Mac recovery

September 28, 2006 11:45 AM

Help me recover a file on my mac!

I just need ONE little powerpoint because I saved it on a flash drive, made changes, then deleted it like an idiot. I've looked at previous threads but Norton Utilities has been discontinued and I don't have time to order it from ebay or whatever!

posted by joshuak to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Is it on your hard drive, or the flash drive?
posted by jjg at 11:55 AM on September 28, 2006

FileSalvage.

I ordered this software after I accidentally deleted my wife's entire account from our iMac. It was able to recover most, if not all, of the files I stupidly trashed. And you can order it online and download it immediately. It might be a little expensive for just one file, but you can keep it around in case of accidental future deletions.
posted by Shecky at 11:55 AM on September 28, 2006

hmm.... $80? originally i was looking for free but Norton was $70. I guess I don't really have a choice.
Thanks
posted by joshuak at 11:58 AM on September 28, 2006

Avoid Norton if you use OS X.
posted by cribcage at 12:04 PM on September 28, 2006

Prosoft Engineering's Data Rescue II has saved my bacon more than a couple of times. Small company, GREAT product.
posted by dbiedny at 1:50 PM on September 28, 2006

I used Filesalvage and it worked but the powerpoint file was corrupted!

But at least I recovered it!
posted by joshuak at 4:27 PM on September 28, 2006

A free (open source) option for file recovery is PhotoRec. I've used it several times to recover JPEGs from a digital camera card, but it also claims to be able to recover Office files.

There's no GUI, though. But it's not that hard to use, and there are docs.

That being said, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Data Rescue. Great product with great support (and yes, I found out the hard way).
posted by dweingart at 6:58 PM on September 28, 2006