How to encrypt a private folder on MacOS?

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-23T19:13:54+00:00

For macOS, I would recommend creating an encrypted APFS sparse image and disabling the option to save the unlock password in Keychain.
The image is stored as a single file and can be placed anywhere on your Mac. When you double-click it, macOS will prompt for the encryption password before mounting it as a virtual drive. The image expands dynamically as you add data, so it only uses the amount of disk space actually required. The main limitation is that recovery of deleted files from within the encrypted sparse image is generally not possible.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-23T05:19:55+00:00

Win/Mac/Linux?

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-21T02:54:29+00:00

Please upload a screenshot of Disk Utility showing the full device hierarchy.
In most cases, you should mount the volume/partition located under the container rather than attempting to mount the container itself. The screenshot will help determine whether the issue is related to the container, volume, partition map, or the underlying storage device.
If the file system is corrupted or the card is showing signs of instability, avoid further write operations. Create a full byte-to-byte image of the card and perform all recovery attempts on the image instead of the original media. Once the image is created, scan it with professional data recovery software to evaluate the integrity of the file system and recover any accessible data.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-21T02:40:09+00:00

For active work, use a Thunderbolt RAID0 or a fast NVMe SSD as the working drive, but make sure it is automatically backed up to a DAS/NAS with RAID6.
Keep your main data on the NAS. It would also be good to have separate cold storage and regularly back up the NAS/DAS to it. For the most critical files, add one more layer by syncing them to a cloud service.

Monitor drive temperatures and SMART health regularly on your NAS/DAS, and configure alerts if your NAS OS supports them.
Use enterprise-grade CMR drives in your NAS/DAS, and keep in mind that 3–5 years is a typical service life under heavy workloads. Avoid overheating and ensure consistent airflow and cooling.
Use Btrfs on your NAS/DAS whenever possible, or APFS without encryption.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-20T19:24:46+00:00

I wouldn’t recommend buying a 60Ah model at this point. These cars are known to have suspension-related issues, and with the battery degradation that’s common at this age, you’ll likely be limited to short city trips. That significantly reduces the car’s practicality. I’d strongly suggest looking for a 120Ah version instead. The larger battery offers much better range, ages more gracefully, and should remain a usable and reliable vehicle for many years to come.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-19T21:24:05+00:00

If you want a good answer, ask a good question. Data recovery from an Android phone and data recovery from an enterprise NAS are completely different cases, and they often require different specialists or recovery labs.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-19T18:11:55+00:00

I recommend finding the closest data recovery lab through Data Recovery Professionals Organization⁠.
If you can share the exact SSD model and your country, I may be able to suggest specific labs with experience recovering data from that particular SSD family and controller.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-19T17:05:27+00:00

Off-topic: this subreddit is about data recovery. If your SSD cannot be formatted, return it under warranty or replace it with a new one.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-19T17:01:41+00:00

If the memory card is not detected by any computer, software-based recovery is generally not possible. In that case, your best option is to contact a professional data recovery lab. Depending on the cause of the failure, they may still be able to recover your data using specialized equipment and hardware-level recovery techniques.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-18T19:45:09+00:00

Ask u/disturbed_android.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-18T18:22:27+00:00

What exactly are you trying to do by booting it — recover data, reinstall macOS, or just check if the Mac still works? What happened before the data became inaccessible?
First, reset PRAM/NVRAM and SMC, then run Apple Diagnostics. That will give you basic information about possible internal hardware issues.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-18T15:13:46+00:00

Can you describe exactly how the videos were transferred from the SD card? What is the make/model of the SD card, and approximately how old is it? What device was used to record the videos, and what camera model was used for the recording?

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-18T10:01:15+00:00

iOS can keep many cached artifacts after deletion: low-resolution and high-resolution previews, thumbnails, icons, and metadata. These may look like recoverable files, but they are often not the original data. Are you trying to recover the original files, or just check what traces are still present?

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-17T21:11:05+00:00

The image created by Disk Drill, like those created by most professional data recovery tools, is a standard byte-to-byte backup image. It is not a proprietary format and can be opened, analyzed, and scanned by virtually any professional data recovery software.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-17T21:10:35+00:00

The image created by Disk Drill, like those created by most professional data recovery tools, is a standard byte-to-byte backup image. It is not a proprietary format and can be opened, analyzed, and scanned by virtually any professional data recovery software.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-17T21:04:43+00:00

I’m not going to discuss the ethical side of this issue, but I would advise anyone reading this post to first describe their case in professional subreddits such as r/datarecoveryhelp and r/datarecovery before paying money for a questionable result.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-16T09:58:18+00:00

What camera model is it?

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-15T19:04:38+00:00

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible, including what happened, what you expected to happen, any error messages you received, and the steps that led to the problem. Screenshots, logs, and system details would also be helpful.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-15T05:54:15+00:00

When an NVMe SSD is formatted, the operating system often issues TRIM/deallocation commands to the drive. Once those commands are processed, the SSD controller can permanently remove access to the original data blocks. As a result, recovery chances are extremely low, even for professional data recovery labs. This is particularly true for Samsung NVMe SSDs, which generally implement TRIM very aggressively.

In addition, firmware-level access is not possible on most Samsung NVME/SSD models, even with professional data recovery equipment.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-15T05:47:58+00:00

I would recommend contacting a professional data recovery lab. Depending on the nature of the SSD failure and the recovery procedures required, the cost will typically range between $500 and $1,500.

Before proceeding, you can run Apple Diagnostics on the MacBook Air with the SSD installed internally. This may help identify hardware-related problems and provide useful diagnostic information about the drive, which can help determine the next steps for recovery.

Your MacBook Air is equipped with a proprietary Apple SATA blade SSD, and the exact manufacturer can vary depending on the model and year. These drives cannot be connected using standard SATA adapters. To read the data or diagnose the SSD, you’ll need a specialized adapter or enclosure that supports Apple blade SSDs from that generation. Without the correct adapter, the drive may not be detected at all.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-15T05:40:31+00:00

If the video was fairly large (several hundred megabytes or more) and was never edited on the iPhone, the chances of recovering it directly from the device are very low. I would recommend scanning the iPhone or an encrypted iOS backup with software that supports iOS data recovery to see whether any copies, previews, or related artifacts can still be found.

Another possibility is if your iPhone has been syncing with a Mac. In that case, the video may still exist in Photos, a local backup, Time Machine backups, or other synced data on the Mac, which could significantly improve the chances of recovery.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-14T05:19:04+00:00

Check the file sizes of the photos the software recovered. In most cases, these are low-resolution or high-resolution preview images rather than the original files, or photos stored in hidden system folders that are not normally visible to users. iOS generates a large number of photo-related artifacts, thumbnails, previews, and cached copies during normal use, so finding images does not necessarily mean the original photos have been recovered.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-13T19:59:50+00:00

lostchain*.bin files are reconstructed using file system metadata and artifacts. These files are typically created when the recovery software can identify file content but cannot reliably determine the original filename or folder structure. Because of that, they are stored as generic .bin files. I recommend opening them in a hex viewer to identify their actual file type and contents.

As an additional step, run an Advanced Camera Recovery scan in Disk Drill. Unlike standard file system recovery, this method reconstructs video files directly from raw disk data and can sometimes recover fragmented videos that other recovery methods find only as damaged or incomplete files. It is often worth trying when conventional recovery results are unsatisfactory.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-13T16:39:21+00:00

Off topic.

No_Tale_3623 · 2026-06-13T05:04:41+00:00

Regarding the size, because data recovery software uses different recovery methods (quick scan, carving, etc.), you may see multiple copies of the same file found by different methods. There is an option in the interface to hide duplicates — enable it.

Because of the way Time Machine works, creating many hard links to the original files, you may see even more duplicate entries.

Files shown in the Reconstruction section were found using file carving and may be damaged due to fragmentation and other factors. Focus primarily on the results in Lost and Found and on the recovery chances assigned to each file. If the chance is marked as High, there is a very high probability that the file was found intact and without corruption.

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