Recovering missing/deleted files about afsctool HOT 4 CLOSED

Do you have any idea how the files got to be missing? Compression doesn't alter the directory structure, which is how files are registered (and normal deletion just removes the file entry from the directory so its disk blocks can be reused). I will need to assume that file recovery software for Mac has to be capable of dealing with compression because for years now Apple have been providing compressed system files and applications. It's probably tricky because the compression data is stored (in part) in extended attributes which might get lost if you remove a file's directory entry *). You'd have to contact the makers of the software to get a definite answer. *) if that's the case, the content of small files that compress entirely something stored as an extended attribute will be lost. I assume that the content of larger files will show up as binary data which you could try to decode using the appropriate decompression algorithm (as implemented in afsctool for zip compression).

Encryption would have to be supported explicitly, because an encrypted disk doesn't have a regular directory tree (or rather, it's encrypted too). HFS compression uses the old resource fork and extended attributes. The former *should* be supported by default by Mac-specific recovery tools even if it isn't really used anymore these days. The latter, I have no idea. Either way, compression is about content and AFAIK file recovery doesn't normally rely on file content because a priori it's meaningless. But as I said, you'd have to ask the makers of the software. Or ask on a forum with/for advanced Mac users if recovery software exists that's known to handle compressed files. I hope you don't have secure empty of the trashcan enabled, even if it seems unlikely that you would have moved thousands of files to the bin. It also seems unlikely that all those files were lost because they were open when your Mac crashed.