How to retrieve files from a reformatted MacBook Air SSD storage?

Ogie_57 wrote:

A failed update resulted in a forced reinstallation of my OS including a reformat of my SSD. How can I retrieve files saved prior to the reset on my Mac book.

@Zurarczurx is correct....if you did not have a backup, then those files are gone unless you have copies of some of them stored else where on external drives, e-mails, etc.

Besides, you would have to immediately stop using the computer and boot from external media to run a data recovery app. Most data recovery apps will show you file names & sizes it can recover, but will usually require payment before allowing you to recover any files (some may allow you to recover a few very small files to demonstrate the app works). Even if this was a hard drive....some of the data would have been overwritten by now.

unfortunately, I did not activate my iCloud storage.

While iCloud may have helped you in this very particular case, people need to be aware that iCloud is not a backup option for macOS (aka Apple's computers). Apple provides the Time Machine app to easily allow users to make actual backups of their data on macOS. There are also third party options as well since Time Machine is not always the best option for some users.

Why are cloud file syncing services not considered a backup? Consider this scenario......you make a catastrophic edit to a file which you cannot easily undo. You need the file back exactly to how it was before this catastrophic edit. With a good backup system, you may be able go back to retrieve the older version. With cloud file syncing services such as iCloud, that catastrophic edit is already spreading to every other one of your iCloud connected devices. There is no older version to recover.

If you haven't been backing them up then you've almost certainly lost them. If your disc were a HDD rather than an SSD then you might have had a tiny, tiny chance of getting some of them back using disc recovery tools, but those tools don't really work on SSD's because of they way that SSDs manage storage and deleted files. You could try using one but you might have to pay but don't hold out any hope. I can't recommend one, I'm afraid, but someone else might come along who's used one.

Going forward you need to start backing up your files. MacOS provides Time Machine to do this seamlessy and unnoticeably in the background. iCloud is not a backup service, it's a synchronization service.