Does a Clone Help Mac Data Recovery?

I spoke with a customer regarding an external Mac hard drive that he was trying to recover his data from. The external hard drive was starting to fail – mounting sometimes and other times not. This recent attempt he couldn’t get it to mount to the desktop. He had previously tried copying data from it but in the middle of the process the hard drive was unmounted and the copying was stopped. He then found Prosoft Engineering’s Data Rescue 3 Mac Data Recovery Software. He downloaded the free trial and started to run a “Deep Scan”.

A Deep Scan is a comprehensive data recovery scan method that provides the most results possible. He thought he was doing great untill he got a read error, which said if he continued any further there could be further damage to the drive and Data Rescue 3 suggested to create a clone. He wanted to know how a clone could help him recover the data. I explained to him the clone of this bad drive to a good drive would copy the data from the bad drive and plant it on a good drive that can then be scanned to retrieve the data.

I helped him setup a reverse clone to run and then told him about the 2nd step, which is running a Deep Scan on the cloned drive to recover the data. I explained to him the clone process is easier on a failing hard drive and always a good choice on a drive that has physical problems. So, cloning a hard drive definitely does help data recovery.

There is another helpful article of mine regarding data recovery using Recuva, you can also read this.

Mike Fiato

I have been working for Prosoft Engineering for 4 years by supporting our Mac & PC users with hard drive utilities and data recovery applications. My focus is continually updating our award-wining products with new versions, by listening to our customers and researching market conditions. I am seasoned high tech professional with 10 plus years of experience in hardware and software as a Technical Support Manager, Field Application Engineer and Product Manager. Specializing in Mac & PC workstation hardware/software support, performance computing, benchmarking, technical marketing and product sales training. I have attended numerous trade shows, provided technical onsite training , supported Tier 1 & 2 OEM’s and have submitted performance workstations to SPEC.org for benchmarking verification results. My hands on approach has kept my experience diverse and relevant to the markets I support directly over the years. In addition to my experience listed I genuinely have a special interest in technical trends, advances in mass storage, data recovery, graphics cards and mobile computing.

When I have time and can schedule it, I like to go low tech and visit the outdoors, lakes, rivers and oceans to fish for variety of species.
I also enjoy traveling, remodeling my house, wood working and online FPS games. Having multiple hobbies is great way to disconnect from work and the everyday schedule to unwind and relax.