Disk Drill- relatively new program for data recovery, developed for two platforms - Windows and Mac OS X. Like any other recovery program of this class, it affects a wide range of devices from which the user can perform recovery: computer and laptop, Windows and Mac, phone and tablet, HDD (SSD) disk or flash drive, etc.

Latest on this moment recovery utility version, Disk Drill 3.0, compatible with all operating systems starting from Mac OS X 10.8.5+. By the way, the recently released Sierra is fully supported. As for the Disk Drill for windows edition, all functions are identical to those of Makov. The latest release is called Disk Drill 2.0 for Windows, available for Windows XP and higher (Vista / 7 / 8 / 10).

Key Features of Disk Drill

We'll consider key features programs that are equally relevant for all three versions of Disk Drill Pro / Basic, Disk Drill for Windows and Mac OS X.

Recover all file formats and systems

If the developers are not lying, then their Disk Drill program is capable of recovering files of more than 300 formats from the ashes. Including:

• photos in JPG, PNG or TIFF, pictures AI, PSD and INDD
• video files - AVI, DV and MP4
• music files (AIF, MP3 and WAV audio)
• RAW images – CR2, NEF or DNG
• documents in DOCX, PPTX and XLSX format (thus, the Disk Drill functionality allows you to recover damaged Word and Excel files).

As for file systems, Disk Drill can read and scan file systems of the following formats for remote data: HFS and HFS+, FAT/FAT32/exFAT, NTFS or EXT3/EXT4. Essentially, this suggests that you can attach any data recovery device to your PC or MacBook. In addition, if you use the Deep Scan option, volumes with a missing or damaged file system may also be able to detect something.

Available scan modes and recovery types

Quick SSD/HDD Scan

Disk drill's quick disk scan mode allows you to return files to your Mac along with their metadata, names and locations. If you recently deleted files, then this is probably one of the optimal options recovery before you formatted the HDD or overwrote a lot of files, which reduced the chances of correct file reconstruction.

SSD/HDD deep scan

Despite the fact that a deep HDD scan will take more time, this mode, built into the disk drill application, allows you to “dig out” what was otherwise impossible. The point is that some files may be damaged, and this requires a careful search for them in the file table. Say, if the system does not read the memory card at all, in Disk Drill you can understand whether it is possible to return the file table or not.

Return of protected data

For Mac computers This is perhaps one of the best options if you installed the Disk Drill program before deleting important files, and the Vault and/or Guaranteed Recovery options (they are responsible for saving data on the disk) were already activated within the program.

Universal search and recovery of hard drive partitions

This function allows you to recover mac partitions formatted in HFS+ or NTFS. Fat32 file system support is also available. In all cases, Disk Drill works at a low level with disks as binary elements, quickly scans the disk and looks for signatures, known partition headers. This function is extremely necessary for recovering partitions on a hard drive or SDD Macbook Air/Pro.

HFS+ recovery

The Disk Drill application comes with 3 SSD recovery modules that were created specifically for HFS+ partitions:

• reconstruction of HFS+ directories
• search for deleted HFS+ partitions
• HFS+ extraction

Everything works very quickly, efficiently and brings Mac OS X back to normal.

Supports all storage devices and devices

You can connect a specific device and restore it in a few minutes. In addition to desktop solutions, Disk Drill successfully copes with iOS (available iphone function recovery) and, of course, Android phones, tablets. By the way, we have already written about the wondershare dr fone program.

The free version of Disk Drill can scan virtual and hard drives - including hard disks Macintosh, external HDDs and SSD, digital cameras, iPhones, iPads, iPods, Android phones, USB flash drives, Kindles and memory cards.

Disk Drill is great for beginners

Most likely, you will not have any questions as you use the disk drill application. Just click on the restore button - the program will do all the operations for you.

In fact, there is no need to spend hours exploring the functionality of the program; it has a built-in step-by-step wizard that will guide you through the necessary steps in a simple manner.

Additional programs for optimization as part of Disk Drill

The program package includes the so-called. an additional package of free disk tools (Extra Free Disk Tools Disk Drill), designed more for home users, but not for professional experts. You can optimize Mac OS X and reduce its size, find duplicate files on your hard drive, perform a backup, check the status of your SSDs and hard drives And so on.

What tools does the Disk Drill program offer as a significant bonus? This is a few free programs for optimization, useful for comprehensive maintenance of order on a computer or laptop:

1. Disk Health – checks SMART indicators, as well as disk monitoring. All this together will prevent disk failure.
2. Optimization program Mac Cleanup and Duplicate Finder - analysis hard drive on Mac OS and search for junk files on it, deleting which will only be beneficial and free up space on SSD drive
3. Recovery Drive - creation bootable flash drive for subsequent recovery of Mac OS X using Disk Drill tools
4. Data Backup – creating a mirror (byte for byte) copy of a disk or partition on an SSD for data reconstruction

Summary. Thus, Disk Drill is another program for recovering files on SSD and HDD (see analogues), positioning itself as a universal solution for both Mac OS X and Windows. As already noted, there is a Pro version that works without restrictions, while the Basic edition allows you to recover up to 2 GB of files.

It refused to boot. CMD+R Does not help. What should I do?

The start of the working day did not foretell anything bad. A cup of coffee, good mood, the Power key and MacBook displays the following sad picture:

A worrying thought about the safety of the data immediately flashed through my head, current version backup copy TimeMachine(which was not at hand) and possible loss of information.

Attempt No. 1. Booting into recovery mode

Being an interested user and an avid Mac user, I immediately tried to start the MacBook in recovery mode by holding down the keys CMD+R. Instead of the usual disk utility, the system greeted me with a window with an attempt network recovery.

By selecting home network Wi-Fi, I started waiting further development events. After a few minutes, OS X's recovery progress was interrupted error -4403F.

Attempts to start the process again led to exactly the same result. Rebooting the router confirmed that network connection everything is fine.

About the attempt to carry out Mac diagnostics, fix possible mistakes hard drive or simply reinstalling the system was now out of the question. Section with Recovery HD, in which the tools for restoration are stored, ordered to live long.

Attempt No. 2. Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

Mac computers were created by highly qualified engineers, so the correct organization of the entire system and the presence of “hidden hardware reserves” allows you to avoid a number of interruptions in its operation. One of these reserves is memory sections PRAM And NVRAM. It stores settings data that is not reset even after the computer is disconnected from power. To revive the fallen system, a decision was made reset PRAM and NVRAM settings.

1. Turn on the Mac.
2. After the white screen appears, quickly press the key combination CMD + Option + P + R.
3. Hold until the Mac reboots again and the Mac greets the sound.

PRAM and NVRAM reset completed.

Although they say that hope dies last, it, lifeless and barely alive, continued to lurk in my mind. Resetting PRAM and NVRAM did not affect the error when loading the system. The MacBook continued to test my nerves.

Attempt No. 3. Reset SMS

Having gotten used to storing all the necessary data “in the cloud” or on removable media, the most simple solution global problems always remained to reinstall the system from scratch. This case was special. I needed data stored in memory and I needed a working Mac today.

In the Mac environment there is something called system management controller SMC. The stability of the entire system depends on the reliability of its operation. Resetting SMC settings can cure a number of problems like:

- constantly high speed cooler rotation even at minimum load;
– freezes while the system is leaving Sleep mode;
– errors related to the operation of additional peripherals or external monitors, as well as correcting system boot problems.

For SMC reset the following steps should be followed:

Laptops with built-in batteries

1. Turn off your MacBook and plug in the power adapter.
2. Press and hold the keys at the same time Shit + Control + Option + Power and hold until the MagSafe adapter indicator changes color.
3. Release all keys and press the key again Power.

Laptops with removable batteries (older models)

1. Turn off your MacBook and unplug the power adapter.
2. Remove the battery from the laptop.
3. Hold down the key Power And hold for at least 5 seconds.
4. Release Power, insert the battery and connect the power adapter. Turn on your laptop.

Desktops (iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro)

1. Completely disconnect the computer from the mains power.
2. Wait at least 30 seconds.
3. Connect the power and wait another 5-10 seconds and then turn on the computer.

The above actions can become really effective and the system will start. In my case, a miracle did not happen.

Attempt No. 4. Recovery using a bootable USB flash drive

An attempt to revive the system using the above actions was unsuccessful. The only option left was to reinstall OS X using a bootable USB flash drive. For this step you will need:

• another computer running the OS X operating system;
• Flash drive, at least 8 GB in size.

Preparing a flash drive

1. In the store Mac applications App Store You will need to download the OS X Yosemite system distribution.
2. To create a bootable USB flash drive, download the DiskMaker X utility (distributed for free). You will need it to deploy the distribution.
3. Format the flash drive using Disk Utility V Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

4. After the distribution has finished downloading, cancel the proposed installation and run the utility DiskMaker X.
5. Choose a system Yosemite (10.10). The utility will detect the distribution in the folder Applications. Click Use this copy(use this copy).

6. Select the drive installed in the USB port and agree to the warning about complete removal all data present on the flash drive.

7. The process of mounting the distribution kit with OS X Yosemite to the drive will begin.

The copying process takes about 10-20 minutes and depends on the writing speed of the USB flash drive. During mounting, dialog boxes and folders may occasionally open on the screen. Do not pay attention.

Once the OS X Yosemite image has successfully deployed, remove the drive.

System installation
1. Insert the flash drive into the USB port of the “problem Mac”, press the key Power and hold down the key Alt.
2. In the list of available partitions for downloading, select OS X Base System. Please note that there is no section Recovery. .

3. The Mac will boot into recovery mode. After selecting the main system language, the installation menu will open. IN top menu you will find a standard list of utilities.

Use Disk Utility and try checking your permissions first. system partition and correct possible errors. If after rebooting the system still refuses to boot, you will need to separate a partition of at least 20 GB in size for installation purposes new system. Detailed instructions by disk partitioning you will find .

From the same menu, you can either begin the process of installing the system on a newly created partition, or restore the system using a TimeMachine backup (see).

CAREFULLY! Be careful when choosing the installation partition. The installation must be carried out not on top of the old partition, but on a newly created one.

After installation is complete, you will have access to all data located on the “corrupted” partition with old version systems.

If you cannot create an additional disk partition

If for some reason you were unable to create an additional disk partition for installation new version OS X, and saving the data remaining on the damaged partition is still a priority; there is an option to install OS X using a previously created bootable USB flash drive on an external drive.

The question of how to format a flash drive on a Mac most often arises among users of the Windows operating system who, for some reason, had to use Apple computer and copy some information from it to an external drive.

In this case, the formatting process using the usual methods (right-clicking and selecting the appropriate command) is not suitable.

But the problem can be solved quite simply - moreover, you can even format it in Mac OS in such a way as to transfer information to a standard PC with Windows and even Linux.

Important! It is worth noting that when formatting, the information that was on the media will be destroyed, so if you have important data, it is worth transferring it to another device.

Basic Formatting Principles

For users who are just starting to use Mac, and have previously worked only with Microsoft products, it is not immediately clear how to format a flash drive in a system that is new to them.

Although all that is needed for this is to know about the existence Disk utilities Utility (or in Russian translation “Disk Utility”).

The next steps should be:

1. Paste into USB port flash drive;
2. Open Finder (analogous to Windows Explorer);
3. Select “Applications”;
4. Click on the “Utilities” icon.

After this, a list of applications will appear on the screen, from which you should select Disk Utility. Further work is carried out in the Disk Utility window that opens.

Working with Disk Utility

When the Disk Utility panel appears on the screen, you should find your USB drive in the list of devices and select the “Erase” tab.

You should be aware that older Apple operating systems only support formatting in a format suitable for Mac.

And then the information can only be read on another Mac, and your data transfer using a flash drive may be useless.

But such systems are only installed on outdated computers, and Mac OS X is already capable of formatting in several ways:

1. In format for Mac OS;
2. In FAT (32 or newer eFAT);
3. In NTFS.

The regular Disk Utility has all these capabilities, although it is possible that converting to NTFS will require installing additional drivers on the Mac.

Method No. 1. Formatting for use on Mac OS

If you need to format a flash drive only for use on Macs running any version of Mac OS, you should:

1. Open Disk Utility;
2. Open the “Erase” menu for the flash drive;
3. Select the Mac OS Extended format from the drop-down list;
4. Confirm your actions with the “Erase” command.

Now your drive is clean and waiting for information to be written. But it will no longer be possible to read a flash drive formatted for Mac on a computer running Windows.

In order for the system to detect the USB drive after the Mac, another formatting will be required.

Method No. 2. Converting a flash drive to FAT and ExFAT format

The utility also includes formatting into standard formats such as FAT32. Most modern computers, even with Windows, no longer use it.

However, it is possible that you are going to connect a flash drive with data (for example, with a movie that has the same extension, regardless of the system where it is launched) to a TV or DVD player, which works much more easily with this format.

Your steps when choosing this method are almost the same as in the case of formatting for Mac OS:

1. Opening the utility;
2. Selecting the “Erase” item;
3. Installation in the “MS-DOS (FAT)” or “exFAT” format window.

It is worth noting that multimedia devices such as TVs or DVD players may not work with the exFAT format.

At the same time, it is universal and allows you to use the same flash drive on both a PC and a Mac.

Moreover, it is supported by both modern Mac OS and Windows XP SP2, 7 and, naturally, later versions.

Method number 3. Formatting to NTSF

The disadvantage of FAT is that it can only use files whose size does not exceed 4 GB.

Which, given the size of modern games, programs, films and even the flash drives themselves (32 GB is considered a completely normal volume for a storage device) is not always enough.

In order to transfer information and not split the file into parts, it is better to format it in NTFS.

The format is also listed in Disk Utility. However, to use it you will have to do the following:

1. Download drivers like NTFS Paragon or NTFS Seagate;
2. Install them on your Mac;
3. To restart a computer;
4. Reconnect the flash drive;
5. Open Disk Utility;
6. Select the Windows NT Filesystem format that appears in the list.

Method number 4. Splitting across multiple disks

There is another interesting option. Part of the same flash drive can be formatted in NTFS, and the other in Mac format.

In addition, this formatting will be preserved, and on a computer with Windows, both partitions can be used and formatted separately, making the second part, for example, FAT.

To create one drive in 2 formats, you must first open disk utility, then go to the partitions tab and select the number.

For example, 2 - one will be in NTFS, the second in Mac OS.

You can change the size of the parts using the mouse by moving the partition to one side or the other.

IN modern world everyone knows what a flash drive is and uses it, if not daily, then very often. Sometimes flash drives have to be formatted in order to get a completely clean medium and do it quickly, without deleting files and folders one by one.

To get a blank flash card in Windows, just click context menu the "Format" option and wait for the process to complete, but on Mac OS there is no this item in the context menu. As a result, new users of Apple's operating system often have a question: how to format a flash drive on a Mac?

Doing this is not much more difficult than on Windows, and these instructions will convince you of this.

To get a formatted flash drive you don’t need to install any additional programs and perform complex actions - everything is much simpler. The algorithm of actions is as follows.

1. Connect the flash drive to a computer running Mac OS

2. Find and open the program "Disk Utility". This program is installed by default on all Mac OS computers. To do this, press the keyboard shortcut ctrl+space and in the Spotlight pop-up window, start typing the title "Disk Utility" or just open this program via Finder -> Programs -> Utilities -> Disk Utility.

3. In the Disk Utility program window that opens, find your flash drive on the left. On the right side, open the tab "Erase", select the file system format and the name of the flash drive and click the button below "Erase".

4. Confirm your intention to format the flash drive in a pop-up message.

That's all. As a result of these steps, your flash drive is completely formatted and ready for use again.

Electronics manufacturers are trying in every possible way to convince us that we live in a world wireless technologies. However, nothing has yet been invented better than the old, proven flash drive.

For fast data transfer from one device to another, for communication on different operating systems, for reliable data storage it is still convenient to use external drives information.

The only problem is to correctly format the flash drive or disk. Now we’ll tell you how to make sure that both macOS and Windows can work with such a flash drive without any problems in the future.

Which file system to choose

Among the many existing file systems, the most popular at the moment are considered to be: FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, APFS (Apple File System), HFS+ (Mac OS Extended).

From the box Windows fully supports FAT32, NTFS and exFAT, and macOS– FAT32, exFAT, HFS+ and APFS (with macOS High Sierra and higher).

Using third-party drivers and utilities, you can teach Windows to work with HFS+ and APFS, or add NTFS support to macOS.

Attention! When formatting a flash drive or other storage device, all data on it will be deleted; save everything you need in advance.

The solutions available today vary greatly in terms of stability and data transfer speed. In order not to load the system with unnecessary software and not waste time when copying or transferring files, it is better to use file system, which is supported by both Windows and macOS.

The choice is between FAT32 And exFAT.

The main disadvantage of FAT32 is the file size limitation. To such a disk will not work write a file of size more than 4GB. Given the availability large databases data, backups, projects or video files, it is better not to be tied to the outdated FAT32 file system and select exFAT.

How to format a flash drive on macOS

1. Launch the application Disk Utility through Spotlight or Launchpad.

2. In the left pane, select the drive you need to format.

3. Click the button Erase.

4. Specify the file system exFAT and confirm the action.

How to format a flash drive in Windows

1. Open File Explorer.

2. Select the drive you need to format.

3. In the context menu, select Format…

4. Specify the file system exFAT, set other formatting options if necessary.

5. Confirm the procedure.

The finished flash drive in exFAT format will be recognized by both a Windows computer and any Mac. In this case, it will be possible to both read data from the drive and write to it without a limit on the file size of 4 GB.