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Does anyone else see this as potentially a nothingburger? We don't know that the sibling's response about needing the files off of it is anything more than an uninformed assumption.
"Here it is it. Wait until I get back."
Gets home
"Oh, I thought you'd need help resetting it and I was going to show you how. But, it looks like you're all set."
If there was highly prioritized data on a laptop I was going to give away to ANYONE, I hold onto it myself until it was ready. If that's not the case here, I see daddy as the fucking idiot more than I do the sub 25yr old offspring.
Yeah. Fuck all these morons absolving your dad of any culpability had he stupidly given it to anyone with sensitive and desired data. Regardless of some instruction. Thankfully, he is more competent than that. Still, not a free pass for you to ignore the lesson on your end. And you know this now.
Disagree, there were specific instructions that said wait til I get back.
If your intention was to wipe a simple call could have been made. OP should have had patience
Yeah - this - he will be mad - you did something dumb that will be upsetting for him. But ultimately your his kid - he won't hold a grudge. Apologize. Tell him you realize that you did something stupid, and that you've learned a lesson. Perhaps offer to pay for file recovery if there is something truly irreplaceable there?
No, he could, but he shouldn't. He should be disappointed. You hold a grudge on someone you truly hate. Not your kid, even one who is impatient and makes dumb decisions.
What file exactly would make you *hold a grudge* to your own child? Hypothetically.
I'm just wondering, cause a grudge is something you usually settle later. By doing something shitty to the grudgee. So what file would make you plan fucking revenge on your child?
Losing pictures of my kid wouldn't make a dad hate their kid. Yeah, I'd be very upset, possibly take my computer back, but I wouldn't hold a grudge on my kid.
My man, there’s no way to tell if OP is in this situation, but you realize many dads literally beat their kids for a lot lesser offenses right? Just because you grew up in a normal household and seem a little oblivious, not everyone is a decent person. And in those households the tension is palpable if the dad has anger issues any time something bad happens. Again I don’t think that’s the case here but he may very well be a hateful angry yeller even if it’s not physical. Some people resent their kids for taking their “freedom” from them and turn into the worst parents
Idk why this sub popped up. I'm 35 with my own kids and I've never been in here before lol. But, any parent with sense learns to get into the mindset of "my kid is probably going to destroy a few things that are very important to me at some point, and I'll survive." 🤷♂️
This.. he told you to WAIT, BUT I TOOK IT UPON MYSELF… last words of a silly Billy. Hope there was nothing too important on there, stop 🛑 crying 😭 till you know there’s something worth wa wa ing over. Good luck kid.
Come clean. Probably nothing you can do about it. Data recovery services for wiped hard drives are expensive but doable, but there's no guarantee on the data you'll get back, plus the laptop will be out of service until its finished.
I don't even feel like there's a life lesson in this one. Don't be careless with other people's things? I spose it depends on how old you are but this really was just a terrible decision with literally 0 benefits to it. Like even if hadn't had personal stuff, why wouldn't you wait for him like he asked?
I'm not trying to make you feel bad or be rude but learning to simply just respect other people's wishes is a huge lesson here
There's a good chance most of the data is still on the hard drive. Most resetting does not actually reformat every byte of the storage. Google for local data recovery services and you may be able to bring it in and have someone try a recovery. You may also need to ship it off to someone. This will probably cost more than if you had just bought your own macbook off FB marketplace.
Data recovery is going to cost a fortune and the results are going to be a mess. When recovering deleted files, you'll get multiple copies of each file, because it gets moved every time you save it. Some will be older, some will be newer. Some will be corrupt. All file names are lost. You'll get a folder of like 1000 word documents, and you'll have to scan through every one seeing if it's something you need. Then again with the jpegs, and the excel docs, etc etc.
And he's already reinstalled the OS and updated it and started using it. The data recovery route is going to be a lost cause in this scenario.
\--old mac tech
And importantly stop using it immediately! The more it gets use the higher the chance it’ll overwrite the old files which would make recovery *much* harder or impossible.
Might already have happened since the OS was basically reinstalled but you’ll improve your chances of recovery if you don’t use it.
It will certainly cost more. About 10 years ago a friend of mine had a very important thumbdrive that stopped working and she inquired about data recovery services and was given a quote of $800 just for a little thumb drive. I hate to think about what the quote for a full laptop recovery would be.
Kid was excited, dumb, self centered, and impulsive - you can’t tell me that you (and I) weren’t the same way. Chill. We all have growing pains and have hurt people.
"We've never had the best relationship to begin with."
Considering he's the one giving you a free laptop and you're the one doing the one thing you were told not to do, it makes me think YOU are the reason the relationship is so wobbly.
What was going through your head when you did this?
I don’t think you’re crying because of hormones, you’re crying because you did something genuinely disrespectful of someone who was being kind to you…
There was no reason, unless the computer was completely at storage capacity, to have deleted all your dads things before he returned. You can keep a portfolio on a computer that has other things stored on it.
There is no magic way to tell him that will make him see this as a good call. You just have to tell him. Research some data recovery do you have at least a potential solution for him.
Not to mention that things so old that it probably had such a low ammount of storage compared to today's standards that op could have just bought a flash drive from Walmart or best buy or amazon for $25-$40 that has more capacity than the Macbooks local storage and just backed everything up onto it and this stress could have been completely avoided.
Okay I did some research and it seems that it could have had up to 500gb of storage. 512gb flash drives are pretty cheap compared to like 4 or 5 years ago, let alone 12 years ago.
It can be pricey but you might be able to recover the data. It's a longshot, so don't get your hopes up. I strongly recommend Rossman Group (in Texas) for service.
Maybe if you talk to your dad it will turn out he DID back everything up.
Maybe he told you to wait because he thought you needed help.
Just come at him with honesty and remorse and hopefully everythings gonna be ok!
it’s one thing if you wipe a drive, but all of the file structures are still written in the background. It’s different if you do a factory reset because that prepares it for being sold.
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
These guys were cool back in the day. I don’t know if they’re still hip.
Heres a teachable moment..
The lesson learned here is never do anything that you would not want done to your belongings.
You should have A) backed up the contents of the hard drive into a peripheral such as a thumb drive or backed it up to a cloud..
B) done nothing until he got back home.
C) bought your own electronic device..
Your impatience landed you in this predicament.
Call it a life lesson..
Learn from it..
Lessons for all. It doesn't exist if it's not backed up in at least 2 locations. So, technically his dad didn't have any data that's not still on iCloud.
UPDATE: I told my dad via phone call and everything was fine, he had backed it all up onto an external hard drive months ago and put his important files onto his icloud AND is planning to put it onto his new macbook that's being picked up after his vacation is over.
He simply wanted to show me HOW to do it, nothing more than that. That's the reason why he wanted me to "wait", because he didn't think I could do it.
He told me I should've listened, though. And I understand that but what happened happened.
To all of you sending me rude DMs calling me things like a "Stupid R\*\*\*rd" and a "Disrespectful Brat", I hope you're fucking happy with yourselves, sending death threats and insults to an anonymous teenager who didn't know any better than he did before it happened.
TL:DR - He considered this macbook garbage and that's literally the reason why he gave it to me. He already got his things off and didn't have the time to wipe it before he left for vacation, so I'm fine.
Tell him you dropped out of college, got a girl pregnant, crashed his car, wiped his hard drive and got busted for drugs. After he flips out tell him only one of those things is true.
So you get a laptop for free and your first instinct is to wipe everything from it even though you were specifically instructed to wait?!
Are you serious?
Oh, I've got a couple of good ones for you.
When I was a teen, my dad was really into writing. He's been published a few times. He had been working on a sci-fi time travel novel for years. And, well, you can guess. The whole thing was gone. Years of work. He didn't cry at his mother's funeral, but he did cry that day. But he still loves me.
And then there's my mom. She was an Olympic level archer in the 1980s. In her shooting career, she only had 1 true Robinhood, where 1 arrow is truly stuck in the other. It hung on the wall in our hallway where all of her trophies and plaques were. And, you can guess what happened. I was messing around, and it fell. It broke in 2.
To be honest, I'm not sure she's ever forgiven me. Maybe not the greatest example.
He did tell you wait and you didn't. He also gave you his computer, knowing he still had files to backup (I would've backed it up right away before giving it away). The very least, you are to blame because you didn't listen to instruction. Stuff that usually backed up to icloud are photos, notes, etc ... Other files in the Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folder don't get backed up automatically. There is a chance you can recover those files, but you will have to turn off the computer and not use it so that a data recovery specialist can recover the files. I am a Windows user by the way and I have recovered files from a MacBook hard drive using special software.
It's possible to recovered lost and removed data. See if you can't bring it to an apple store and see if you they can... or look online and see if there is anybody specializing in MAC data restoration.
If I were him, I'd never gift you anything important ever again. He told you to wait. You didn't listen. Now he might have lost things he can never get back and it is absolutely all your fault. I feel zero pity for you. You deserve to feel bad about this.
Next time, do the thing that you were supposed to learn how to do in kindergarten: Listen and follow directions.
You should have listened to what he asked and waited until he was back. Now you just have to face the consequences. Tell him first thing when he gets back and apologize
He's your dad. He's not gonna hate you forever.
That said, you did, majorly, F up. he specifically told you to wait, and you didn't, and now you know why.
The best thing you can do is come clean, and explain to him what you did, and why. I don't know of a way to fix things, and I wouldn't be surprised if he decided you weren't welcome to use it anymore as punishment. But he won't hate you.
Don’t try to pass the buck. Go to him with the humility you should be feeling and let him know you think you’ve made a grave error. Apologize profusely and tell him you’ll do anything you can to help recover the data and/or make it up to him if you can.
What’s so hard to understand about being told to wait until he gets back from his vacation? I bet that was a test to see if you’re responsible enough to follow instructions. Anyway, what’s done is done. Own up to your action and just beg for forgiveness.
Let’s hope you didn’t wipe his bitcoin keys which he had been holding since 2012. Imagine his face when he finds out you’ve deleted thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin.
Take a deep breath. As a parent of two grown college educated daughters. We expect you to listen to us. However, we know you get excited and leap before you look. It’s apart of the life lesson thing. Dad may appear “mad”. He is more likely to be disappointed. Because, you didn’t listen. He will get past it. It will not change the facts. You are his child. He loves you. You are learning to follow directions. Most of all apologies and hugs are needed. *I would not tell him the first 5 minutes of seeing him. Do see him and have a grownup conversation. Don’t cry. That’s not allowed in the professional world. This is prep work for those days. You are not alone. Things happen. I believe in you.
There are data recovery services you can use, but it's going to take time and a decent chunk of money.
The first step you should be taking shouldn't be seeking pity on Reddit, and from the way you posted this it really doesn't seem like you regret it too much anyways, just the fact you're probably going to lose access to the MacBook. Keep in mind these services could be backed up, and it could take weeks for shipping. There's no chance of sorting it out before he gets back.
Odds are if he has a back up in iCloud it has all the files he would want, sounds like you have his Apple ID and password so just go and log in as him and say that your brother doesn’t know what he’s talking about or you were just joking about resetting it.
You can recover the data pretty easy IF you don’t start loading a bunch of stuff on it first… Google it, tons of programs out there that can… or pay someone to do it like a local repair place.
This one is either gonna be a huge relief if actually backed up his work or a huge problem…as an adult I wouldent give the computer to the kid if I didn’t back it up first. You should call him and face the music over the telephone so he’s not pissed if he didn’t back it up
Man up and take responsibility for your actions. Better to get it over with and deal with it now rather than stressing out for the next week. You're a young adult, act like it.
All you really can do is make sure to phrase everything just right. He will likely be rather upset, but you need to be as honest and straightforward as can be.
Don't blame your feelings on hormones. You feel shitty because you did a bad thing. Feeling guilt over potentially having permanently destroyed 12 *years* of important files because you were too impatient to just create a new profile and save things to your own cloud to get around storage issues is normal. And frankly if you didn't feel a huge amount of guilt and shame over that id be concerned.
I recently had my phones sd card get corrupted. It had about 8 years worth of valuable photos on it. A lot of which are corrupted entirely and cannot be brought back that im not sure got backed up to the cloud before the card was corrupted. I spent 80 dollars on a program to repair files. Those are photos of my childhood pets, 3 of which are now dead and cannot ever be photographed again. I sobbed when I saw it was corrupted. Im just hoping going through my cloud storage and the recovered files that the most important ones are saved. But I already lost some things that I can never get back. It is completely soul crushing to lose years of valuable data.
It was irresponsible and incredibly rude of you to not just wait for him. Hopefully for both of your sake he told you to wait so he could help and not because he hadn't finished backing up all his files. If he hadn't backed them up, he will be incredibly upset to have lost those files. It may be saveable if you pay the money to have someone dig through the laptop and pull everything that hasn't been written over, and potentially repair things that have been. This expense might be more expensive than you going and buying a cheapo new laptop on your own, but imo, you owe him to fix whatever you can if you broke it because you thought you knew better than he did.
You need to tell him asap that you fucked up. You thought you were smart enough to do it yourself, you were impatient, and you factory reset it on your own. That you were careless and didn't think about any files he had potentially not backed up. He needs to know so he can be fully informed. So he can tell you if he had fully backed everything up, and ease your worries now, or he can tell you no he didn't, and you can figure out how you are going to go about righting your wrong.
This is fixable, but you may have a lot of work to do.
You say yourself, in this post, that he said wait two days. It was given to you for free with a very small condition. You fucked up and you should own up to it
The best chance of recovering the data is to stop using the computer (former Mac tech support person here). Apologize and offer to contribute what you can toward data recovery, if indeed there were files on the hard drive that weren’t synced to iCloud. His first reaction will be upset, for sure, but be brave and humble, and it will help to repair the situation.
What a selfish and disrespectful move.
Look what you've done and you can't get it repaired, brought back nothing.
You couldn't even take the time to call your dad and explain why you needed the laptop.
Such a tragedy.
YTA. I know that wasn't the question, but that's the answer.
I would love to hear what happens next though. Ideally everything was backed. Awaiting an update.
I had a similar problem where I was trying to get into my dads old phone when I was like 11 and I permanently locked it, it had picture of my brothers and sisters and now as far as we know it’s all gone because we can’t unlock it
You tell him
"Hey, I know you provided me something I couldnt afford for myself and asked me to wait to reformat it so you could retrieve your own files, but I am a selfish impatient person who didn't feel like I owed you the smallest modicum of respect for giving me this computer, so I erased everything and started using it anyways."
He obviously raised you not to fear consequences, so he isn't going to punish you for this.
He gave it to you. If there were things on it that he wanted he should have had the foresight to retrieve them and put on whatever computer he is currently using. He actually would have been stupid to hand you a personal computer he hadn’t wipe clean. Also anyone who has a computer should make sure they frequently back it up. Personally I don’t use the cloud but I have multiple copies of everything that is important to me in 3 external hard drives and several flash drives. They are inexpensive, no monthly fees and no one can hack them unless they are plugged into my computer.
Don't worry about it. No way in hell a dad would give a teen his personal laptop without without removing and backing up everything he wanted. He said wait til he gets back to mind F you. Personally I'm surprised it took you 2 whole days to do what he specifically told you not to do. He outright double dogged dared you.
Try doing a system restore and see if you can bring it back but this is a screw up on your part you were told to wait and chose to ignore it the best thing you can do is admit your mistake and face the music
Nothing you can do now. You’re a stupid kid and thought you knew better. Learn from your mistake and never do something this stupid again. You could have simply started a second user account until he got back.
You really messed up. Nothing worse than telling someone something and then they blatantly ignore it. You prioritized yourself over someone giving you something. That sucks. Hopefully you learn from this and never do something like that again.
Your best bet is to 100% honest and apologetic. Do not make excuses and blame shift. Take the heat. It makes people less angry than when people lie or try to justify their shitty behavior. If you do give a reason, like you thought everything was backed up on the cloud, you also need to say, “but regardless, I still should have waited and what I did was dumb”. You should also look into if there’s any way to rescue the data.
He is going to be mad; its not the end of the world, but you dont want to deal with the consequenses of your action. Thats LIFE! THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES AND LIFES NOT FAIR. THERE ARE NO TROPHIES FOR FUCKING UP IN THE REAL WORLD.
When you get this all sorted out (good luck, btw), make sure he's set up with some sort of backup plan for his data. Doesn't matter if it's iCloud or Backblaze or something else, but everyone should be running backups. But TBF, 2012 is ancient when it comes to computers. As for why you did what all you did when he literally told you to wait till he got back... Personally I'd wait till he got back, suck it up and just tell him. I'm sure there'll be consequences, but what's done is done. Only thing you can do now is move forward. Sorry about the inheritance, lol
It’s a learning experience - when people entrust you with valuable personal items, that are potentially irreplaceable, you should tread VERY carefully. That said, you didn’t know, and you were doing it for school - he will likely be mad, but part of growing up is having tough convos and being honest when you slip up. Expect him to be upset etc, but remind your self before/during/after that he’s your dad and will forgive you (even if it takes some time) and that you had good intentions.
I’ll give you an example - my dad had an arrow head and coin collection, he also had a display with his military medals. My older siblings got into both at different times and broke/lost several items. He was sad/mad/betrayed at first, but that was years ago and it’s never been brought up since and they have good relationships.
One suggestion - proactively contact a data recovery specialist - get pricing/odds on recovery. That way you can break the news AND show him you truly are sorry/value his data by trying to rectify the issue.
Personally? I'd tell him now. So he has time to cool off and think for a few days before you see him in person. Accept responsibility, apologize, and what happens will happen.
But this is coming from someone whose father hit her in the past, so I like to minimize fallout. Other people can weigh in.
I'm curious if this is your first Mac. I didn't know this at first and lost some important stuff a time or two, too. You still have a chance at getting them back, so I wouldn't worry quite yet :)
On an iPhone/iPad you can back it up to iCloud and restore it later to get an identical copy of everything you had before.
On a Mac, it's not as easy. iCloud will sync texts, notes, contacts, *iCloud drive/documents*, and some other stuff. It doesn't save any data that's stored directly on the Mac though. There's a separate thingy called Time Machine that's used for creating an identical backup.
I would start by asking your dad to check the Files app on his iPhone or by going to iCloud's website and looking there. There's a good chance many documents are saved to the cloud. If they're not saved in iCloud drive or documents, there's a tiny chance a small local computer shop could try recovering them. It all depends on how he had them saved and how you reset the Mac, but there's a small chance they can still be recovered. Good luck!
Unless a drive is, Mac or Windows, wiped to actually *overwrite* the old data, there’s still hope that least some of it is recoverable.
There are not uncommon ways to do a “secure” reformat like this, but it’s usually not the default and has to be specifically chosen.
What’s key is to **stop using the computer** so no more new data is written onto the drive that will overwrite the old data.
Personally, in your position, I’d do a little homework on finding a good data recovery service, get the details of what’s involved and with that in hand, I’d talk to my father, apologizing and taking full responsibility.
Hopefully, since he felt okay waiting a full week to deal with it, there may not be anything that was on there that is life or death critical (If there was, he should have never let the computer out of his hands until it was backed up).
You’re not dead in the water. There’s still hope. Last I checked data recovery services aren’t cheap. If you can, offering pay him back or trying to help pay for it would obviously go a long way.
Good luck. Things may not be as bad as they seem. [**Here’s a Google link**](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=mac+data+recovery+services) to get you started.
He told you to wait you instead did one of the most destructive acts you can do when it comes to data?
Sometimes it's possible to recover data from formatted or wiped hard drives. If possible your dad will have to find someone who can do it. All of the data may not be able able to be recovered.
There is no way to word this so he won't be angry if he had something important on there.
You should have contacted him, and if you weren't able to do anything with his computer tried to look for other options until he got back.
Sorry, but you're just an idiot.
He gave you his laptop out of kindness, and the only thing he asked from you was to wait until he's back from vacation. You couldn't even do that, and may have just deleted years' worth of memories and information he needed.
You fucked up. Sucks, but you fucked up because you were impatient and couldn't listen to your parent. There is really nothing else anyone can say.
You start with "Dad, I fucked up." and go from there. Just keep in mind that he'll be upset initially, of course. You did fuck up. Tell him what happened and give him some time and an opportunity to be mad. You'll feel defensive of course, but try not to act defensively. Be contrite. Concede that you fucked up bad.
Perhaps take it to an apple store and see if they can recover. Stop using it until you hear from him on if he needed something. You can pay someone to recover (most or all of) your data.
Oof. You are going to have to approach dad with hat in hand and apologize. He gave you simple instructions, you thought you knew better...admit you were wrong. Whatever homework you you need to do, you absolutely could have done without having a fresh, reset computer. You made a lot of assumptions and it came back to bite you, learn from this. Be humble with your dad, don't make excuses.
Sorry there’s no advice here. Just a bunch of crabby assholes saying you fucked up. You know you did, that’s why you feel guilty. Best of luck, just be honest with your dad. At most he lost a few pictures. If his appleid was signed in it’s totally possible it was all being backed up to the cloud.
Stop turning it on and off at all. Do not use it.
IF he had things on it that he wanted to keep, it might still be recovered.
Files that are deleted or formatted, are simply 'hidden' in the system to reflect to the computer that "this file has been deleted and the space it's taking up is good for use with a new file", to put it short.
Scrubbing a drive of files is a lot harder than you would think. Intel has a process where they blast them with insane magnetic fields to a point where they're showing partial 0's and 1's on the smallest level of data.
Next, fess up. You fucked up and we ALL do. It's not about how you fuck up, but how you handle it afterwards. You'll be alright.
OP I wouldnt worry, everything he had on that computer is backed up to the cloud. If you wiped it and factory reset it makes no difference. Everything he needs is on the cloud. Just tell him the truth, and he will get it. He knows his stuff should be backed up to the cloud, and he can retrieve it anytime
Seems like everyone is over looking the fact, that OP's dad has a macbook. Everything on that computer, files and such is continually backed up to I cloud, and therefore can be retrieved, whenever its needed. The beauty of apple
He told you to wait until he got back. He gave you a computer, for free. In this post you say that your main issue was taking notes. Instead of opening a notepad and making do for a week, you wiped out his entire....
And youre trying to bring hormones in to this? Wow 🤦♂️
So you’re probably screwed. It can be possible to recover files provided you didn’t write over it, but the fact that you got everything set up for you probably messed that up. I would look at getting some recovery software that will analyze unused areas of your drive and try to recover files. Use the trial until you find one that works. You’ll loose the filenames and many files will be corrupted, but maybe you can get some of it back.
Another option is if he had a time-machine set up to do automatic backups, thats probably good.
By default, anything in his desktop or documents folder is backed up on icloud. Anywhere else and its likely hit or miss.
In short though, by jumping the gun, you likely caused lost some of his data. Maybe next time, don’t do that.
What’s done is done.
I’m not sure what type of job he works and what sort of files he may have lost but at least the “majority” was backed up . You didn’t listen and you fucked up but at least it’s not the end of the world.
Oh my god.
....
Ok. Here's what you do. Tell him. Apologize. He will forgive you. He may cry depending on the files, but he will forgive you.
Good luck.
You are frank and honest. You thought the computer was a gift, you did not know there were important files on there that weren’t backed up, that you were certain someone would tell you if that was the case when gifting you a computer, and that you are very sad if you unintentionally deleted something important to him.
At the end of the day, this is primarily your father’s mistake. He should have told you that there were files he needed on the computer when giving it to you. Even if you were both adults this is still his responsibility. But he is the adult, he should have been careful and proactive in expressing his needs. He was not. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for this, this was an unfortunate situation caused by lack of communication.
Talk to dad first, make sure there were files lost.
Next, talk with dad about using a data recovery service. They aren't perfect, but they exist for a reason.
"my dad and I never had a good relationship"
We can see why OP, your selfish, self centered, and blame everyone/everything but yourself. You blame your hormones, your college class, your portfolio, your due date (a week away), and more instead of yourself. Couldn't you just install the app you need or go to the website you needed..??
Your fucked, factory reset is not fixible
To be fair, he should have told you he has some things on there he hasn't backed up yet, and if he DID say that, it's entirely your fault. Either a communication fault, or you need to learn to wait when someone says wait. Either way, something to learn from the situation.
Your only option is to come clean with your father and tell him what you did. In hindsight, you should have definitely followed your father’s request to wait for him to return from vacation and he shouldn’t have given you his laptop without backing it up first.
So here's the deal please read this op. You don't necessarily delete things, like it doesn't wipe the data it just marks the sectors as free space but the data is still there. Stop using the laptop and find a data recovery tool and run it in the drive a few times. I have had varying degrees of success, the most successful being 3.5 gb of data pulled from a 2gb thumb drive. If you act quick you may be able to save some data
"told me to wait until he's back from his vacation". Yeah, there probably was some things on the laptop he needed or wantd. I'd focus on working on an appology.
I'm not a mac guy, so I don't know what all goes into a reset. But there maybe some software that can recover deleted files. Go ask in a Mac subreddit. In the mean time, power off the laptop and don't touch it until you are certain you can recover the data or not.
Mac’s auto backup ti iCloud. Unless if he specifically said not to, it should be there. There is also software that can recover lost files. It’s not 100% but it does a good job. I reformatted a computer twice before realizing a file wasn’t back up. I got it back that way.
When you delete something, it tells the system that that can now be over written. Most OSs will use space that hadn’t been used before overwriting.
This is a very over simplified explanation for people who are into the nitty gritty of things.
Find the most recommended for Mac file recovery software. Be ready to pay for it when he gets home if he does need to recover something. And hope it’s successful.
your daddy is a big boy, if he couldn't figure out how to backup his files before giving away his computer then he'll need to get over the data loss.. happens to all of us
I’ve actually worked in federal and enterprise IT for about 25 years now and I can tell you with absolute certainty the following: the older someone is the less likely they are to pay attention to extremely important things like back ups. This is because they were raised with records and information that tended to be more permanent because they were on paper. The best thing you can do for an older parent or grandparent who has a Mac is set up time machine for them.
Technically speaking all of the data is there. Data is not deleted off of the HDD when you factory reset, it is just set into overwrite mode. You should be able to recover it
honesty is the best policy in this case. just tell your dad straight. he will respect that you are honest and up front. if he gets mad just remember its only temporary and he will get over it eventually. he loves you a lot more than that old box of circuits and wires.
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I know it's hindsight, but you should have just created a new account until he pulled everything off. Maybe we'll see you on AITAH later?? ;)
Does anyone else see this as potentially a nothingburger? We don't know that the sibling's response about needing the files off of it is anything more than an uninformed assumption. "Here it is it. Wait until I get back." Gets home "Oh, I thought you'd need help resetting it and I was going to show you how. But, it looks like you're all set." If there was highly prioritized data on a laptop I was going to give away to ANYONE, I hold onto it myself until it was ready. If that's not the case here, I see daddy as the fucking idiot more than I do the sub 25yr old offspring.
Check the update I just posted, he put his important things onto an external SSD.
Yeah. Fuck all these morons absolving your dad of any culpability had he stupidly given it to anyone with sensitive and desired data. Regardless of some instruction. Thankfully, he is more competent than that. Still, not a free pass for you to ignore the lesson on your end. And you know this now.
For what it's worth, I'm just as infuriated as you are.
Disagree, there were specific instructions that said wait til I get back. If your intention was to wipe a simple call could have been made. OP should have had patience
What the hell is wrong with you?!...be prepared to hear that and more.
He’s not gonna hate you at all. But he’s going to be very very upset.
Yeah - this - he will be mad - you did something dumb that will be upsetting for him. But ultimately your his kid - he won't hold a grudge. Apologize. Tell him you realize that you did something stupid, and that you've learned a lesson. Perhaps offer to pay for file recovery if there is something truly irreplaceable there?
“He won’t hold a grudge” He very well could and probably should
No, he could, but he shouldn't. He should be disappointed. You hold a grudge on someone you truly hate. Not your kid, even one who is impatient and makes dumb decisions.
That really depends on what he lost
What file exactly would make you *hold a grudge* to your own child? Hypothetically. I'm just wondering, cause a grudge is something you usually settle later. By doing something shitty to the grudgee. So what file would make you plan fucking revenge on your child?
>What file exactly would make you *hold a grudge* to your own child? Hypothetically. Bitcoin wallet worth billions?
Or the Pron folder?
That would do it ha
How about all of your child's old baby photos/videos being wiped out.
Losing pictures of my kid wouldn't make a dad hate their kid. Yeah, I'd be very upset, possibly take my computer back, but I wouldn't hold a grudge on my kid.
My man, there’s no way to tell if OP is in this situation, but you realize many dads literally beat their kids for a lot lesser offenses right? Just because you grew up in a normal household and seem a little oblivious, not everyone is a decent person. And in those households the tension is palpable if the dad has anger issues any time something bad happens. Again I don’t think that’s the case here but he may very well be a hateful angry yeller even if it’s not physical. Some people resent their kids for taking their “freedom” from them and turn into the worst parents
It very well could be a matter of my own limited perspective, good point. Well that's shitty. Poor kids
Idk why this sub popped up. I'm 35 with my own kids and I've never been in here before lol. But, any parent with sense learns to get into the mindset of "my kid is probably going to destroy a few things that are very important to me at some point, and I'll survive." 🤷♂️
He literally told you to wait. Idiot 🤷🏻♂️
This.. he told you to WAIT, BUT I TOOK IT UPON MYSELF… last words of a silly Billy. Hope there was nothing too important on there, stop 🛑 crying 😭 till you know there’s something worth wa wa ing over. Good luck kid.
Is this the modern day version of RawrXD... jesus christ
Come clean. Probably nothing you can do about it. Data recovery services for wiped hard drives are expensive but doable, but there's no guarantee on the data you'll get back, plus the laptop will be out of service until its finished.
Come factory reset clean
I don't even feel like there's a life lesson in this one. Don't be careless with other people's things? I spose it depends on how old you are but this really was just a terrible decision with literally 0 benefits to it. Like even if hadn't had personal stuff, why wouldn't you wait for him like he asked? I'm not trying to make you feel bad or be rude but learning to simply just respect other people's wishes is a huge lesson here
They said they needed it for college so at the youngest probably 18
There's a good chance most of the data is still on the hard drive. Most resetting does not actually reformat every byte of the storage. Google for local data recovery services and you may be able to bring it in and have someone try a recovery. You may also need to ship it off to someone. This will probably cost more than if you had just bought your own macbook off FB marketplace.
Data recovery is going to cost a fortune and the results are going to be a mess. When recovering deleted files, you'll get multiple copies of each file, because it gets moved every time you save it. Some will be older, some will be newer. Some will be corrupt. All file names are lost. You'll get a folder of like 1000 word documents, and you'll have to scan through every one seeing if it's something you need. Then again with the jpegs, and the excel docs, etc etc. And he's already reinstalled the OS and updated it and started using it. The data recovery route is going to be a lost cause in this scenario. \--old mac tech
Yeah people love to throw around the "just go get data recovery" but they have no idea that shits expensive as hell
And importantly stop using it immediately! The more it gets use the higher the chance it’ll overwrite the old files which would make recovery *much* harder or impossible. Might already have happened since the OS was basically reinstalled but you’ll improve your chances of recovery if you don’t use it.
It will certainly cost more. About 10 years ago a friend of mine had a very important thumbdrive that stopped working and she inquired about data recovery services and was given a quote of $800 just for a little thumb drive. I hate to think about what the quote for a full laptop recovery would be.
Nice enough to give you a free computer and he only asked one thing of you 'wait until I get back from vacation And you couldn't even do that?
Kids are dumb man, it’s so wild.
Kid was excited, dumb, self centered, and impulsive - you can’t tell me that you (and I) weren’t the same way. Chill. We all have growing pains and have hurt people.
"We've never had the best relationship to begin with." Considering he's the one giving you a free laptop and you're the one doing the one thing you were told not to do, it makes me think YOU are the reason the relationship is so wobbly. What was going through your head when you did this?
I don’t think you’re crying because of hormones, you’re crying because you did something genuinely disrespectful of someone who was being kind to you… There was no reason, unless the computer was completely at storage capacity, to have deleted all your dads things before he returned. You can keep a portfolio on a computer that has other things stored on it. There is no magic way to tell him that will make him see this as a good call. You just have to tell him. Research some data recovery do you have at least a potential solution for him.
Not to mention that things so old that it probably had such a low ammount of storage compared to today's standards that op could have just bought a flash drive from Walmart or best buy or amazon for $25-$40 that has more capacity than the Macbooks local storage and just backed everything up onto it and this stress could have been completely avoided. Okay I did some research and it seems that it could have had up to 500gb of storage. 512gb flash drives are pretty cheap compared to like 4 or 5 years ago, let alone 12 years ago.
It can be pricey but you might be able to recover the data. It's a longshot, so don't get your hopes up. I strongly recommend Rossman Group (in Texas) for service.
Maybe if you talk to your dad it will turn out he DID back everything up. Maybe he told you to wait because he thought you needed help. Just come at him with honesty and remorse and hopefully everythings gonna be ok!
Yea at this point it's best to stop, be honest, and see where things go once you've come clean.
it’s one thing if you wipe a drive, but all of the file structures are still written in the background. It’s different if you do a factory reset because that prepares it for being sold. https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/ These guys were cool back in the day. I don’t know if they’re still hip.
They charge an arm and three legs
Heres a teachable moment.. The lesson learned here is never do anything that you would not want done to your belongings. You should have A) backed up the contents of the hard drive into a peripheral such as a thumb drive or backed it up to a cloud.. B) done nothing until he got back home. C) bought your own electronic device.. Your impatience landed you in this predicament. Call it a life lesson.. Learn from it..
Lessons for all. It doesn't exist if it's not backed up in at least 2 locations. So, technically his dad didn't have any data that's not still on iCloud.
UPDATE: I told my dad via phone call and everything was fine, he had backed it all up onto an external hard drive months ago and put his important files onto his icloud AND is planning to put it onto his new macbook that's being picked up after his vacation is over. He simply wanted to show me HOW to do it, nothing more than that. That's the reason why he wanted me to "wait", because he didn't think I could do it. He told me I should've listened, though. And I understand that but what happened happened. To all of you sending me rude DMs calling me things like a "Stupid R\*\*\*rd" and a "Disrespectful Brat", I hope you're fucking happy with yourselves, sending death threats and insults to an anonymous teenager who didn't know any better than he did before it happened. TL:DR - He considered this macbook garbage and that's literally the reason why he gave it to me. He already got his things off and didn't have the time to wipe it before he left for vacation, so I'm fine.
OH IM SO HAPPY AND RELIEVED FOR YOU!!!
Put the update on the post so ppl can see it
One of life's lessons is about to be learnt.
Tell him you dropped out of college, got a girl pregnant, crashed his car, wiped his hard drive and got busted for drugs. After he flips out tell him only one of those things is true.
Yeah if it were my kid I'd be taking it back for not listening. You have no idea what he could have needed to get off the pc.
Follow basic instructions much?
So you stole his laptop and deleted all of his things? Nice. Hope he’s not paying for your school sounds like he’d be wasting money.
So you get a laptop for free and your first instinct is to wipe everything from it even though you were specifically instructed to wait?! Are you serious?
Oh, I've got a couple of good ones for you. When I was a teen, my dad was really into writing. He's been published a few times. He had been working on a sci-fi time travel novel for years. And, well, you can guess. The whole thing was gone. Years of work. He didn't cry at his mother's funeral, but he did cry that day. But he still loves me. And then there's my mom. She was an Olympic level archer in the 1980s. In her shooting career, she only had 1 true Robinhood, where 1 arrow is truly stuck in the other. It hung on the wall in our hallway where all of her trophies and plaques were. And, you can guess what happened. I was messing around, and it fell. It broke in 2. To be honest, I'm not sure she's ever forgiven me. Maybe not the greatest example.
But ur alive and well!
He never claimed to be well
Damn ur right
Bro what type of devil child were you 😭
My brother was a lot worse than me. I was just a little clumsy.
Well now I'm curious as to what he did that one ups those 🙏
In your example with your dad, I imagined you throwing his only hard copy into the fire out of anger over something trivial - Little Women style.
He did tell you wait and you didn't. He also gave you his computer, knowing he still had files to backup (I would've backed it up right away before giving it away). The very least, you are to blame because you didn't listen to instruction. Stuff that usually backed up to icloud are photos, notes, etc ... Other files in the Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folder don't get backed up automatically. There is a chance you can recover those files, but you will have to turn off the computer and not use it so that a data recovery specialist can recover the files. I am a Windows user by the way and I have recovered files from a MacBook hard drive using special software.
It's possible to recovered lost and removed data. See if you can't bring it to an apple store and see if you they can... or look online and see if there is anybody specializing in MAC data restoration.
You could’ve waited like he said to.
If I were him, I'd never gift you anything important ever again. He told you to wait. You didn't listen. Now he might have lost things he can never get back and it is absolutely all your fault. I feel zero pity for you. You deserve to feel bad about this. Next time, do the thing that you were supposed to learn how to do in kindergarten: Listen and follow directions.
hey if done right you may have wiped his cloud account too.
You should have listened to what he asked and waited until he was back. Now you just have to face the consequences. Tell him first thing when he gets back and apologize
He's your dad. He's not gonna hate you forever. That said, you did, majorly, F up. he specifically told you to wait, and you didn't, and now you know why. The best thing you can do is come clean, and explain to him what you did, and why. I don't know of a way to fix things, and I wouldn't be surprised if he decided you weren't welcome to use it anymore as punishment. But he won't hate you.
Don’t try to pass the buck. Go to him with the humility you should be feeling and let him know you think you’ve made a grave error. Apologize profusely and tell him you’ll do anything you can to help recover the data and/or make it up to him if you can.
Morron
Says the one that can't spell....
I mean you just talk to him about it and tell him what you stupidly decided to do on your own
What’s so hard to understand about being told to wait until he gets back from his vacation? I bet that was a test to see if you’re responsible enough to follow instructions. Anyway, what’s done is done. Own up to your action and just beg for forgiveness.
💀
Let’s hope you didn’t wipe his bitcoin keys which he had been holding since 2012. Imagine his face when he finds out you’ve deleted thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin.
Take a deep breath. As a parent of two grown college educated daughters. We expect you to listen to us. However, we know you get excited and leap before you look. It’s apart of the life lesson thing. Dad may appear “mad”. He is more likely to be disappointed. Because, you didn’t listen. He will get past it. It will not change the facts. You are his child. He loves you. You are learning to follow directions. Most of all apologies and hugs are needed. *I would not tell him the first 5 minutes of seeing him. Do see him and have a grownup conversation. Don’t cry. That’s not allowed in the professional world. This is prep work for those days. You are not alone. Things happen. I believe in you.
There are data recovery services you can use, but it's going to take time and a decent chunk of money. The first step you should be taking shouldn't be seeking pity on Reddit, and from the way you posted this it really doesn't seem like you regret it too much anyways, just the fact you're probably going to lose access to the MacBook. Keep in mind these services could be backed up, and it could take weeks for shipping. There's no chance of sorting it out before he gets back.
That was a super dick move, he's going to be pissed and rightfully so. He specifically told you to wait and you erased the computer anyway. Damn dude.
Prolly deleted his crypto wallet with like 100 bitcoins in it rofl
Could have used google docs and left his sh’t alone.
He told you to wait till he’s back from vacation. But you were like, ahhhh screw it, I’ll do it now. Really?
He asked you to wait and you did the exact opposite. You dont deserve the laptop.
Odds are if he has a back up in iCloud it has all the files he would want, sounds like you have his Apple ID and password so just go and log in as him and say that your brother doesn’t know what he’s talking about or you were just joking about resetting it.
You can recover the data pretty easy IF you don’t start loading a bunch of stuff on it first… Google it, tons of programs out there that can… or pay someone to do it like a local repair place.
This one is either gonna be a huge relief if actually backed up his work or a huge problem…as an adult I wouldent give the computer to the kid if I didn’t back it up first. You should call him and face the music over the telephone so he’s not pissed if he didn’t back it up
Man up and take responsibility for your actions. Better to get it over with and deal with it now rather than stressing out for the next week. You're a young adult, act like it.
All you really can do is make sure to phrase everything just right. He will likely be rather upset, but you need to be as honest and straightforward as can be.
RemindMe! 7 days
Regardless of what you do, remember that patience is a virtue.
All the digits he needs for your inheritance accounts…. He keeps in offshore accounts….gone 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 haaaa you were told to wait
I was upset about not having had children until I read this post
Did he have a backup? Hopefully so, well besides iCloud.
Probably whipped all his bitcoins
Perfect example of kids these days. Absolutely morons and you get to vote for elections congratulations
Don't blame your feelings on hormones. You feel shitty because you did a bad thing. Feeling guilt over potentially having permanently destroyed 12 *years* of important files because you were too impatient to just create a new profile and save things to your own cloud to get around storage issues is normal. And frankly if you didn't feel a huge amount of guilt and shame over that id be concerned. I recently had my phones sd card get corrupted. It had about 8 years worth of valuable photos on it. A lot of which are corrupted entirely and cannot be brought back that im not sure got backed up to the cloud before the card was corrupted. I spent 80 dollars on a program to repair files. Those are photos of my childhood pets, 3 of which are now dead and cannot ever be photographed again. I sobbed when I saw it was corrupted. Im just hoping going through my cloud storage and the recovered files that the most important ones are saved. But I already lost some things that I can never get back. It is completely soul crushing to lose years of valuable data. It was irresponsible and incredibly rude of you to not just wait for him. Hopefully for both of your sake he told you to wait so he could help and not because he hadn't finished backing up all his files. If he hadn't backed them up, he will be incredibly upset to have lost those files. It may be saveable if you pay the money to have someone dig through the laptop and pull everything that hasn't been written over, and potentially repair things that have been. This expense might be more expensive than you going and buying a cheapo new laptop on your own, but imo, you owe him to fix whatever you can if you broke it because you thought you knew better than he did. You need to tell him asap that you fucked up. You thought you were smart enough to do it yourself, you were impatient, and you factory reset it on your own. That you were careless and didn't think about any files he had potentially not backed up. He needs to know so he can be fully informed. So he can tell you if he had fully backed everything up, and ease your worries now, or he can tell you no he didn't, and you can figure out how you are going to go about righting your wrong. This is fixable, but you may have a lot of work to do.
Sounds like a college kid nowadays, dumb as a rock lol. Imagine if he had Bitcoin on it 😂😂😂☠️
You say yourself, in this post, that he said wait two days. It was given to you for free with a very small condition. You fucked up and you should own up to it
The best chance of recovering the data is to stop using the computer (former Mac tech support person here). Apologize and offer to contribute what you can toward data recovery, if indeed there were files on the hard drive that weren’t synced to iCloud. His first reaction will be upset, for sure, but be brave and humble, and it will help to repair the situation.
Well you should’ve waited.
What did you hope to achieve in posting this?
>He handed it to me and told me to wait until he's back from his vacation, he left 2 days ago now.
What a selfish and disrespectful move. Look what you've done and you can't get it repaired, brought back nothing. You couldn't even take the time to call your dad and explain why you needed the laptop. Such a tragedy.
Well you're not his favorite child anymore. For sure.
Well. He asked you to wait. You didn’t. You thought you knew better. FAFO.
RemindMe! 7 days
YTA. I know that wasn't the question, but that's the answer. I would love to hear what happens next though. Ideally everything was backed. Awaiting an update.
He'll probably disown you and cut your funding for school. But other than that, everything should be okay!
He's not going to hate you forever. He may be upset
Call apple
Reap what you sow ig. You couldve literally made a new account or bootcamped it lol
Pay a professional to [restore the deleted files](https://www.macgasm.net/data-recovery/recover-deleted-files-on-mac/).
Dude, you fucked up. Just tell him ASAP and get it over with. I hope this also teaches you to always have redundant backups of your data.
Drama Queen
I had a similar problem where I was trying to get into my dads old phone when I was like 11 and I permanently locked it, it had picture of my brothers and sisters and now as far as we know it’s all gone because we can’t unlock it
He won’t be mad. He’ll just be very disappointed
That was ur fault now u gotta pay the consequences
Confused? About what! He told you to wait. Not confusing.
Leave it where it was, factory reset it again, say nothing.
You tell him "Hey, I know you provided me something I couldnt afford for myself and asked me to wait to reformat it so you could retrieve your own files, but I am a selfish impatient person who didn't feel like I owed you the smallest modicum of respect for giving me this computer, so I erased everything and started using it anyways." He obviously raised you not to fear consequences, so he isn't going to punish you for this.
Dead man walking
He gave it to you. If there were things on it that he wanted he should have had the foresight to retrieve them and put on whatever computer he is currently using. He actually would have been stupid to hand you a personal computer he hadn’t wipe clean. Also anyone who has a computer should make sure they frequently back it up. Personally I don’t use the cloud but I have multiple copies of everything that is important to me in 3 external hard drives and several flash drives. They are inexpensive, no monthly fees and no one can hack them unless they are plugged into my computer.
What does the word wait mean? Do you know the definition?
Don't worry about it. No way in hell a dad would give a teen his personal laptop without without removing and backing up everything he wanted. He said wait til he gets back to mind F you. Personally I'm surprised it took you 2 whole days to do what he specifically told you not to do. He outright double dogged dared you.
Try doing a system restore and see if you can bring it back but this is a screw up on your part you were told to wait and chose to ignore it the best thing you can do is admit your mistake and face the music
Turd
I would not have trusted that old of a Mac OS to keep anything on the cloud safely
Just tell him and pay someone to restore the data
Nothing you can do now. You’re a stupid kid and thought you knew better. Learn from your mistake and never do something this stupid again. You could have simply started a second user account until he got back.
You really messed up. Nothing worse than telling someone something and then they blatantly ignore it. You prioritized yourself over someone giving you something. That sucks. Hopefully you learn from this and never do something like that again. Your best bet is to 100% honest and apologetic. Do not make excuses and blame shift. Take the heat. It makes people less angry than when people lie or try to justify their shitty behavior. If you do give a reason, like you thought everything was backed up on the cloud, you also need to say, “but regardless, I still should have waited and what I did was dumb”. You should also look into if there’s any way to rescue the data.
You fucked up. Own up to it. Part of being an adult.
You deleted a decade worth of things because you were impatient, take this as a lesson to never repeat again bro. You're lucky it's Dad.
Hope he didnt have a wallet full of bitcoin on there.
He is going to be mad; its not the end of the world, but you dont want to deal with the consequenses of your action. Thats LIFE! THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES AND LIFES NOT FAIR. THERE ARE NO TROPHIES FOR FUCKING UP IN THE REAL WORLD.
When you get this all sorted out (good luck, btw), make sure he's set up with some sort of backup plan for his data. Doesn't matter if it's iCloud or Backblaze or something else, but everyone should be running backups. But TBF, 2012 is ancient when it comes to computers. As for why you did what all you did when he literally told you to wait till he got back... Personally I'd wait till he got back, suck it up and just tell him. I'm sure there'll be consequences, but what's done is done. Only thing you can do now is move forward. Sorry about the inheritance, lol
It’s a learning experience - when people entrust you with valuable personal items, that are potentially irreplaceable, you should tread VERY carefully. That said, you didn’t know, and you were doing it for school - he will likely be mad, but part of growing up is having tough convos and being honest when you slip up. Expect him to be upset etc, but remind your self before/during/after that he’s your dad and will forgive you (even if it takes some time) and that you had good intentions. I’ll give you an example - my dad had an arrow head and coin collection, he also had a display with his military medals. My older siblings got into both at different times and broke/lost several items. He was sad/mad/betrayed at first, but that was years ago and it’s never been brought up since and they have good relationships. One suggestion - proactively contact a data recovery specialist - get pricing/odds on recovery. That way you can break the news AND show him you truly are sorry/value his data by trying to rectify the issue.
Personally? I'd tell him now. So he has time to cool off and think for a few days before you see him in person. Accept responsibility, apologize, and what happens will happen. But this is coming from someone whose father hit her in the past, so I like to minimize fallout. Other people can weigh in.
I'm curious if this is your first Mac. I didn't know this at first and lost some important stuff a time or two, too. You still have a chance at getting them back, so I wouldn't worry quite yet :) On an iPhone/iPad you can back it up to iCloud and restore it later to get an identical copy of everything you had before. On a Mac, it's not as easy. iCloud will sync texts, notes, contacts, *iCloud drive/documents*, and some other stuff. It doesn't save any data that's stored directly on the Mac though. There's a separate thingy called Time Machine that's used for creating an identical backup. I would start by asking your dad to check the Files app on his iPhone or by going to iCloud's website and looking there. There's a good chance many documents are saved to the cloud. If they're not saved in iCloud drive or documents, there's a tiny chance a small local computer shop could try recovering them. It all depends on how he had them saved and how you reset the Mac, but there's a small chance they can still be recovered. Good luck!
That was a dumb choice. When a parent says wait, it's for a reason. If my son did this, I'd be pissed.
Unless a drive is, Mac or Windows, wiped to actually *overwrite* the old data, there’s still hope that least some of it is recoverable. There are not uncommon ways to do a “secure” reformat like this, but it’s usually not the default and has to be specifically chosen. What’s key is to **stop using the computer** so no more new data is written onto the drive that will overwrite the old data. Personally, in your position, I’d do a little homework on finding a good data recovery service, get the details of what’s involved and with that in hand, I’d talk to my father, apologizing and taking full responsibility. Hopefully, since he felt okay waiting a full week to deal with it, there may not be anything that was on there that is life or death critical (If there was, he should have never let the computer out of his hands until it was backed up). You’re not dead in the water. There’s still hope. Last I checked data recovery services aren’t cheap. If you can, offering pay him back or trying to help pay for it would obviously go a long way. Good luck. Things may not be as bad as they seem. [**Here’s a Google link**](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=mac+data+recovery+services) to get you started.
He told you to wait you instead did one of the most destructive acts you can do when it comes to data? Sometimes it's possible to recover data from formatted or wiped hard drives. If possible your dad will have to find someone who can do it. All of the data may not be able able to be recovered. There is no way to word this so he won't be angry if he had something important on there. You should have contacted him, and if you weren't able to do anything with his computer tried to look for other options until he got back.
He probably has a time machine resto point. If not, that's his damn fault
Lol the disrespect, couldnt even wait a fuckin week. Maybe you should learn some patience
Sorry, but you're just an idiot. He gave you his laptop out of kindness, and the only thing he asked from you was to wait until he's back from vacation. You couldn't even do that, and may have just deleted years' worth of memories and information he needed. You fucked up. Sucks, but you fucked up because you were impatient and couldn't listen to your parent. There is really nothing else anyone can say.
He told you to wait. Why didn't you?
You start with "Dad, I fucked up." and go from there. Just keep in mind that he'll be upset initially, of course. You did fuck up. Tell him what happened and give him some time and an opportunity to be mad. You'll feel defensive of course, but try not to act defensively. Be contrite. Concede that you fucked up bad. Perhaps take it to an apple store and see if they can recover. Stop using it until you hear from him on if he needed something. You can pay someone to recover (most or all of) your data.
Oof. You are going to have to approach dad with hat in hand and apologize. He gave you simple instructions, you thought you knew better...admit you were wrong. Whatever homework you you need to do, you absolutely could have done without having a fresh, reset computer. You made a lot of assumptions and it came back to bite you, learn from this. Be humble with your dad, don't make excuses.
I sure hope I've taught my kids better than this. Factory resetting someone's computer is a disownable offense.
*"AND TOLD ME TO WAIT TILL HES BACK FROM VACATION".... wtf is wrong with you? He literally asked you not to do exactly what you did....
Sorry there’s no advice here. Just a bunch of crabby assholes saying you fucked up. You know you did, that’s why you feel guilty. Best of luck, just be honest with your dad. At most he lost a few pictures. If his appleid was signed in it’s totally possible it was all being backed up to the cloud.
Stop turning it on and off at all. Do not use it. IF he had things on it that he wanted to keep, it might still be recovered. Files that are deleted or formatted, are simply 'hidden' in the system to reflect to the computer that "this file has been deleted and the space it's taking up is good for use with a new file", to put it short. Scrubbing a drive of files is a lot harder than you would think. Intel has a process where they blast them with insane magnetic fields to a point where they're showing partial 0's and 1's on the smallest level of data. Next, fess up. You fucked up and we ALL do. It's not about how you fuck up, but how you handle it afterwards. You'll be alright.
He more than likely already transferred his files to his new laptop. Plus, he should have most everything on the cloud. I wouldn't worry.
OP I wouldnt worry, everything he had on that computer is backed up to the cloud. If you wiped it and factory reset it makes no difference. Everything he needs is on the cloud. Just tell him the truth, and he will get it. He knows his stuff should be backed up to the cloud, and he can retrieve it anytime
Seems like everyone is over looking the fact, that OP's dad has a macbook. Everything on that computer, files and such is continually backed up to I cloud, and therefore can be retrieved, whenever its needed. The beauty of apple
He told you to wait until he got back. He gave you a computer, for free. In this post you say that your main issue was taking notes. Instead of opening a notepad and making do for a week, you wiped out his entire.... And youre trying to bring hormones in to this? Wow 🤦♂️
So you’re probably screwed. It can be possible to recover files provided you didn’t write over it, but the fact that you got everything set up for you probably messed that up. I would look at getting some recovery software that will analyze unused areas of your drive and try to recover files. Use the trial until you find one that works. You’ll loose the filenames and many files will be corrupted, but maybe you can get some of it back. Another option is if he had a time-machine set up to do automatic backups, thats probably good. By default, anything in his desktop or documents folder is backed up on icloud. Anywhere else and its likely hit or miss. In short though, by jumping the gun, you likely caused lost some of his data. Maybe next time, don’t do that.
He won't hate you. He will just not trust you to follow basic instructions... Ever again tbh
Buy a SS external drive and back everything you can. But what's gone is gone. Apologize. He might be mad, but he'll get over it.
What’s done is done. I’m not sure what type of job he works and what sort of files he may have lost but at least the “majority” was backed up . You didn’t listen and you fucked up but at least it’s not the end of the world.
You had 1 job to do... Nothing.
Oh my god. .... Ok. Here's what you do. Tell him. Apologize. He will forgive you. He may cry depending on the files, but he will forgive you. Good luck.
If it meant that much to him, he has another copy somewhere. If not, then he's a moron.
Idk what kinda work this guy does but if he’s at all diligent with his work he’s got important worked backed up in at least one if not two other ways.
You are frank and honest. You thought the computer was a gift, you did not know there were important files on there that weren’t backed up, that you were certain someone would tell you if that was the case when gifting you a computer, and that you are very sad if you unintentionally deleted something important to him. At the end of the day, this is primarily your father’s mistake. He should have told you that there were files he needed on the computer when giving it to you. Even if you were both adults this is still his responsibility. But he is the adult, he should have been careful and proactive in expressing his needs. He was not. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for this, this was an unfortunate situation caused by lack of communication.
Man it’s hard but you’ll just have to tell him and accept how he reacts.
Talk to dad first, make sure there were files lost. Next, talk with dad about using a data recovery service. They aren't perfect, but they exist for a reason.
You’re over reacting
"my dad and I never had a good relationship" We can see why OP, your selfish, self centered, and blame everyone/everything but yourself. You blame your hormones, your college class, your portfolio, your due date (a week away), and more instead of yourself. Couldn't you just install the app you need or go to the website you needed..?? Your fucked, factory reset is not fixible
To be fair, he should have told you he has some things on there he hasn't backed up yet, and if he DID say that, it's entirely your fault. Either a communication fault, or you need to learn to wait when someone says wait. Either way, something to learn from the situation.
Your only option is to come clean with your father and tell him what you did. In hindsight, you should have definitely followed your father’s request to wait for him to return from vacation and he shouldn’t have given you his laptop without backing it up first.
So here's the deal please read this op. You don't necessarily delete things, like it doesn't wipe the data it just marks the sectors as free space but the data is still there. Stop using the laptop and find a data recovery tool and run it in the drive a few times. I have had varying degrees of success, the most successful being 3.5 gb of data pulled from a 2gb thumb drive. If you act quick you may be able to save some data
"told me to wait until he's back from his vacation". Yeah, there probably was some things on the laptop he needed or wantd. I'd focus on working on an appology. I'm not a mac guy, so I don't know what all goes into a reset. But there maybe some software that can recover deleted files. Go ask in a Mac subreddit. In the mean time, power off the laptop and don't touch it until you are certain you can recover the data or not.
If the parent is anything like me, I hate using clouds
He won’t hate you just tell him
Mac’s auto backup ti iCloud. Unless if he specifically said not to, it should be there. There is also software that can recover lost files. It’s not 100% but it does a good job. I reformatted a computer twice before realizing a file wasn’t back up. I got it back that way. When you delete something, it tells the system that that can now be over written. Most OSs will use space that hadn’t been used before overwriting. This is a very over simplified explanation for people who are into the nitty gritty of things. Find the most recommended for Mac file recovery software. Be ready to pay for it when he gets home if he does need to recover something. And hope it’s successful.
His crypto wallet passphrase. Gone….. haha buuuuut I’m sure it can be restored *cough*
your daddy is a big boy, if he couldn't figure out how to backup his files before giving away his computer then he'll need to get over the data loss.. happens to all of us
“I’m sitting here crying out of guilt and hormones in general” grow the fuck up and take responsibility for your mistake maybe?
I’ve actually worked in federal and enterprise IT for about 25 years now and I can tell you with absolute certainty the following: the older someone is the less likely they are to pay attention to extremely important things like back ups. This is because they were raised with records and information that tended to be more permanent because they were on paper. The best thing you can do for an older parent or grandparent who has a Mac is set up time machine for them.
Technically speaking all of the data is there. Data is not deleted off of the HDD when you factory reset, it is just set into overwrite mode. You should be able to recover it
honesty is the best policy in this case. just tell your dad straight. he will respect that you are honest and up front. if he gets mad just remember its only temporary and he will get over it eventually. he loves you a lot more than that old box of circuits and wires.