Running Testdisk on MacOS: What You Need to Know

If you're trying to run Testdisk on your MacOS device, you may encounter some challenges along the way. In this article, we'll explore the requirements and tips for successfully running Testdisk on your Mac.

Firstly, it's essential to understand that Terminal doesn't show passwords as you type, so make sure to enter the correct password when prompted. If you enter an incorrect or blank password, Terminal will ask you to try again.

To access the Testdisk command line tool, you'll need to have administrator privileges on your Mac. To do this, go to Apple menu > System Preferences and click Accounts. If your administrator account has no password (a blank password), you must give that user a password before using Testdisk.

According to the Testdisk manual, the requirements to run Testdisk on MacOS are outlined in section Ħ.6 Running TestDisk, PhotoRec under macOS. This includes ensuring that the drive is properly formatted and not already prepared with a known-good external boot source.

It's also crucial to note that installing software on the drive you're trying to recover is counter-productive and may overwrite the very data you're trying to recover. Having a tested, working backup solution is always better than panicking afterwards.

In addition, FAT cannot store unix permissions or ACLs and will actually break some of the Mac's data structures such as Photos or iMovie libraries and Logic Pro Project files. For this reason, it's recommended to use HFS instead, which can be read by a comparable reader utility on your other platform.

If you're using an operating system newer than High Sierra 10.12, Testdisk is next to useless for Macs, as is PhotoRec. In fact, they can't even read APFS at all, so it's pointless to install them unless the drive you're trying to recover from is FAT/ExFAT, which precludes any boot drive.

In conclusion, running Testdisk on MacOS requires careful planning and attention to detail. By following these tips and guidelines, you'll be well on your way to successfully recovering data from your Mac device.

Testdisk macos