How to retrieve data from hard drive on Mac [Works for damaged drives]

Thirteen years ago, I accidentally deleted my thesis, thinking I had copied it to the flash drive; it literally took me all day to find the right hard drive file recovery tool (not malware, not a scam, not costing my weekly budget) to get the paper back.

Today, in most cases, it's hardly a problem at all. The solutions I'm about to share with you will usually work even if your Mac crashed or your hard drive got damaged. So let's look at some of the most effective ways to quickly retrieve data from hard drives.

How to retrieve data from hard drive on Mac: Quick solutions

To save you time, I've organized the key solutions from this article into this handy table. If you feel confident, just use these instructions. If you need a more detailed guide, just scroll down. I'll provide detailed instructions and will share my personal tips for data recovery.

If you lost your data…	Try these
Use professional recovery software	Download and open Disk Drill, select the drive, click Search for lost data, review results, and recover files.
Recover from hidden Trash (on external drive)	Connect the drive, open it in Finder, press Shift + Command + ., locate .Trashes, and restore files.
Use Disk Utility	Open Disk Utility, select the volume, click Restore, choose the source, and confirm.
Recover via Time Machine	Go to System Settings > General > Time Machine, select a backup, browse files, and click Restore.
Take care of your data and Mac to prevent future loss	Back up regularly with Get Backup Pro and monitor your hard drive's health, temperature, and performance with iStat Menus.

What are the common reasons for hard drive data loss?

Hard drives store large quantities of valuable files and information, so before figuring out HDD data recovery techniques, it’s important to understand why we lose data in the first place.

Apart from unforeseen mishaps, system bugs, and media issues, here are a few most frequent reasons for having data vanish from your Mac:

• Human error. Unintentional deletion of files from the drive is often considered the most common reason for data loss. Fortunately, accidentally deleted files are the easiest ones to reclaim.
• Hardware failure. No HDD is perfect in its composition, so there can be problems with the hardware components inside, which lead to physical damage of the drive. This means that in some cases the data becomes unrecoverable.
• Firmware corruption. If your drive freezes at startup, fails to boot, or the system can’t detect it, these are all symptoms of firmware corruption. This type of error occurs due to a virus attack, upgrade interruption, or manufacturing faults.
• Heat and water damage. Both excessive heat and water cause damage to a hard disk drive’s components, adding severe defects that can compromise data.
• Power issues. When the flow of electricity is interrupted and then restarted again, the read and write functions of the hard drive fail to work properly, which can result in data loss.

#1. One-click solution to recover data from hard drive

While there are a number of methods for hard disk drive recovery, using an effective tool is on top of my list. A reliable hard drive file recovery solution will save you time and energy, providing a quick and easy fix in a matter of seconds.

The best data recovery app I've ever had is Disk Drill. It can bring any kind of data back regardless of the loss cause. Apart from locating and restoring missing files, Disk Drill allows you to search the drive for any lost item using its extension or part of the filename. But what I love most is that Disk Drill not only works on internal Mac drives but can also help recover data from external hard drives, such as any camera drives, iPhones, iPads, flash drives, and more.

Here’s how to retrieve data from a hard drive using Disk Drill:

1. Download and install Disk Drill.
2. Select the disk you want to recover files from and click “Search for lost data”.
3. Wait for the app to scan your hard drive and click “Review found items” or “Recover all”.

 Disk Drill works not only with Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad) but also with Android devices and USB and SD cards.

#2. How to recover deleted files from trash on external hard drives

Whenever you delete a file from your Mac, it gets moved to the Trash folder and depending on your settings, it’ll either be automatically deleted after 30 days or remain there until you delete it again from the Trash folder itself. External hard drives also have a trash folder, but it’s hidden and you’ll need to use a special key combination to reveal it and recover your files.

Here’s how to perform hard drive data recovery using the drive’s Trash folder:

1. Connect the external hard drive to your Mac.
2. Open Finder and click on the drive.
3. Press Shift + Command + . (dot) to display hidden items.
4. Go to .Trashes ➙ Trash.
5. Right-click on the files you want to restore and select Put Back.

#3. How to recover data from a hard drive using Disk Utility

Built into Mac’s operating system, Disk Utility is an app that can help you manage external and internal storage devices, check if a disk is damaged and repair it, create a disk image, partition a disk, and much more.

For hard drive file recovery using Disk Utility, follow these steps:

1. Go to Applications ➙ Utilities ➙ Disk Utility.
2. Select the volume you want to restore in the sidebar.
3. Click Restore.
4. Choose the volume from which you want to restore the erased hard drive.
5. Click Restore again, then click Done.

Although I've learned tons of tricks for file and disk recovery over the years, I've realized that the best thing I can do is keep the disk in good condition to prevent malfunctions. I've tried several tools to do this, and now I've settled on iStat Menus. I highly recommend trying it.

iStat Menus monitors all your Mac’s key performance indicators as well as alerts you to potential problems. It delivers clear and timely insights into your Mac’s internal activity, all built into your menu bar. The app displays information about your CPU and GPU sensors, memory, solid state drives, and network connection, plus gives you a convenient way to check in on your computer’s sensors, including hard drive temperature.

To check your Mac hard drive health using iStat Menus, simply launch the app and use your menu bar to navigate and review disk usage, general activity of both HD and network drives, memory load, and SMART status monitoring, which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology.

#4. How to recover deleted files on Mac using Time Machine

All Macs come with preinstalled Time Machine, a powerful, native macOS backup and restore utility. If you had it set up, Time Machine has been creating automatic backups for all files on your Mac’s internal hard drives. Now you can use those snapshots and backups to perform hard disk drive recovery, given that the drive Time Machine has been backing up to is fully functional.

To retrieve data from hard drive through a file-based backup on Time Machine follow these steps:

1. Go to the Apple menu ➙ System Settings ➙ General.
2. Click Time Machine and choose Preferences.
3. Use the arrow icons to navigate to the time before your files were lost.
4. Click Finder and select the files you want to recover.
5. Press the spacebar on your keyboard to preview a selected file.
6. Click Restore.

Time Machine also allows you to create a backup disk of your entire drive, which will be helpful if your Mac’s whole internal hard drive fails. In this case, you’ll be able to restore your files from the Time Machine backup to a new Mac during the setup process.

While Time Machine is an absolutely decent tool, some of its shortcomings led me to switch to an alternative app. Three key issues stood out for me.

First, I couldn’t easily back up individual files or folders. Time Machine made me click dozens of times to exclude files from the backup instead of letting me click once to include what I really needed. Second, the archives it created were massive. In contrast, my current tool produces archives up to 60% smaller. Lastly, restoring certain files, like photos from the library, wasn’t intuitive and often left me fumbling. And yes, there are no bootable backups, which is frustrating.

The tool I use now — Get Backup Pro — covers it all. It provides a great solution by allowing you to create incremental and compressed backups as well as simple clone and copy versions. To get rid of the hassle associated with managing timely backups, use Get Backup Pro’s Stealth mode to produce timely backups on a schedule. Plus, Get Backup Pro makes it simple to restore any info to a different computer, even if the app is not installed on the new machine.

How can data loss be prevented in the future?

As much as it’s important to know how to recover data from hard drives, it’s also good to take preemptive action by preventing your data from getting lost in the first place. Here’s how you can prevent data loss:

• Keep your hard drive healthy. Hard drives are more likely to crash when your computer overheats, for example, so managing your Mac’s HDD should become one of your priorities. I believe that the best way to keep an eye on the health of your Mac’s hard drive is through iStat Menus.
• Install software updates. Since hard drive failure can be a result of a virus or bug in the operating system, it’s good to keep your macOS up to date.
• Perform regular backups. This will make things easier if disaster does strike and you need to perform hard disk drive recovery. You can set up Time Machine, store a copy of your files on iCloud or use a backup utility. Personally, I back up all important files using Get Backup Pro.

As we keep more information on our devices, accidentally losing data due to hard drive failures and our own mistakes becomes almost unavoidable, so it’s important to keep good HDD data recovery software like Disk Drill handy. 

I use all of these apps and have access to more than 250 other tools through Setapp, a platform with great macOS and iOS apps for work and life. New members can get 7 days free. Enhance your Mac’s performance in a few clicks using expert-created tools for any use case!

FAQs: How to recover data from a hard drive

In addition to the methods described above, here are some answers to the most common questions about hard disk drive recovery.

How to retrieve lost data using a professional data recovery service?

Download and install Disk Drill, select the disk you want to recover files from (you can also connect an external drive or your iPhone) and click "Search for lost data". When the scan is complete, click "Review found items" or "Recover all".

Professional data recovery software may be your best bet if your file was deleted from the Trash or your drive was formatted. While, unlike a technician, these data recovery apps won’t repair a damaged disk drive, they’ll definitely help you easily restore valuable files in just a couple of clicks.