in a folder, and click "Copy" It asks for where I want to store them. The application will not let me copy the pictures to the \\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Desktop. It will let me copy the folders to the C drive. My virtual machines are only 40GB, so I have to use an external media for the 160ish GB of images I need to recover. I Went o Options-Environment and changed the default save directory to the FDrive (My ExFat drive... saving my FAT32 for the real thing). I just click on the folder (with the included file names shown on the right) and click copy. Then the folder gets saved to the drive I had specified. Perfect.
The file size is identical betweern the copy and the original.
I am now going back to step 1 and recovring the full 8GB drive. 10 minute estimate for 8GB.
I get FAT32 at 30,616 (7.47GB)- same sector as the other one.. Same test pics
Fat32 sector 14,263,036 (699MB)-and I found some older pictures that had been overwritten a year ago.
FAT32 sector 14,524 (3.54 GB) (same as the other)
FAT32 sector 11,467,883 (2.02 GB)
Finally doing the real thing!
Going to just to the first partition since the original files were about 150GB, estimated time is almost 7 hours for 288GB, but the countdown timer was going faster until 6:30 was left (first 2 minutes of running)
Background
Have an External hard drive that has a GUID Partition Table (for newer Macs). Master Boot Record is greyed out in Disk Utility.
Windows XP does not
Windows Vista+ recognized ExFAT (which is an improved file format comparable to NTFS but that is *supposed to be read by Mac 10.6+can be read).
I don't know of an ExFAT recovery program.
I don't know of a program that could recover an HFS+ Mac hard drive that had been overwritten with NTFS or some other program. Maybe these could.
XP failed to read any space on the 2.72 ExFAT formatted drive (Which Windows 7 and Mac recognized. (0 MB) in My computer, but XP's Computer Management recognized 2794.32 GB as
What I've done.
-XP offers to format the drive as ExFAT or NTFS by right clicking in My Computer but fails formatting to ExFAT. Does format the drive to NTFS. Fails at formatting the now NTFS 3TB drive to
-Computer Management at one point offered Fat32 or NTFS, but it is only offering to format the now unallocated 3TB to NTFS.
-Made a 200GB partition and formatted it as NTFS
-Windows failed at formatting the 200GB NTFS to ExFAT in My Computer again in XP
-Connected hard drive another MacBook Pro running a Windows 7 and used it to format it to ExFAT again. Mac did not detect ExFat drive. Connected drive back to Windows 7. It was recognized. Connected drive back to Mac. 10.8. It was not recognized.
-Used Mac Disk Utility to convert the drive to a 200GB ExFAT
-Got stuck and found the web page below
"Unfortunately, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 will only format a removable drive in FAT32 if it’s less than 32GB! Hmmm…that pretty much cuts out ALL modern external hard drives!
However, Windows can format a drive that is larger than 32GB in FAT32, but you have to use the DOS command prompt. However, if you have a drive that is 1TB or larger, you may still get an error saying “The volume is too big for FAT32”.
In that case, you can use a free program called SwissKnife that will allow you to format an external hard drive that is up to 2TB in size. Let’s go through both methods. In case you are having problems getting your external hard drive to show up in Windows, read my article on how to change the drive letter for an external drive in Windows.
Format external drive in FAT32 using DOS
walkthrough... "
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/ "
--Before I do that, I use Disk Utility to create a 200GB partition of MS-DOS (FAT) at the end of the hard drive, and another partition of 190GB ExFAT inside of it. I want to see if either of these can be recognized by Windows 7 and Windows XP. The rest of the drive is free space. Still is GUID Partition table. OSX 10.8 recognizes both partitions it just created.
-Pluged into another MacBook Pro with a virtual machine of Windows 7. It auto opened in Windows 7 without me asking where to connect the new drive (Mac or Windows 7). Windows 7 recognizes both the FAT32 and ExFAT partitions.
-I am starting to wonder if something is wrong on the XP virtual machine I have been using. I open an XP Virtual machine on another computer. It takes about 2 minutes after getting the USB drive connected for XP to recognize the FAT32 and ExFAT partitions. Success!! Maybe I just didn't wait long enough for it to be recognized earlier. --Confirmation that a GUID based FAT32 drive created in Disk Utility is readable on Windows XP (at least one of my two) and Windows 7. The ExFAT partition shows up as "Not Formatted" in Windows XP but is readable on Windows 7. Maybe there was an update this XP version didn't install yet that gives it ExFAT support. I will stick with FAT32 for now.
Now I need to test that I can recover photo data from a FAT32 external hard drive and place the backup files on one of these FAT32 or ExFAT partitions.
Prep.
I will format a USB drive (Master Boot Record, not GUID) with FAT32. Copy pictures to it. Then I will format the drive in disk utility by creating 2 new partitions on top of that (and maybe writing something to the second partition to be more real world... but it may just take the recovery longer... but it is just an 8GB drive. May as well get as close to the real things as possible.)
I am formatting an 8GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro (which has a 100MB partition Disk Utility doesn't recognize) as FAT32 in Disk Utility. I am naming this "original" partition ORIGINALDR. I am creating three picture folders on it TestPicFolder1, 2, and 3. TestPicFolder1 has 5 pictures of some artwork I did. TestPicFolder2 has 5 pics of me. TestPicFolder3 has 5 pictures of mountains.
Now I am using Disk Utility to try to shrink the FAT32 volume... and it does not let me like it does with HFS+ (Mac's hard drive format). I click on partition Layout, and change it to 2 partitions. The first will be Fat32, named Part1FAT32 and 3.81GB, and second partition HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) titled Part2HFS and is 4.23GB. (I do that to be able to tell them apart in more than one way if the titles are stripped in the recovery program and just sizes show up of potentially recoverable drives.) Clicked "Apply". Ejecting from this computer with the potentially bad Windows Virtual Machine that may not read the large external drive which will be where we will transfer recovered pictures to.
I will try running the recovery program in Windows 7 x64, though it was probably made for XP x32 because I am curious if it will work. I also don't want to be stuck using XP forever.
Installing Runtime GetbackData for FAT on Windows 7 x64. I select the option for Systematic File Damage (because that is what you are apparently supposed to click if you format a drive you need to recover). It says not data could be written over it. I do not believe data was written over the section I need. My guess is if I did the next most extensive option (sustained file damage), that it would take even longer to run.
I can select the whole flash drive, or just one of the partitions. Since this is experimentation time and I want to save time on the larger actual 500GB drive (and not have it scan an extra 250GB), and I know the data would be underneath only the first partition, I will select the first partition fat32 and see if it can recover the picture folders and images hidden underneath that part of the drive. 5 minute estimate.
I am given two FAT32 partitions to choose from,
one at sector 30,616 (3.53GB) with no data listed on the right of the screen next to FAT1, FAT2, FAT root, or 1st Root Cluster.
the other below it is at sector 14,524 (3.54GB) and does have FAT1 34 (Quality=9%)... which scares me Fat2 (Quality 9%) Total clusters 928,260.
I clicked NEXT for the partition with data.
I got ..fsevesntsd which had 3 junk files in it.
Spotlight V100 with two folders in it.
[0007E5] with some junk data and two junk folders
Glad we tried that. Now I will try the partition with seemingly no data. It finished running in 5 seconds.
I see the folders listed above and TestPicFolder1 through 3. All of them have 5 pictures. I can double click and open each one. Success!
Turns out the folder is automatically created on your destination drive/folder when you select the files in a folder, and click "Copy" It asks for where I want to store them. The application will not let me copy the pictures to the \\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Desktop. It will let me copy the folders to the C drive. My virtual machines are only 40GB, so I have to use an external media for the 160ish GB of images I need to recover. I Went o Options-Environment and changed the default save directory to the FDrive (My ExFat drive... saving my FAT32 for the real thing). I just click on the folder (with the included file names shown on the right) and click copy. Then the folder gets saved to the drive I had specified. Perfect.
The file size is identical betweern the copy and the original.
I am now going back to step 1 and recovring the full 8GB drive. 10 minute estimate for 8GB.
I get FAT32 at 30,616 (7.47GB)- same sector as the other one.. Same test pics
Fat32 sector 14,263,036 (699MB)-and I found some older pictures that had been overwritten a year ago.
FAT32 sector 14,524 (3.54 GB) (same as the other)
FAT32 sector 11,467,883 (2.02 GB)
Finally doing the real thing!
Going to just to the first partition since the original files were about 150GB, estimated time is almost 7 hours for 288GB, but the countdown timer was going faster until 6:30 was left (first 2 minutes of running)
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