Chances are typically much higher to recover files that are deleted from a drive vs recovering files from a drive that is fully formatted. But in either case it’s best to power down the drive or computer as soon as you realize that the files have been deleted.

Mac Deleted File Recovery: Recovering files from a Mac drive are a bit more challenging in terms of recovering the deleted files with a file structure. But if the files were deleted and the drive was not fully formatted, our chances of recovery with a file structure are much higher.

PC Deleted File Recovery: Chances of recovering deleted files from a PC formatted drive (NTFS) are much higher. We are almost always able to recover the deleted files with their original names and file and folder structure.

Recovering data from a drive that has been formatted is always more challenging. IF the drive had encryption (Bitlocker or FileVault), recovery of deleted files would be impossible. Since the decryption key got wiped out as well, it wouldn’t be possible to recover the data.

Mac Formatted Drive Recovery: If you Mac drive was fully formatted, as long as there was no encryption, we should be able to recover the data, but it would be WITHOUT a file or folder structure. The recovered data would be in format.

PC Formatted Drive Recovery: If you PC formatted drive was fully formatted, we may still be able to recover the data with a full file structure. Just please make sure to power down the drive to prevent overwriting of data.

The most common device we recover deleted files from are by far hard drives (mechanical drives). These devices have the highest chances of recovery as the data is physically stored on the actual platters surface.

As technology advances, Solid State Drives are becoming more common. Chances of recovering deleted files from Solid State Drives are much slimmer due to “Trim” permanently wiping out the data.

Recovering from SD, CFast and MicroSD cards are possible, but just like SSD drives, chances are a bit slimmer due to “Trim” kicking in. Typically we’ll be able to recover deleted video files from these devices, but majority of the time, the video files will be corrupt due to damage to the files metadata. In these cases we can attempting repairing the files.

Recovering deleted files are possible from “some” computers. IF the computer has a removable drive, chances are good that the data will be recoverable. IF the drive is soldered onto the motherboard of the computer, chances are slim that the data could be recoverable (ex: newer model Mac computers).