Buzz
PhotoRec is a powerful tool designed to recover files, utilizing a read-only access mechanism to minimize the risk of data being overwritten, resulting in a relatively high recovery efficiency.
Guide to data file recovery using TestDisk & PhotoRec
Step 1: Download the latest version of TestDisk & PhotoRec from this link.
Step 2: Extract the downloaded package to a folder named testdisk-7.0-WIP, containing components as shown below.
Step 3: To run the program, right-click on the Photorec_win.exe file and select Run as administrator.
Step 4: The main interface of the program lists the number of hard drives on the computer (in this case, there are 2 HDDs and a USB drive).
Let's assume we're rescuing data on a USB drive that was either deleted or formatted earlier.
- Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight the USB drive (/dev/sdb), press Enter to interact with the USB.
Step 5: This step displays information about the USB, formatted in NTFS.
The main screen presents various options:
- Search: initiate the scanning process.
- Options: configure basic settings.
- File Options: modify the list of file types for recovery.
- Quit: exit the program.
Use the arrow keys (up, down, left, right) to navigate the highlighted selection, press Enter to enter the chosen options.
Options include: (set to YES/NO)
- Paranoid: well-recoverable files are retained, poorly recoverable files are discarded. Choose YES if you want to recover JPEG files but with high CPU resource usage.
- Keep corrupted files: retain all files, including those with errors (poorly recoverable).
- Expert Mode: allows scanning by blocks for each format, enhancing scanning capabilities.
- Low Memory: choose YES when you want to use minimal system memory. It's not recommended to use this feature, so select NO.
After configuring the necessary settings, to return to the main screen, press “Q” on the keyboard or move the highlight to --> Quit and press Enter.
File Options: (check or uncheck the square box): PhotoRec will attempt to identify files based on the formats in the box below. Choose “Q” to return to the main screen.
After configuring the parameters, we select Search. In this screen, we have 2 choices:
- [ext2/ext3]: used to scan on ext2, ext3, ext4 formats.
- [Other]: used to scan on FAT, NTFS, HFS+ formats, and more.
Our choice in this example is [Other], then press Enter to proceed.
On this screen, there are 2 choices.
- [Free]: scans areas where data has not been overwritten on the NTFS partition.
- [Whole]: extracts all files from the data partition.
Our choice in this example is [Free]. Then press Enter to proceed.
Step 6: In this step, select “C” to initiate the scan.
- All recovered data will be saved in the recup_dir.N folder (N is a natural number) within the testdisk-7.0-WIP directory. Your task is to locate and choose the necessary files in this folder.
In this article, we've guided you on how to recover lost data using PhotoRec software. Following these steps will enable you to easily retrieve any lost data file.
