Member Avatar for spambanana

Hello
i'm not very good with this computer stuff.
had problems when i re-installed tiger on my powerbook g4 and erased the hd, losing all my photos and itunes with 6000+ songs on.

does anyone know if it's possible to get these things back, and if so, how ?

regards

chris a

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In ’s situation — erasing the internal disk and reinstalling Mac OS X Tiger — the filesystem’s directory information is often the first thing removed while many file data blocks can remain until overwritten. That makes photo and music file recovery possible in many cases, but original folder trees, playlists and library files are frequently lost. If the disk was securely zeroed or overwritten during the reinstall, chances of recovery fall sharply.

Immediate actions include stopping use of the PowerBook and avoiding any writes to the internal disk. Whenever practical, connect the drive to another machine (Target Disk Mode over FireWire or via an external adapter) and create a full sector‑by‑sector image onto a separate external drive using a tool that can skip bad sectors and resume. All recovery attempts should be performed on that image, never on the original disk.

Recovery strategy: run file‑level scans (raw scanning / file‑carving) against the image to find common photo and audio formats. Expect many recovered files to have generic names and to lack original folder structure; use EXIF and audio metadata (timestamps, ID3 tags) to sort and relink files. Rebuilding an iTunes library typically requires importing recovered music into a fresh library and letting the player rebuild its database; playlists may need manual reconstruction.

Acknowledging earlier replies: as noted, directory‑repair methods can help when the filesystem is corrupted but not reinitialized; as said, Mac recoveries often return loose files rather than intact folders. If the drive is noisy, repeatedly fails to mount, or the data is irreplaceable, engage a reputable professional recovery service rather than repeated DIY attempts. Finally, implement regular external backups going forward to prevent recurrence.

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Member Avatar for John A

DiskWarrior has a very high reputation in hard drive recovery.

Member Avatar for spambanana

Thanks for the advice

Member Avatar for patrickthomas

Data Rescue II is also good as well as Filesalvage but it seems that with Mac it is only possible to get the files back, no folders, I have a thread about losing my own iTunes as well.

Time to get a large external hard-drive and use time machine methinks, all too easy to make a mistake when tired.

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