Introduction
I lost some files because of GitHub. Deleted when changing branch from master to gh-pages. I tried to recover the lost files with four different applications. The recovery attempt failed. One app did not work, the other identified between 10 and 10,000 deleted files. I recognised the 10 files, but my, almost new, machine never had the 10,000 files. At least I have never added and deleted them. I did not manage to just recover files from the folder in which they resided prior to GitHub erasing them. the recovery attempt was thus completely useless and a waste of a days work. And now I have to remove the apps as well. Which will probably cause even more headache.
Alternative apps
I consulted the list of Top 7 Free File Recovery Software for Mac OS X for finding some alternative apps. From that list I tried the following:
- Disk Drill for Mac
- TestDisk for Mac
- Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery
- iSkysoft Data Recovery
- PhotoRec Recovery for Mac
Disk Drill for Mac
The app Disk Drill for Mac found thousands and thousands of files, none of which I recognized. I did not find the deleted images I was looking for.
TestDisk for Mac
Terminal based. Could not identify disks properly. Might have to do with the new Mac OSX disk format (AFPS).
Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery
Did not run on Mac OSX 10.14.
iSkysoft Data Recovery
Scans the complete disk despite that I asked for a specific folder. That scan took 2 hours. Thousands (but not tens of thousands like for Disk Drill) were identified, but none that I was looking for. And I still have no idea where all the deleted files came from.
PhotoRec
Comes in the same Terminal based app as TestDisk. And again the disk volumes on my Mac OSX 10.14 platform were not properly recognised. Here is a samll manual on Using PhotoRec to Recover.
Remove the apps
I manually removed the apps, seeking for leftover files under the ~/Library. As following the instructions on How to Uninstall Disk Drill.