Mac OS X System Data Recovery

First commercially released in 2001, Mac OS X is a 32 or 64 bit multi-tasking Unix-like operating system. The OS itself consists of two main parts: Darwin, an open source Unix like environment which is based on Mach microkernel/BSD Unix and the GUI (Graphical User Interface) ‘Aqua’ developed by Apple.

Although OS X is built on the stability of Unix, and the hardware used by Apple tends to be of a high quality, mistakes, accidents and hardware failures do happen, an Apple system is just as prone to data loss as any other system. These types of failure can include:

• Hard disk failure (see General Hard disk Failure section of Data Clinic website)
• Degradation of hard disk or peripheral media (including Floppy, CD, Zip or external hard disk etc.)
• User Error (accidentally deleted data etc)
• Accidental initialization or formatting of media
• File system corruption
• Malicious damage and more

Recovery of data from an OS X system requires an in-depth knowledge of not only how the operating system is put together but also and perhaps most importantly, how the file system at the core of OS X works. OS X uses as standard one of two completely different file systems, HFS+; the latest development of Apple’s proprietary Hierarchical File System, and UFS a true Unix file system.