[macster187]

Hi,

Yesterday i was going to install the xbmc on my 512 mb usb stick to use for my Apple TV. In the program that creates the patchstick I chose the wrong dev/harddrive - and thereby erased my 250 gb main harddrive (also an USB)

So that means that all my music, photos and movies are gone. I didn't know that the program would format the whole disc... So of course im pretty bummed out about loosing all my photos (and all the other stuff as well)

Anyway, I just wanted to know if anyone else have done this - and what you did to recover the lost files? I have no idea what that small xbmc program does when preparing to put the patchstick on it... I tried a data recovery program called "stellar phoenix" - but it only recovered 10gb of the 220 gb that was there...

Can anyone help me please?!!! Im a mac user...

Thanx in advance!

[Gamester17]

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Mac_on_Apple_TV

NOTE: Just to be safe, unplug any other Mac formatted USB drives just in case, (as you do not want to risk the chance the patchstick utility to overwrite the data on any other USB drive you might have connected).

[macster187]

Well i saw that afterwards... I know this is my own fault - I just thought somebody could tell me if I have any chance of recovering the files again?!

I have no clue what the program does that makes the patchstick. Does it format or does it erase my files so they cant be found again? How much in trouble am I?

[garyi]

First thing is unplug it and do not write any data to it.

Trouble is I think the patch stick uses a different file system or some such, at least it does not mount on the desktop once done.

Then do a search on mac update for recovery software.

Lastly and this is a biggy, if your data is in one place only, you have no data.

Back up always.

[davilla]

Well i saw that afterwards... I know this is my own fault - I just thought somebody could tell me if I have any chance of recovering the files again?!

I have no clue what the program does that makes the patchstick. Does it format or does it erase my files so they cant be found again? How much in trouble am I?

It does a format of the USB stick because it has to change to GPT format and create two partitions, one the special AppleTV "recovery" partition that is similar to hfs, the second is an hfs partition. Generally write changes are only done with the first 265 MBs. Anything there is gone. Beyond 256MBs you have a chance at recovery. google for "osx file recovery", there's a few apps that can scan sectors and try and rebuild the file info.