This open source program comes with a more complex recovery tool called Testdisc, and can be found here . It supports a wide range of platforms and is a good second port for a power users. Photorec is designed OS / non-invasive recovery option, and writes any files it discovers straight to disc which means you’ll need o second drive (or an external one) to put the recovered files on.
It also takes a while to run. If you do want to go down this path, then there are walk-through and explanations linked off the wiki page; just keep in mind that, while its non-invasive nature means you won’t accidentally ruin anything by using the software, it isn't something appropriate for novice users.
Before I continue, I cannot stress the importance of making regular back ups. I suggest using MyPCBackup, an online back up utility. MyPCBackup is easy to use and comes with a free version. Even if you mistakenly delete an file, you can recover it from your MyPC Backup.
This tutorial uses the BootMed Live CD. You will also need a pen drive or external hard drive to transfer the recovered files to. On BootMed‘s desktop you will see a link for PhotoRec, double click it. When you start PhotoRec it will first ask you which drive you would like to recover files from. The list of drives will include Hard Drives, CD-Roms, External Hard Drives, Pen Drives, etc, basically any storage device that is connected to your computer.You will need to select your hard drive using the up and down arrows on your key board. When you have selected your hard drive hit enter. Here are some ways to tell which drive is your hard drive:
- Your hard drive will look something like this: Disk /dev/sdb – 250 GB / 232 GiB (RO) – ATA WDC WD2500BB-55G
- Look for a larger drive, this particular one is 250 gigabytes, your hard drive will most likely be the largest drive listed.
- Notice the ATA, most likely your hard drive will be the one marked ATA
- Flash Drives are not hard drives, they are usually pen drives.
After you select your hard drive, PhotoRec will ask you to Please select the partition table type. Select [Intel] Intel/PC partition and hit enter.
You should now see something like this:
Use the right arrow key to select File Opt and hit enter.
This will take you to a list of file types. (See image below.) By default PhotoRec will recover many different kinds of files. If you were to recover all of them you would have to weed through thousands of files to find the ones you are looking for.
I suggest that you go through the list and deselect all of the file types, then go through and select the types that you recognize. To do so, first hit the s key on your keyboard which will deselect all of the file types.
Now, using the up and down arrow scroll through the list using the list using the space bar to select the following file types. (Selecting these should recover Word documents, pictures and videos from digital cameras, movies made in Windows Movie Maker)
Other file types you may want to consider:
- To recover Zip files select zip
- To recover Gif files select gif
- To recover Autocad files select dwg
- To recover an Access database select accdb and mdb
- To recover an Exchange database select edb
- To recover Photoshop files select psp
- To recover Turbo Tax files select tax
- To recove Notepad files select txt (Note: this will recover a lot of files that you may not want to recover)
Next it will ask which Partion you would like PhotoRec to scan. You will use the up/down arrows to make your selection. If you are not sure, simply select No Partition. By doing this PhotoRec will scan your entire hard drive. (What is the difference between a drive and a partition?) By scanning the entire drive the process will take more time but it will not miss anything.
If you know which Partition you would like to scan, select it and hit enter. Now PhotoRec will ask you what kind of file system was on your hard drive. Select [Other] and hit enter.
At this point PhotoRec may ask you where to search. If you are recovering deleted files you will want to select [Free]. If you are recovering data from a corrupted hard drive you should select [Whole].
Next, you need to tell PhotoRec where you would like it to save the files that you recover. If you have not already put a pen drive or an external hard drive into your computer, now is the time to do it.
Once your pen drive has been inserted, hit the left arrow button on the key board 2 times. You should now see a list of directories on the right, starting with bin, boot, cdrom, etc.
Use the down arrow to select media and hit enter. You should now see a list that includes the Pen Drive or Removable Hard Drive you connected to your computer. On the right side are the labels of the drives. They should be the same as the labels that you are used to seeing in Windows.
Scroll down to the drive you would like to use and hit enter. You should now see the folders/files that are on your drive. You can now hit y on your keyboard confirming that you would like to recover your files to that drive, or you can navigate to a sub folder folder and then hit y.
As soon as you select the location to recover files to, PhotoRec will start recovering your files! This will take a long time. It depends on the size of your hard drive, but you should expect it to take a few hours minimum.
When the recovery is complete you can shut your computer down by clicking on the mouse icon on the bottom of the screen and selecting Log Out and then Shutdown.
On another computer, go to My Computer and open your pen drive or external hard drive. You should see some folders called recup_dir.1, recup_dir.2, recup_dir.3 etc.
Inside those folders you should find files with names like f142864688.jpg and f151466048.jpg. Those are you recovered files. Their names are not the same and they will be spread out inside the various recup folders.
The naming information was lost and PhotoRec was not able to recover it. This will require some sorting and renaming, but at least you have your memories and documents back!
