Files Disappeared from External Hard Drive on Mac – How to Recover Them

Last Updated on December 8, 2020 by Jason Ben


Hi there, I’m a new user of MacBook Pro and have Seagate external hard drive connected on it. In my drive, I saved a lot of files like music, videos, movies and tons of photography. I created some folders to segregate those videos related to my school project. About a week ago I noticed that one of my video folders is empty. I’m looking for a solution if there is an application can recover my lost files. I really need to recover them all as soon as possible.

Recover Data from Mac External Hard Disk Drive

Many of us experience data loss from an external hard drive, and it can be always a disaster. Especially when we accidentally delete our most important data, like images, music, videos, or messages, and also sometimes trying to save some space. We use Mac or PC to fill the hard drive with some pictures, movies, and some other files. When our device memory is full, the device works slowly and becomes sluggish. Ever since media storage devices were introduced, risks were always born along. Therefore, the storage of important data is one of the most necessary things to be protected.

There are some possible reasons for experiencing deleted files on a hard drive device:

  1. Being unmindful on what is the right way to operate a device. This becomes the root of taking risks, especially having not enough skills of using those devices.
  2. Device formatting, virus attack, or data mistakenly deleted.
  3. Having troubles on Recycle Bin, RAW partition, RAW hard drive, partition loss, or data system damage, your files may be inaccessible, hidden or corrupted.
  4. Operating system crashed may cause file loss after re-installing the system.
  5. Re-partition, improper clone and many other reasons that can cause data loss.

Don’t worry, no matter what reason it is, here I will teach you how to retrieve files from external hard drive on Mac, such as image, music, videos and some other files. And will also discuss how to avoid risks and troubles.

Aiseesoft Data Recovery is a data recovery expert by its capability of recovering unexpectedly loss of all data whatever reason makes them disappeared. It can also recover lost data from sd card by connecting the card with an card reader to the computer. Besides, memory card, flash drive and digital camera are applicable.

There are plenty of similar programs in the online market. However, what makes Aiseesoft Data Recovery outstanding from all, is the powerful search function to quickly find lost data and the fastest scanning speed. It is also a reliable data recovery program which won’t save your data to its server, not even have them being leaked out.

Let’s now take a look at how Aiseesoft Data Recovery helps you restore any kinds of your lost data in 3 easy steps.

In order to recover deleted files from external hard drive, always ensure that the external hard drive has been connected to your Mac or PC and recognized.

Here’s the step by step tutorial on what to do when encountering files disappeared from external hard drive Mac.

Step 1: Download Aiseesoft Mac Data Recovery as below.

Mac Download Win Download Mac Download Win Download

Install it immediately after it is successfully downloaded and run the program on your Mac after that.

Install Aiseesoft Mac Data Recovery - Drag icon to Application folder

Drag Mac Data Recovery icon to your Application folder.

app download from the internet alert

Click Open to Launch this App.

Step 2: Next, choose and scan.

Select External Hard Disk Drive to Recover file

You will be asked to choose the data type and location of lost data. If you only want to restore the videos, please uncheck the box next to Check all file types first and click the Video option. Select the external hard disk drive where your data is lost from all the shown hard disks. Then click Scan to begin the scanning process.

Step 3: Preview and recover.

If you can’t find your lost files after a quick scan, then you can try to use deep scan. Navigate to the file types you want from the left column to preview in small size. Check those files you want to recover, and then click Recover.

Reminder: You need to register first using your email account and registration code provided by the developer.

To avoid risks and troubles:

  1. Always be aware of data loss situations, and do backups either to another external hard drive or cloud service.
  2. Own this lifetime data recovery software – Aiseesoft Data Recovery. Put things right once and for all.
  3. Do not try to do the recovery by yourself if the external drive where you lost the data is physically damaged, ask for help from a reliable data recovery service.

It should not come as a surprise that many people tend to switch from iPhone to Android as it is the world’s famous operating system. It can be difficult to transfer music from iPhone to Android as both systems are not compatible with each other. And My colleague Leo had changed his phone from iPhone 7 to Huawei Mate 20 without transfering any songs, which cost him quite a long time to redownload those music that he likes. The experience impelled me to find some ways for iPhone users to switch to android without losing the music they had purchased or downloaded.

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