Many of us are users who at some point have used the Disk Utility tool to manage the partitions present on our hard drive. Within the OSX system it is possible, in a very simple way, to create and delete partitions dynamically.
Now, we always run the risk that if we are playing with the creation of partitions, at any given moment we can delete one that contains data and we are dumbfounded at the impossibility of being able to recover it, in those cases we will say that we have deleted the HFS partition table
HFS, are the initials that represent "Hierarchical File System", which precedes the one used today by Apple computers, the Plus HFS. When it comes to recovering an HFS partition that we have deleted by mistake or it has become corrupted, we have to rebuild the partition table to be able to leave it as it was at the beginning. The point is, that can be done quickly if you had copied the values of the different partitions, otherwise, things get complicated.
In order to recover the partitions without having their data, we can make use of applications such as the ones we present today, one present in the Apple system, Disk utility and the other TestDisk.
Disk utility
To recover the deleted partitions with the OSX system itself, you must follow the following steps:
- We close all files and applications that are using the disk, since it is very important that it is not accessed during recovery.
- Now we turn to Launchpad and enter the OTHERS folder, to be able to click on Disk Utility. Within the window that appears, we select on the left the disk on which we want to work and click on the upper tab "First aid". Now, at the bottom of the screen, you must click on Verify and repair disk permissions.
TestDisk
In the event that we want to use an application external to OSX, the steps to follow are the following:
- We download and install TestDisk from CGSecurity page. This is a deleted file and partition recovery application.
- Now to run TestDisk, we will have to open the file that we have downloaded. By double clicking on it, it is unzipped and creates a folder called, at the time of making this post, "Testdisk-6.14". We open the folder and look for a file called "testdisk" with a Terminal icon. Double click on it and we accept.
- A Terminal window opens in which we are presented with some options that we can select moving with the keyboard arrow. Select the one you consider appropriate, that is, if you want to create a log, add to an existing one or not record your actions in a log, and press "enter" to continue.
- Select the disk containing the HFS partition you want to recover, then press the "enter" key to continue. The next screen will ask you for the type of partition table. Normally TestDisk can detect it by default, but you must confirm your selection by pressing "enter" to continue.
- Select the "Analyze" option on the next screen, then press the "enter" key. The "Quick Search" option should already be selected in the next section. Press "enter" to continue. Now TestDisk will search your hard drive for the lost partition.
- Select the lost partition and press "p" to view its contents to confirm that it is the correct partition. Press "q" to exit the file viewing section, then select the lost partition again and press "enter".
- Select the "Write" option and hit "enter" to rewrite your partition table and recover your HFS partition. Restart your computer after TestDisk has finished to properly mount the partition and access your recovered data.
As you have seen, both options are very simple to perform, thus ensuring that you will be able to recover the partition that you have deleted by mistake.
Hi, I need some help.
As it turns out that I delete a partition, wanting to join it again to the other and I see that I am not capable. I have done what you say above and when I give write I get a message that gives me yuyu, it says: «Partition: Write error», and from there it does not happen. Is it possible that the partition is damaged or that it is not possible to recover it? I have followed the steps several times and I always get the same message.
Thanks in advance and best regards
Javi brother, you could solve your problem, the same thing happens to me 🙁
I formed the complete disk and only installed windows without partitions, after a while I got bored and wanted to go back to mac os x, the steps to follow are as follows
-tart the mac and enter with with cmd and r
-connect to the Internet
-in mac os utilities x select disk utilities
-we erase the data from the disk
-then we will repair the disk
-We go back to mac os x utilities and select to reinstall mac os x
and ready
regards
that happens to me too :/
The problem is that it tells me that the HFS extension has not been implemented in the program
The same thing happened to me, my disk was formatted in mac, I used it on a pc with mac drive, one day I put it in a carry disk and there I couldn't open it anymore, windows told me it was unformatted, I tested it with testdisk and it showed me the lost partition, but since the option is not implemented in windows, I had to run the program on a mac, and there if I could recover it ... !!!