Apple built HFS and HFS+ (Hierarchical File System) back in 1985 for macOS and other Apple devices, and they’ve been handling file storage on these machines ever since.
That said, plenty of things can go wrong. You might accidentally delete something important, format your HFS or HFS+ drive by mistake, run into corruption, hit a system error or software glitch, get hit by a virus or malware, or have the read/write process get interrupted mid-way. Any of these can leave a Mac user without their data on an HFS or HFS+ drive.
If you’ve lost data and you’re trying to figure out how to recover data from HFS or HFS+ drive, just follow the steps below and you’ll get your files back.
How To Recover HFS/HFS+ Data?
No matter what caused your data loss, a solid tool like SFWare Data Recovery Software for Mac can pull your HFS and HFS+ data back from the brink.
It’s powerful, but it’s also easy to use. It scans your volumes thoroughly and recovers photos, videos, music, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more, fast, whether your HFS drive is internal or external.
You also get a free preview before you save anything, so you can check everything’s in order before you commit to the HFS recovery.
So why wait? Grab the tool now and get your HFS or HFS+ partitions recovered without much hassle.
Free ways to try HFS drive data recovery before paying for anything
Check Time Machine first. If you had it switched on before the data loss, open the Time Machine interface, navigate to the date before the files went missing, and restore them directly. It will not help if Time Machine was never enabled on that volume, which is the case for most external HFS drives connected just for storage.
Disk Utility is worth a quick look too, but only for repair, not recovery. Open Disk Utility, select the HFS or HFS+ volume in the sidebar, and run First Aid. This can fix a damaged directory structure and make a drive mountable again, but if First Aid reports errors it cannot repair, it will not pull your files back out. At that point you need actual recovery software, not a repair utility.
There is no built-in macOS feature that performs true file-level HFS drive data recovery after deletion or formatting. Disk Utility and Time Machine solve different problems than the one most people searching this term actually have.
Steps To Recover Files, Folders, Data, or Volumes From the HFS or HFS+ Drive Using SFWare Data Recovery Software for Mac
1: First, download and install SFWare Data Recovery Software for Mac on your system to get the HFS partition recovery process going.
2: With the tool installed, launch it from the main screen. Pick the HFS or HFS+ Drive you need, then hit Start Scan.
3: The tool scans your selected Mac HFS drive and shows you the recovered data right on screen.
4: Need to sort, filter, or track down specific files fast? Use the Filter option or the Search bar.
5: There’s also a free Preview feature in SFWare Data Recovery Tool for Mac, so you can look over your recovered data before saving it.
6: From the list of recovered data, pick out the files, folders, or partitions you want back, then click Save. The tool will ask you where you’d like to save them, pick a location, and once you’ve chosen your data and destination, it’ll kick off the HFS file restoration process.
Tips To Boost The Chances of Successful Drive Recovery
- Stop Using the Drive: Keep using the affected drive, and you risk overwriting your data, which can make recovering HFS files hard, or sometimes flat-out impossible. Stop using the drive right away to give your HFS or HFS+ partition data recovery the best shot.
- Act Quickly: Don’t sit on this, recovering your HFS partition files and folders now rather than later makes a real difference. Just be sure you’re using a reliable data recovery tool, since an unreliable one can cause permanent data loss.
- If necessary, seek professional assistance: Go with the paid version of SFWare Data Recovery Software for Mac, and you’ll get our best-in-class Tech support, available round the clock to help you recover lost partitions or files from HFS drives, any Mac system, or external storage device.
Conclusion:
By now, you know all the common reasons behind data loss on HFS or HFS+ drives. You’ve also seen a professional data recovery tool built to recover permanently deleted files and lost data from any internal or external storage device, including an external hard drive formatted with the hfs format. Keep the tips above in mind, continuing to use the affected drive, or putting off recovery, only risks losing more data. Investing in the right tools makes HFS partition recovery in Mac OS X and other versions a lot easier for any Mac user.
