How do you find a way of restoring permanently deleted files in a seagate external drive running on macOS?

[travisscott]

I spilled Trash, having deleted a project folder on an external Seagate Backup Plus (2TB) during work in a MacBook Pro (macOS Ventura). Time Machine backup was off. I have not added any new data to the drive. I attempted to use Testdisk, however, I became disoriented with option of partitions. I would not like to spend a lot on recovery services unless there is a need. What are some of the free/low cost tools and procedure to use on the macOS in order to attempt recovery? Also, when I connect the drive to a windows PC, will it be superior to windows based recovery tools? Any measures to prevent additional loss of data?

 

[sarahmartin]

You can try using PhotoRec (free and works with macOS) it’s from the same developer as TestDisk but easier to use. It scans the drive for recoverable files without modifying anything.

Steps:

1. Download PhotoRec and run it in read-only mode.
2. Select your external Seagate drive and choose a destination folder on another disk to save recovered files.
3. Let it scan fully recovered data will appear sorted by file type.

Tip: Don’t write or save anything new on the Seagate drive until recovery is complete.
Optional: On Windows, tools like Recuva or EaseUS Data Recovery (free trial) can sometimes work better, but only if the drive’s file system is readable (exFAT or FAT32).

If the data is very important and these fail, then consider a professional recovery service.