Recover stuff on Macbook

knightstyle

OK, I asked for it, I am always boasting about the reliability of my Macbook. So a couple of days ago I was given a disc with some films on and that brought on the dreaded spinning wheel, I tried several things but it kept returning before any operation was complete so today I popped in to our local Apple dealer, Stormfront in Lincoln and they rebooted it back to the original settings but I lost all my stuff! Yes some is backed up but lots isn't.
By the way Stormfront were great, the Macbook is well over the 3 year g'tee but they sorted it quickly for free.
So the point is that I want to recover stuff, I have found Stellar and a couple of other tools but is it worth over £60?
Is there a cheaper, free, tool that will do the job?

WilliamO

First of all you should of been backing up with Time Machine. Secondly Lincoln shop should of not gone for the restore option before asking you if you would like THEM to try and rescue your data first. Thirdly, next time I will not be so generous with this link:

http://www.softtote.com/data-recovery-free-for-mac.html

WilliamO

knightstyle

Thanks for that, I know, I know I should have been up to date with backing up!
Unfortunately the link is for osx 10.6, I have reverted to 10.5.8
Also it, like so many others is not free as they claim, the prog recovers items but before you can see them or even examine then to see what is recovered you have to pay a hefty sum!

macman

Since you got the restore done for free, is your data not worth £60?
Professional data recovery starts at about £350.

knightstyle

Well I paid my 89$ and got lots of rubbish recovered plus 6 copies of the pics I had reloaded but none of the stuff I wanted, now what?

macman

Why not ask the dealer what they would recommend? It may be that forensic recovery is the only option, and even that may not recover your data. If it was overwritten by the reinstall procedure (not reboot), then it's not coming back.
Unfortunately, the more you try to DIY it or even use the machine, the more sectors you may overwrite.