Lost files after El Capitan update?

[NiallM8]

I recently updated to El Capitan after the constant notifications from Apple borderline forcing me to do so. It has performed quite well other than a few app incompatibility issues but they should be fixed by developers. Today however I ran into an issue when trying to watch a film, I went to the folder on my external HDD where I store the majority of my films etc. and none of the files were there, only a file called Thumbs.db.

http://pasteboard.co/2Ex1UdII.png - (Link to image)

I have no idea how this has happened apart from one theory, just after I updated OSX asked me if I wanted to use my external HDD as a time machine backup and I said yes at first. It then informed me that it would erase everything and asked me if I was sure, then I said no obviously. That's the only time the OS has ever mentioned my HDD and what's strange is every other file is still there.

From what I remember I was in the middle of streaming from my Mac to my chromecast, watching a film on my TV but the file I was viewing is still there so that ruled out any potential corrupt file issues, also the file I was viewing was in a different folder anyway.

Any help would be great.

 

[richard2]

Please do the following:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Enter the following:
   
   diskutil list; df -lh
3. Include the contents of the window in a reply to this post.

 

[NiallM8]

Please do the following:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Enter the following:
   
   diskutil list; df -lh
3. Include the contents of the window in a reply to this post.

This is what it showed me

Last login: Sat Mar 26 14:44:18 on console

Nialls-iMac:~ Niall$ diskutil list; df -lh

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: Windows_NTFS TOSHIBA EXT 1.0 TB disk1s1

Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2 465Gi 442Gi 22Gi 96% 116045206 5841536 95% /

/dev/disk1s1 932Gi 365Gi 567Gi 40% 164005 594154373 0% /Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT

Nialls-iMac:~ Niall$

 

[richard2]

Firstly, what is the output of the following command?:

ls -AlOe "/Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT"

Secondly, are you aware that the filesystem of the volume "TOSHIBA EXT" is NTFS, which is primarily used on Windows? Did you have any NTFS drivers, such as Paragon NTFS or Tuxera NTFS, installed on your Mac before you upgraded to OS X El Capitan?

 

[NiallM8]

Hi,

Just returns a list of files and folders in the base directory along with their size, the folder I am referring to that is missing files returns a size of 4096, as does a few others but the other folders all have items within?

To answer your second question, yes I am aware that it is formatted for windows, I used to use the same drive for both operating systems so I felt it necessary to format it that way. I didn't install any drivers relating to the compatibility of NTFS drives before installing El Capitan, it has always worked fine up until recently.

 

[richard2]

Oh — only the files in a single folder are missing! Oops.

Are the missing files visible on your Windows computer? If not, then the disc's filesystem has probably been partially corrupted. You can attempt to recover the files using data recovery software. Be warned that writing to the disc will reduce your chance of recovering any files.

 

[NiallM8]

Oh — only the files in a single folder are missing! Oops.

Are the missing files visible on your Windows computer? If not, then the disc's filesystem has probably been partially corrupted. You can attempt to recover the files using data recovery software. Be warned that writing to the disc will reduce your chance of recovering any files.

Thanks, I don't actually have a windows computer anymore, got rid of it a couple of months ago. I haven't written anything to the disk since before the update so that shouldn't be a problem, is there any specific recovery software you recommend or that I should use? Or can I use any software?

 

[richard2]

I'd recommend Data Rescue and TestDisk.

 

[NiallM8]

I tried using a program called Disk Drill which was basically just a rip off dressed up file scanner, couldn't get to grips with TestDisk so I'm currently scanning with Data Rescue, just the free version for now but if it finds the files I'll pay for the extra data.

Ill let you know how it goes, thanks

 

[NiallM8]

I'd recommend Data Rescue and TestDisk.

You are a god. It recovered EVERYTHING, I had to re-format my HDD to Mac format but it was worth it, got all my movies back thanks