There is also an excellent manual about data recovery using TestDisk & PhotoRec and other tools. See: Known file formats and How PhotoRec works.

For lost/deleted partitions or deleted files from a FAT or NTFS file system, try TestDisk first - it’s usually faster and TestDisk can retrieved the original file names.įor more information about the supported file types and how PhotoRec works you can consult the relevant paragraphs on the main page of the website: PhotoRec is a companion program to TestDisk, an application for recovering lost partitions on a wide variety of file systems and making non-bootable disks bootable again. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media’s file system has been severely damaged or reformatted. PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. A tool that I prefer to recover deleted files or to analyze a memory in search of evidence is Photorec by CGSecurity.

Testdisk tutorial