Solved HFS+ from Mac to Windows - Formatted?

[BalinKingOfMori]

I was using an HFS+ 3TB Buffalo hard drive on my iMac and plugged it into my laptop running. It didn't show up in Explorer but I think I may have formatted it in Disk Utility. Somewhere along the way, a dialog popped up that mentioned a choice between GUID and something else and I clicked GUID, and now it won't work on the Mac or the PC. Did I format it? It must have worked INCREDIBLY quickly to format 3TB in about 3 seconds....
Also, the partition that used to be there before doesn't show up in anything.

 

[TVeblen]

No, you did not format it. You initialized it GPT.
This process erased the old file table (how a hard drive keeps track of all the data on the drive) and created a new blank file table for Windows systems in GUID format.

The good news is that all of your data is still there on the hard drive. (Provided you have not been thrashing about and done something else that causes further damage).

The bad news is that you will need to recover that data (hopefully) using a data recovery program. In your case this would need to be an Apple recovery program because the files you are trying to recover were in HFS+ format. I don't know if there are any free Apple programs that would be effective. There are a few good free Windows programs.

Do not do anything else with that drive until you have recovered your data. Don't make a bad situation worse.

FYI: Windows systems can't read Apple formatted partitions. So when you plug in a drive that is formatted HFS+, Windows just sees it as a blank hard drive. There are ways to use the disk, 3rd party programs like Mac Drive work very well, but when the notification comes up asking you to initialize a drive that you know has data on it - just cancel out. This applies to all cases, not just Apple formatted drives.

 

[BalinKingOfMori]

Thanks!

Thanks for the help! I installed Disk Drill and it's working nicely Thanks so much!