Getting files back
A drive that held files yesterday and shows none today is usually one of four cheap problems before it is data loss.
A drive can contain several partitions, and Finder shows each as a separate disk. Open Disk Utility and look at the sidebar — if the drive has two volumes, your files may be on the one you have not opened.
⇧⌘. in the drive's Finder window. Windows machines and cameras sometimes set hidden attributes, and a drive used elsewhere can come back with everything hidden.
If the drive reports space used but shows no files, the data is there:
du -h -d 2 /Volumes/DriveName 2>/dev/null | sort -hr | head
find /Volumes/DriveName -type f 2>/dev/null | head -30find bypasses Finder entirely. Files it lists are real, whatever Finder shows.
Files deleted from the drive on any Mac sit in its own hidden trash:
ls -la /Volumes/DriveName/.TrashesDisk Utility → select the drive → First Aid. A FAT/exFAT drive unplugged mid-write can lose directory entries that First Aid restores — sometimes into a FOUND.000-style folder of recovered fragments.
USB sticks and SD cards rarely TRIM, so proper recovery tools genuinely work on them. Stop writing to the drive, recover onto a different disk.
Eject before unplugging, every time. FAT and exFAT — the formats most USB drives use — keep directory data in memory and write it late. Yanking the drive is precisely how the "empty drive with used space" state is manufactured.
Hidden files, another partition, its trash folder, or directory damage. find and du in the Terminal reveal what is really there.
Often yes — flash drives rarely TRIM, so recovery software works far better on them than on internal SSDs.
Everywhere keeps track of every file on your Mac — including the folders Spotlight hides and drives you have unplugged. Free for a day, then $19 once.
Download for Mac