Hi

Does anyone know of a way, without jailbreaking, to mount an iPhone as a disk? I was wondering if it was possible to mount it so I can use my DiskDrill recovery software to help a friend try and recover some photos she lost on hers. I'm not sure what happened exactly - some sync issue, and all her pics disappeared. As far as I know she's tried the iTunes back-up and iCloud but nothing. (I don't think many people realise the need to plug it into iTunes every so often to back it up!)

I was hoping if I could mount as a disk my software *might* be able to recover some possibly. I've seen a few apps specifically for this, but they're expensive for something that may not work... so if mine will work??

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks!

There is program called Diskaid Which might do the job.

can also be got from here

Thanks - will give that a go. I have 'PhoneVIew' which is similar, but will see if this 'mounts' it. I found 'iExplorer' which show's photo folders from phone as a volume, but DiskDrill didn't pick it up....

I had a look on Macupdate and it would seem that Phoneview is probably very similar so it might be better to look at that a bit more before possibly spending nearly $30 on it.

Thanks. Been looking and while PhoneView lets you access the disk, it doesn't mount it as such... DiskDrill asks you to 'Enable Mass Storage' on it, which I think you need to jailbreak for - I was hoping there may be an app to get around that....

I'll keep looking - thanks for the help so far!

I think that Diskaid does mount it. Though it might be worth looking for a cult of mac discount code. I think that they sponsor the cult of mac podcast and have a deal with them. It would make it cheaper.

I can't find an option to mount it - DiskDrill won't pick it up while it's running anyway.

Will look into more...

Try iExplorer. I used it a couple of years ago to reset the SQL database that stored info about images. Maybe it will help you here.
http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/?gc ... wgodUTkAww

I've downloaded that, and it does show the photos as a folder/volume... could I use something like CarbonCopy Cloner to clone the photos to a disk image, and try the recovery software on that?? Would something like that work??

If the pictures are the, they are there. If not, then, like any hard drive, then the data may still be there. However, overwrite it and it's gone. As the phone is a UNIX box and an active computer, then it's going to be running and using what it seems as free space as it needs it. Usually, you'd need to disconnect the drive from the computer and run your forensic software on that from another machine (if it's the boot volume). Cloning the volume may not necessarily clone the lost data. You'll need to do a complete block copy for that. I think CCC can do that, but I have no idea if that will work from a phone. Note - the phone will be on and running when it's mounted as a drive on your Mac.

Now, it may be that the images are there and the SQL database has not updated properly. So copy them. However, if this is a sync from a Mac or a PC, then you'll be getting optimised images, not originals.