Stolen Macbook Returned - Data Recovery

dobbsy · 22 Oct 2013 at 19:21

Hi all

Just collected by laptop from the police today after it was stolen.

Upon return I noticed both my user accounts were protected by passwords.

I have done the reset password command in terminal (recovery command-R) and accessed both accounts.

However, the hard drive is saying 26.53gb free of 127.18 so obviously some data is there, although I don't know where. Applications look in tact - there was some deleted items in the recycle bin (40gb worth).

Something isn't right with how I've reset the accounts.

Any help greatly appreciated - had some baby photos of my son on there which myself and my partner are desperate to recover.

Many thanks

randal · 22 Oct 2013 at 19:22

No TM backups?

Nothing popping up in a spotlight search?

dobbsy · 22 Oct 2013 at 19:28

Had a TM backup but hadn't backed up a while before it was stolen unfortunately.

Tried spotlight - can find some files but looks as if they may have been deleted (nothing on desktop anymore when I was clear there was things on there when it was taken).

Just can't get my head round the disk space usage - gives me hope data is still there but perhaps locked by keychain access or something?

MagicBoy · 22 Oct 2013 at 19:47

Time Machine offline backups?

Time Machine can make offline backups on the local disk when it's not backed up in a few days, ready to transfer to a Time Capsule or external drive when reconnected.

dobbsy · 22 Oct 2013 at 20:03

MagicBoy said:
Time Machine offline backups?

Time Machine can make offline backups on the local disk when it's not backed up in a few days, ready to transfer to a Time Capsule or external drive when reconnected.

No joy unfortunately - only got backups from 'today' listed. Gutted.

Just trying some file recovery software (stellar phoenix) now to see if they've deleted it.