PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a signature-based file-carving utility that works alongside TestDisk. It recovers files from damaged, reformatted, or deleted storage even when the filesystem metadata is gone.

How it works

Instead of relying on filenames or directory structures, PhotoRec scans raw disk sectors for known file signatures. It reconstructs files by reading contiguous or fragmented blocks and saves them to a destination you specify.

Supported formats

• Image formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, RAW, BMP, and more.
• Office documents: PDF, DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, ODT, ODS.
• Archives: ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, GZIP.
• Multimedia: MP3, MP4, AVI, MOV, WAV, FLAC.
• Development files: C, H, PHP, HTML, Java, and many others.

Key advantages

• Ignores filesystem corruption and works directly on raw data.
• Read-only operation on the source drive to prevent further damage.
• Cross-platform support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Handles fragmented files better than many comparable tools.

Usage tips

Always save recovered files to a different drive than the one being scanned. If the original disk is physically failing, create an image first and run PhotoRec against that image.

Back to home · Download TestDisk + PhotoRec