Accidentally restored/deleted my WD external drive. How to recover it?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for macOS
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Hello all,
I was trying to create a restore of my MacBook Pro on my WD external drive. I found some steps online and decided to follow up these steps. I went to “recovery mode >> Disk Utility >> Restore” which turned out to be a restore of my WD external drive. Now, I seem to have lost all my files that used to my WD external drive. Is there any way to recover my files?
Thanks a lot in advance for your answers.
Best,
Martin

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Accidental deletion is one of the most common human errors that leads to data loss situations. Here are the 4 best methods that you can try to recover accidentally deleted data from any external drive on a Mac system:

  1. Restore deleted data from an external hard drive by using Trash
  2. Restore deleted external drive data by using Backup
  3. Recover deleted data from external hard drive using data recovery software
  4. Go for Mac hard drive recovery services

Further, I suggest you to check the below link for the steps to be followed in above-mentioned methods:

Hope it helps!

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Thanks for the reply Jose2020. I ended up using a data recovery software.

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What software did you end up using? I was looking for a reliable solution myself and came across this interesting article on how to recover files from external drive: https://www.cleverfiles.cоm/help/external-hard-drive-recovery.html. It offers some great methods for data recovery and explains the steps in detail. However, I’d prefer to follow confirmed and tested methods, especially when it comes to something as important as file recovery. If you have any recommendations or can share what worked for you, I’d love to hear your thoughts

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Hi Martin, which software did you choose? I am searching for a trusted data recovery software to restore my WD passport, and find this post: How to Recover Data from WD My Passport on Mac | from Any Situations
It provides two GB recovery for free, but I need more cuz my WD passport data is over 200GB. So plz tell me which data recovery software you end up with, and is it free or not? Thanks in advance!

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Spam, spam, spam, spam.

These are the software tools used by DR pros:

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3208

Many are cheaper than the high visibility, second tier tools that spam forums such as this.

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It can be quite upsetting to unintentionally restore or erase your WD external drive, particularly if it held crucial documents, images, or files. Don’t worry, though; unless it has been overwritten, your data is probably still recoverable. Since continued use can overwrite deleted data and make recovery more difficult, the first step is to stop using the drive right away. After that, connect your WD external drive to a computer without making any additional writes or formatting changes.

You can use an expert data recovery tool, such as BLR Data Recovery Tool, to safely recover your lost data. The purpose of this software is to recover lost, erased, or formatted files from memory cards, USBs, HDDs, SSDs, and external drives. It performs a thorough drive scan and recovers all file types—including documents, videos, images, and more—without erasing any data. With just a few clicks, even non-technical users can restore their WD external drive data thanks to its user-friendly interface and sophisticated recovery algorithms.

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Please note that the more you use the external drive after the restore, the higher the chance that new data will overwrite your lost files, making recovery more difficult. Therefore, stop using the external drive and follow these steps:

  1. Browse through Time Machine backups

If you were using Time Machine for backups, there might be a backup available on the external drive (if it was used for that purpose). If you find the files, restore them as soon as possible.

  1. Use data recovery software to recover the files

There are professional programs that can help you recover files that were accidentally erased or deleted. Be sure to install and run the software on a different drive (do not download or install the software on the WD external drive).

This related how-to post should be helpful: Accidentally Erased a Hard drive on Mac? It’s Recoverable