So what do you do when your small child erases your iPhoto collection? I guess you undelete from the trash… But what happens if you didn’t know your photo collection was in the trash and you emptied it? You go to your most recent backup. But what happens when your most recent backup is 6 weeks old (you know, just before your newborn arrived?). You panic.
I’ve had a Mac Mini for over a year, and never had a drama with it. So when all my photos disappeared I felt sick in my stomach. I am so not battletested in this space - I’ve never had to be.
Anyways after some frantic hunting on the web I bought a copy of FileSalvage for OSX. It’s $99USD which is quite a sum… but really a very smart pricing model since the only time you need this tool is when you really need this tool. RIght Now. Before your OS starts using all of that "empty" space you just created.
Anyways, I set it off and a few hours later I had 23000 undeleted images called File001. I only needed ones from the last six weeks, so I ran the sensational PhotoToolCM to rename and redate the files based on the EXIF data that the camera stored inside the image and I was in business.
This story has a happy ending (not many of these sorts of things do). The newborn shots are back. All of them. Phew!
Now I plan to backup weekly…