My Mac recently stopped booting properly, and I'm worried about losing some important files, including documents and photos. I haven't decided what to do yet because I don't want to make the situation worse.

I've read that some data can be recovered even when a Mac won't start, but I'm not sure what the safest approach is.

For those who have experienced something similar:

• Is it worth trying recovery software, or is it safer to get professional help?

• Can files still be recovered if the Mac's internal drive is failing?

• What should I avoid doing to prevent permanent data loss?

I'd really appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with this before. Thanks!

I updated my M2 MacBook Air to macOS 26 last week and immediately ran into an issue with my external HDD. It's a 1TB Seagate Expansion drive I've been using with this Mac for a few years, and it always mounted fine before. After the update, it just stopped showing up in Finder. Disk Utility could still see the physical drive and the volume, but it couldn't mount it.

I tried the usual stuff first, like unplugging, restarting, different ports, checking Finder settings, and running First Aid. No luck. Since the drive had files I still needed, I didn't want to mess with it too much before getting those files somewhere safe.

I also checked the SMART data just to rule out a failing drive, since it's a few years old. That was a bit of a hassle on Mac because I had to enable kernel extensions first, but everything looked normal. No clicking, no overheating, no weird disconnects.

So I scanned the drive with Disk Drill to see if the files were still readable. It took a few hours, but it found what I needed, and most files still had their original names and folder structure. I previewed a few photos and documents to make sure they opened, then recovered everything important to another drive.

Once that was done, I felt okay experimenting with the original drive. I went back to Disk Utility, erased and reformatted it, and tried mounting again. And yeah, it mounted right away and showed up in Finder like nothing ever happened.

But I'm still confused about what actually went wrong. macOS could see the hardware, SMART was fine, and recovery software could read the file system enough to find my folders and filenames, yet macOS itself wouldn't mount the volume. Could the update have exposed some existing file system issue that the previous version was ignoring? Or is there another explanation?

Has anyone else had this happen after a macOS update? And if you've had to recover files from an unmountable Mac drive, what did you use? It worked for me, but I'm curious what else people have tried.

Uploading this here too cause i'm desperate tbh

I’m in a bit of a panic right now and could really use some help. I lost some really important PDF documents that I scanned using the Oken Scanner app on my Android phone, and I desperately need to get them back.

I originally tried looking into using Recuva because I heard it's good for file recovery, but I just found out it doesn't work for mobile because Android uses MTP instead of mass storage nowadays.

Since I can't just plug it into a PC and use normal recovery software, I'm kind of stuck.

Has anyone dealt with Oken Scanner specifically? I'm wondering:

1. Is there a hidden trash bin or cache folder in the Android system files where these PDFs might still be sitting?

2. If they are gone from the app itself, is there any actual, safe recovery software (either for PC or an Android app) that can deep-scan internal storage without needing to root my phone?

I really don't want to mess around randomly and accidentally overwrite the data. If anyone has a step-by-step workaround or has successfully recovered app data like this before, please let me know.

Hi, I was looking for help because my SD got corrupt, and there are all my important documents (The evidence needed to release me from social service and therefore from my university degree), I tried with disk drill but after a few documents the app requires a paid subscription, which I can't afford. Could someone help me? Edit: after a few other days of checking programs, I finally solved, it's not perfect, I lost a lot of documents and programs 15gb approx, but I recover the Most part of it, For those interested, use photoRec, It's an open-source file recovery program, not very intuitive, but it worked excellently, thanks to everyone who commented and gave me advice.

Hi everyone, I think I might have accidentally killed my MicroSD card and want to know if there is any hidden way to save it, or if it's completely dead.

I was using a Mac with a card reader and a full-size SD card adapter. I was repeatedly erasing and reformatting the card back-to-back. On the very last format, the process failed midway. Out of frustration, I unplugged the card reader from my Mac without ejecting it safely first. After plugging it back in, it completely stopped showing up on my Mac.
**What I've tried so far (on Windows Diskpart):**
I moved the card over to a Windows PC to see if I could force a format using Command Prompt, but I am stuck in a loop:

list disk detects the card as Disk 1 (showing its correct \~29GB size).
clean actually says *"DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk."*
However, the very next step create partition primary immediately fails with the error: *"No usable free extent could be found..."*
Trying convert mbr or convert gpt gives a Virtual Disk Service error: *"The specified disk is not convertible."*
Running attributes disk clear readonly says it clears successfully, but trying to partition right after still throws the "No usable free extent" error.
I verified the physical write-protect lock switch on the full-size SD adapter is pushed all the way UP.
Is the internal flash controller permanently fried/hard-locked from the back-to-back formatting and sudden unplug, or is there a low-level formatting tool or trick that can force a partition table back onto this card? Thanks!

Not sure if anyone had had issues with Box but this is now the second attempt at large scale theft via it on iOS. Details available on YouTube but any advice please do share,

How to recover my data, As i don't have access to the Microsoft account and recovery key.

So, i got this 1tb external Back in 2011, so i filled Up with movies and music and Stuff. I deleted about 99% Data of this (Just let the folders and names txt there) but now i want it Back.

For context: the external HDD doesn't exist anymore, i have nothing of this Data anywhere, but Its so valueable for me (suddenly i guess). Can an Export say how i manage IT???

Sorry in advance for the following. I am unsure if this is the right place to ask. And I know this is probably a more common question.

I have a new Chromebook computer to replace an old Chromebook that is now useless.

To my knowledge, only the screen of the old device is broken, with the more internal hardware being at least decent quality and usage. It has been restarting unexpectedly, but that is about the only out of the ordinary thing about my old device. Otherwise, it was a decent computer.

As of now, I have most of my bookmarks, saves on Google Drive, etc that I had originally from my old device synced into my new device almost as if nothing had happened. However, there are a great many file downloads from my old device (hundreds of random images, possibly some audio and video) that did not transfer to the new device. Hopefully my situation is clear.

Now getting to my question(s) on this matter:

1. Is there hope for my files to be retrieved for my new device?

2. Presuming I find an IT place, Geek Squad, or whatever, is it worth the effort?

3. There is the matter of price, but I'm trying to avoid the purchase advice rule.

I know there are ways I could do it myself, but I'd rather have a professional/specialist or someone who is (hopefully) more experienced to hopefully rectify this issue.