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Recovering data from a RAW partition using TestDisk. Data recovery. TestDisk program

Recently I encountered a situation where my old external USB drive was no longer readable in Windows, being detected as RAW. This indicates that Windows cannot determine the file system structure present on the disk. The reason why a partition is defined as RAW can be different: the disk may not be partitioned, the partition table header may be erased/damaged/missing, the disk may have bad sectors, or there may be physical problems with the disk itself or its controller.

From the user's point of view, such a RAW disk is displayed in Explorer, but its size is defined as 0 (zero). When trying to open or read data from a RAW partition, various errors appear like:

    To use a disk in the E: drive, first format it. Do you want to format it?

    You need to format the disk in Drive E: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?

    No access to E:\. The volume file system is not recognized.

    Cannot Access Disk. The volume does not contain a recognized file system.

Note. We deliberately do not consider the option of physical disk damage, since this cannot be treated using software. General recommendation: it is advisable to first check the disk using any S.M.A.R.T status viewing utility.

As a rule, the easiest way to restore disk functionality is to delete the current RAW partition and recreate it with formatting. But the data will naturally be lost, which may be categorically unacceptable. Let's try to run a disk check using the standard CHKDSK check utility:

The utility returned that CHKDSK cannot be performed on RAW disks.

The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

To restore the original file system on a RAW disk without formatting, we will use a free console utility TestDisk.

  1. Download, unpack the archive with the utility and run exe in mode NoLog
  2. Find a disk whose file system is defined as RAW and select Proceed
  3. Next, you need to select the type of disk partition table. As a rule, it is determined automatically as Intel for MBR partitions or EFI GPT for GPT tables. However, in some cases you need to select None
  4. To start analyzing the disk data structure, select Analyze, and on the next screen Quick Search
  5. The TestDisk utility will display a list of found partitions. Using the key P you can display a list of files on the found partition (Q - exit viewing mode). If the partition also has a P label (the partition is highlighted in green), such a partition will be restored. Label D – removed. To change the label, use the left/right arrows on your keyboard.

    Advice. A rather useful function of the file viewing mode on the file system is the ability to restore individual folders/files to another drive. To do this, in viewing mode, press the key C.

  6. Once all partitions are marked for recovery, click Enter And Write(here be careful not to overwrite the partition table with garbage). If you need to perform a more in-depth analysis of the disk, select DeepSearch.

    Advice. Keep in mind that if you restore a system disk in this way, in addition to the partition with Windows itself, depending on the OS version, there may be other partitions: a partition with a bootloader, a partition with a recovery environment, etc. To understand the structure of Windows partitions, I recommend reading the articles. If the boot sector of the disk is damaged, the TestDisk utility will offer to try to restore it using the option RebuildB.S..

  7. After this (a reboot may be required), the utility will restore the original partition table and file system structure (usually NTFS or FAT32) on the RAW disk and you will be able to access the files stored on it.

It sometimes happens that a virus or user error can create a malfunction in one of the hard drive partitions. It also happens that when you try to restore partitions, the boot sector or MBR is also damaged. The same thing can happen with an external drive. To correct this situation, you must use the TestDisk program. The instructions for recovering data and partitions using this program describe everything in detail. This application is used to fix errors and crashes. TestDisk is a powerful free utility used for data recovery. First of all, this application is designed to recover lost partitions and correct unreadable disks in cases where malfunctions are caused by software failures, user error or viruses.

TestDisk: what kind of program?

Today, the TestDisk tool is a useful program that is freely available. This program requests information from the BIOS (DOS, Win9x) or OS (Linux, FreeBSD) to search for hard drives and their characteristics. The application performs a full check of the disk structure and compares it with the partition table. If there are errors in the partition table, TestDisk can repair them. It's not very difficult. If there are missing sections or the user finds completely empty tables, the utility can try to find the corresponding elements or create a new table.

If necessary, you can even create a new MBR. How does it all work? The instructions for the TestDisk program assume that the user can independently make some adjustments and thereby improve the operation of the program. So, for example, you can view a list of possible partitions detected during a scan and select only those that were in use before the disk stopped booting. TestDisk, after beginning a detailed search for lost items, can show the data that was deleted and overwritten again. The instructions for the TestDisk program explain in detail the features of the program for beginners and experienced users.

Those who know nothing at all about data recovery methods can use command line, login, and debug parameters to collect detailed information about the damaged disk. This data can later be sent to technical support for further analysis. Users who are familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a fairly convenient tool for quickly recovering data. What types of data can the service work with? TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of the following file systems:

- BeFS (BeOS);
— Cramfs (compressed file system);
— HFS and HFS+ (hierarchical file system);
— JFS;
- Linux Ext2 and Ext3;
- RAID 1;
- RAID 4;
- RAID 5;
- RAID 6;
— DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16, FAT32;
- Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2);
— LVM and LVM2;
- Linux (logical volume manager);
- Mac partition map;
— NTFS (Windows NT/2K/XP/2003);
- Linux Raid;
- Sun Solaris i386;
— Unix, UFS and UFS2 file systems (Sun/BSD);
- XFS, SGI's.

How to use TestDisk

As mentioned earlier, TestDisk is a powerful, freely available data recovery program. First of all, this program is used to recover lost partitions. TestDisk can also be used to make non-bootable disks bootable again. The program does not require installation. You can run it from a DVD or flash drive. The best way to use TestDisk is to download it to a flash drive or DVD. This way you can check your hard drive partitions even if the Master Boot Record has been damaged.

After this, you can independently initiate all the necessary commands in order to correct the markup. It is worth considering that the TestDisk program is entirely based on the command line interface. The application does not have a graphical user interface. New versions of the program are not supplemented with this feature. Even TestDisk 7.1 only assumes working on the command line.

TestDisk: utility capabilities

TestDisk could be compared to EASEUS Partition Recovery. However, TestDisk allows you to do a little more. TestDisk is capable of the following:

— correction of errors in the partition table;
— recovery of deleted information;
— restructuring of boot sectors;
— allocation of table files (FAT);
— creating and restoring backup copies of the NTFS boot sector;
— recovery of lost information on any type of partition.

To use this program, the user will need some experience. You need to understand what information is displayed on the screen. There is also contextual help, but even here only experienced PC users can understand everything without any hints. Most people will probably need detailed instructions for TestDisk 7.0.

After downloading the TestDisk utility, you will need to unzip the file to any location convenient for you. Since all the contents of the archive will be in one place, you won't have to worry about copying files to your System32 or Windows folder. No such actions are required. TestDisk is a complete portable tool. This means you can copy it to a removable drive and then use it to troubleshoot and fix boot records.

TestDisk can also be used to recover missing data from hard drives. When all files are locally available, you need to double-click on the testdisk_win.exe file. This way you will start using the application. The further sequence of actions will depend on what exactly you are going to do.

Using TestDisk to recover partitions

After running the TestDisk program, it will open in a DOS window. On the first screen, the program will ask you whether you want to create a new log file, add an existing one, or skip writing a log file. At this stage, it will be advisable to select the first option as it will keep the latest information. You can move between options using the arrow keys. To select the desired option, you must use the Enter key.

When you choose to create a new log file, the second screen will display a list of options from which you can select the hard drive format. If you are using a personal computer with a Windows operating system, then you need to select Intel and press Enter. In the case of another operating system (Linux), the instructions will be simpler. On the third screen, you need to select the “Analyze hard disk partitions” option. This process may take some time depending on the number of items you have on your computer and their capacity.

The results displayed must match the configuration that was specified when the disks were created: logical, extended, and primary. If you find any of them missing, select the QuickSearch option. This operation will help restore the disappeared partitions. After this, you will need to select the broken partitions. To save the section, you need to click on “Burn”.

TestDisk: data recovery instructions

To recover lost data, you must select Advanced instead of “Hard disk partition analysis.” The TestDisk utility will scan the partition selected in the next window and return the file names. To restore a file, you need to select it using the arrow keys and press the C button. The program will prompt you to select a destination. You must select the item in which the corresponding files should be recorded. Once the recovery process is complete, you need to navigate to Quit using the arrow keys and press the Enter key to exit the program. As you can see for yourself, recovering data using TestDisk is quite simple.

Conclusion

TestDisk is great for recovering partitions, recovering files, fixing partitions and boot records, etc. However, its interface will not be very clear for those users who are not very well versed in troubleshooting. This tool is very convenient for specialists. This program will seem especially easy to users who work with Linux. For inexperienced users there are detailed instructions and documentation. However, the use of this program can only be recommended if the user has illustrated instructions for TestDisk 6.14.

This is primarily due to the fact that some users may find the command line interface too confusing. It's also worth noting that the TestDisk utility is often mentioned in conjunction with the rather confusing PhotoRec tool. There are even some similarities between these utilities. The PhotoRec program is designed to recover lost images from the memory of a digital camera, as well as lost files from hard drives and CD media. This tool works based on source data. It ignores the file system. For this reason, PhotoRec will work even if the file system has been severely damaged. In this case, the recovered files will appear in the directory from which you run the program.

  • Letter No. 1. I ask you to suggest a solution to my problem. I lost a partition of my hard drive with important data, I tried to use the program, did everything as written in your article, but to no avail, Acronis Recovery Expert writes - no deleted partitions were found on your hard drive, I also tried to use the TestDisk program, but apparently I’m doing something -that’s wrong, the instructions for the TestDisk program on the official website are half in Russian and the other half in English, I couldn’t master this work http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_step_by_step.
  • Administrator's note: Dear friends, the site has three more instructions for working with free but effective utilities for recovering deleted hard drive partitions: , and . Another deleted partition can be restored with the paid Acronis Disk Director program.
  • Letter No. 2. Tell me how to use TestDisk? After a power outage, my operating system stopped loading; after booting from Livecd, I discovered that my entire hard drive had become unallocated space, and there were two partitions C and D, Windows 7 was installed on C, and very necessary files on D. I found information online about the free TestDisk program and downloaded it from the official website http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download. By the way, there are instructions for working with the program, namely how to recover a deleted partition from a hard drive formatted in the NTFS file system. I disconnected my hard drive and went to a friend, they connected my hard drive to his system unit, instead of my partitions there was the same unallocated space.
    By instructions when starting the program TestDisk I type (Create), then in the window that appears I select my hard drive from the list and press Enter, then I select the desired Partition Table type, the correct value is always already selected “by default”, since TestDisk determines the table type automatically (Intel). Then I leave (Analyse) to check the partition structure of the hard drive and search for “lost” partitions. Next, in the official instructions, a window appears with the current partition structure, and I have this,
    , I haven’t found information about what this means anywhere on the Internet and I don’t know whether I should continue working with the program, I’m very worried about my files, please give me advice.
  • Letter No. 3. Tell me please, where can I download TestDisk Livecd, that is, TestDisk on a bootable CD, they say this disk is made on the Ubuntu operating system - based on Debian GNU/Linux and the desktop there is somehow different from Windows. And is it possible somehow (it is possible, administrator's note).
    The fact is that Windows 7 stopped loading for me, having decided to check the integrity of the system files, I booted the laptop from a simple Livecd and discovered that my C partition had disappeared along with the operating system. The hard drive on my laptop was divided into two volumes C and D, and partition C was displayed as unallocated space. One online forum suggested that I need to find TestDisk Livecd and boot the laptop from it and try to recover the deleted system partition. If you can tell me how to do all this step by step, then thank you very much.

TestDisk instructions

In this article I will give three examples of recovering deleted partitions using the TestDisk program. This program will help you in most cases to recover deleted hard drive partitions, whether this happened to you by accident or due to some extraneous reasons, for example, inept use of partition manager programs - or Paragon, computer emergency shutdown, and so on. We can help you, the main thing is not to spontaneously and without experience apply several programs at once to recover lost hard drive partitions and not stop them halfway through the work done.

But I want to warn you, do everything exactly according to the instructions, do not select program functions that you know nothing about. If you want to practice in this program, then install a virtual machine in your system and practice as much as you want, when you have already learned most of the capabilities of the TestDisk program, then get to work. TestDisk can return a deleted partition and lost information, but it can also delete a partition and you will lose all your data. You won’t be able to play around with the TestDisk program, as well as with other similar programs. Laptop owners need to act especially carefully.

  • First, we will look at the simplest and most common case of recovering one lost partition on a hard drive belonging to one of my friends. After experimenting with one program, he lost a hard drive partition of approximately 130 GB with the folders he needed.
  • The second example will be more complicated, also taken from life, work colleagues brought a hard drive with two deleted partitions, one of which contained the installed Windows 7 operating system, and on the other partition there was a photo folder with a family photo archive, it had to be saved first. Upon closer inspection of the hard drive, the TestDisk program also gave us a warning Warning: the current number of heads per cylinder is 127 but the correct value may be 255. Results, but about everything in detail, we will need to restore all the data and launch the seven.
  • In the third example, we will download TestDisk Livecd from the official website and use it to also recover a deleted partition of a laptop’s hard drive.
  • If you need Bootable USB flash drive with TestDisk program, read our article.

In fact, on the official website of the developer of the wonderful free program TestDisk, there are clear instructions for using the program; the program itself was developed by C. Grenier (Christophe GRENIER).

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_step_by_step, but since all work with the program takes place on the command line and in English, many novice users avoid this program, but in vain. By the way, we already have one article describing the operation of the program - .
So let's look at three examples of recovering deleted hard drive partitions one by one.
Go to the official website of the program http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download and download it,

I suggest downloading and working in the Beta version: TestDisk & PhotoRec 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery, you can choose the stable TestDisk & PhotoRec 6.13 (November 15, 2011), Data Recovery, if you have Windows 64-bit, select your version,

downloaded then unzip the program from the archive. The testdisk_win.exe file is responsible for launching the program.

How to use TestDisk? We have a Maxtor STM3250310AS hard drive, on which a partition with very necessary files was accidentally deleted. As we can see in Disk Management, it is defined as Disk 2. It contains 113.2 GB of unallocated space, this is our deleted partition,

we need to restore it. Whenever working with the TestDisk program, it is very important to know which files were located on the remote partition, since the program can find long-deleted partitions that you no longer need. We need to return the deleted section with the Diploma, Coursework, Drawings folders.
In the initial window of the program, you and I need to choose whether the program during its operation should keep a report on all operations performed or not. Personally, I don’t need the report and I will select using the arrows on the keyboard No Log. You can choose Create (report required). To continue working, press Enter on the keyboard.

In this window, you need to select the hard drive on which to search for the deleted partition. In my case, as you can see, there are three hard drives: Western Digital and two identical Maxtor STM3250310AS. I select the last one in the list, Maxtor (why is it the third and not the second, it was on the third that I managed to find my friend’s files, how I did it, read on) and press Enter. Below is the default Proceed.


Select the required type of Partition Table, usually Intel. You need to know that TestDisk automatically determines the table type and the correct type is always selected by default. Next Enter

Select the Analyze item to search for deleted partitions and TestDisk scans the initial sectors of the cylinders, the primary partitions are located starting from the first sector of the cylinder, and the logical partitions are located from the second sector. In other words, the TestDisk program scans the hard drive for file system headers; TestDisk regards each header detected during such a scan as a found partition, then it determines its size and adds it to the list of found partitions.

This window displays the current partition structure of our hard drive, click Quick Search.

A more thorough search for deleted partitions occurs; it may take some time, which depends on the power of your computer.
Now attention friends, it is better not to make mistakes in this window; among the found partitions there is also our deleted volume that needs to be restored.
Using the arrows on the keyboard, select the lower section, firstly we focus on the volume, it took us about 113 GB,

then we go inside the remote section by pressing a keyboard key in the English layout (P) and to our joy we see all the folders we need: Diploma, Coursework, Drawings.

To exit file display mode, press (Q). By the way, on the left of each section its type is indicated. * for boot partition, P for primary, L for logical, E for extended. Now press Enter.

So, almost the end, we have already selected the partition needed for recovery, here we select “Write” using the arrows on the keyboard and all information about the found partition will be written to the partition table of the hard drive, press Enter.

Press Y

Close the program and restart the computer. A remote partition appeared with the folders we needed.

In the second case, having connected a hard drive with two remote partitions, one of which had the Windows 7 operating system, to our computer, we see the following picture in Disk Management. Disk 2 with a capacity of 111.79 GB is completely unallocated, now we’ll see if we can recover anything on it.

Run TestDisk again and in the first program window select No Log (No report required) or Create (report required) and press Enter on the keyboard

Select the Samsung hard drive using the arrows on the keyboard and Enter

Analysis


In this window, TestDisk tells us that no active partitions were found, click Quick Search.

There's a warning waiting for us here Warning: the current number of heads per cylinder is. This message is not good and says that TestDisk has detected an incorrect hard drive geometry (number of cylinders, heads or sectors), we ourselves will not change the hard drive geometry manually (although the program may allow us to do this) this is the topic of a separate article , let's trust the TestDisk program. Even if we restore the deleted partitions, it would be good not to store important data on this hard drive. In the future, it will be necessary to treat this hard drive for bad sectors of bad blocks, following the example of our article.
Click Continue to continue.

We select the last partition of the hard drive, it matches the volume of the partition -52 GB, on which the desired Photo folder was located,

to see the files located in the deleted partition, press on the keyboard in the English layout (P), we see the photo folder, if we restore the partition and this folder, especially with the family archive of photos, they will thank us.

Exit file display mode, press (Q). Then Enter

Move to the “Write” item and press Enter, information about the found partition will be written to the partition table of the hard drive.

Sometimes it happens that a virus or user error creates a malfunction in various partitions on the hard drive. It also happens that the boot sector or MBR becomes damaged in an attempt to recover partitions. This can happen to you too. To fix this, you will need the TestDisk program. The instructions for recovering data and partitions using the program describe in some detail. This application helps to fix errors and crashes.

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery utility. This application is primarily designed to recover lost partitions and/or fix unreadable disks in cases where these failures are caused by software glitches, certain types of viruses, or user error (for example, accidentally deleting your partition table).

What kind of instrument is this?

TestDisk is a freely available and useful program that queries the BIOS (DOS/Win9x) or OS (Linux, FreeBSD) to find hard drives and their characteristics (LBA size and CHS geometry). The app does a quick check of your disk structure and compares it to the partition table for typing errors. If the partition table has typing errors, TestDisk can repair them. It won't be difficult. If partitions are missing or completely empty tables are found, the utility can search for missing elements and create a new table, and if necessary, even a new MBR.

How it works?

However, TestDisk's instructions suggest that the user can make some adjustments to improve the program's performance. For example, you can view a list of possible partitions found during a scan and select one or more that were in use just before the drive stopped booting or was lost. In some cases, especially after starting a detailed search for lost items, TestDisk may show data that has been deleted and overwritten.

In TestDisk, the instructions for use explain the features of working with the software for beginners and experienced users. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, command line, login, and debug options can be used to gather detailed information about a non-booting drive, which can then be sent to tech support for further analysis. In turn, users who are familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk (the instructions for which will seem extremely simple to them) a convenient tool for performing recovery very quickly.

What types of data does the service work with?

TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of the following file systems:

  • BeFS (BeOS);
  • Cramfs (compressed file system);
  • HFS and HFS+ (hierarchical file system);
  • JFS, IBM's;
  • Linux Ext2 and Ext3;
  • RAID 1;
  • RAID 4;
  • RAID 5;
  • RAID 6;
  • DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32;
  • Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2);
  • LVM and LVM2, Linux (logical volume manager);
  • Mac partition map;
  • NTFS (Windows NT/2K/XP/2003);
  • Linux Raid;
  • Sun Solaris i386 (disk label);
  • Unix, UFS and UFS2 file system (Sun/BSD);
  • XFS, SGI"s (journaled file system).

TestDisk - instructions, or how to use this utility?

So, as already said, TestDisk is a powerful, freely available data recovery program that is primarily designed to recover lost partitions, as well as to make non-bootable drives bootable again. It does not require installation and can be launched from a flash drive or DVD.

The best way to use the TestDisk program is to boot it from a DVD to a flash drive. This way you can check all partitions on your hard drive in case the Master Boot Record is damaged. You can then issue the necessary commands to fix the markup. One thing to keep in mind is that TestDisk is entirely command line interface based. The application does not have a user. Even the newest versions of the utility do not add this feature; even in TestDisk 7.1, the instructions only suggest working on the command line.

Utility features

You could compare the program with EASEUS PartitionRecovery, but TestDisk allows you to do a little more. She can do:

  • Fixing partition table errors.
  • Recovering deleted partitions.
  • Rebuild boot sectors.
  • Allocation of table files (FAT).
  • Creating and restoring NTFS boot sector backups.
  • Recover lost files on any type of partition.

Using the program will require some experience, as you need to understand the data visible on the screen. Although contextual help is still available, only experienced computer users can understand everything without prompting. For the majority, you will probably need detailed instructions for TestDisk 7.0.

How to download the utility and start working with it?

After downloading TestDisk, you should extract the file to any location that is convenient for you. Since all the contents of the archive are in the same location, you don't have to worry about copying files to the Windows folder or the System32 folder. No such action is required. It is a complete portable tool and hence can be copied to a removable drive and then used to troubleshoot and fix boot records or recover missing data from hard drives.

Once all the files are available locally, you need to double-click on testdisk_win.exe to start using the application. Further instructions for TestDisk 7.0 will depend on what specific actions you want to perform.

Using TestDisk to recover partitions

When you run the TestDisk program, it will open in a DOS window. The first screen asks you whether you want to create a new log file, append to an existing log file, or skip the log file entry. It is advisable to choose the first option, as it will keep the information fresh. Remember that you must navigate between options using the arrow keys and select the desired option using the Enter key.

Once you choose to create a new log file, the second screen will show you a list of options where you can select the hard drive format. If you are using a Windows PC, select Intel and then press Enter.

In the case of another OS for TestDisk (Linux), the instructions are simpler and more intuitive.

On the third screen, select Analyze Hard Drive Partitions. This will take some time, depending on the number of items you have on your computer and the capacity of each item.

The results displayed should match the configuration that was specified when the disks were created: primary, extended, and logical. If you see something is missing, you can select QuickSearch. This will return the disappeared “partitions”. Then you must select the broken partitions and click "Burn" to save the partition.

TestDisk program - instructions for recovering lost data

To select Advanced instead of “Hard disk partition analysis”. TestDisk 7 (instructions for which are provided here) will scan the partition selected in the next window and return the file names. To restore a file, select it using the arrow keys and press C. You will be prompted to select a destination. You select the destination where the missing files should be written. Once the recovery is complete, navigate to Quit using the arrow keys and press Enter to exit the program. Thus, in TestDisk, the recovery instructions are very simple, as you can see.

What conclusions can be drawn?

The tool is good for all the purposes listed above: partition recovery, partition and boot record fixing, file recovery, etc. However, the TestDisk utility interface (raw instruction) is too complex for those who are not very knowledgeable about troubleshooting. This tool is very convenient for specialists and is recommended in all cases; this program seems especially easy to Linux users. For people who are not power users, there is extensive documentation, screenshots available, etc.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this program to every user only if there are good illustrated instructions for TestDisk 6.14 (and for later versions). This is because the command line interface can be very confusing for some.

It's also worth noting that TestDisk is often mentioned in conjunction with the PhotoRec tool. These are different utilities, but there are some similarities between them. PhotoRec is a program designed to recover lost images from digital camera memory, as well as lost files, including videos, documents and archives from hard drives and CD media. This tool ignores the file system and works from the original data, so it will function even if it is heavily damaged or formatted.

The recovered files then appear in the directory from where you launch the PhotoRec program. The utility is available free of charge and is an open source, multi-platform application distributed under the GNU Public License. PhotoRec is a companion to TestDisk and is included in its download.

TestDisk open source software distributed under a license GNU General Public License .

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery program. It was developed to restore lost partitions and the boot capacity of disks. Restores partition tables, and you can also restore individual files from the list without restoring the entire partition, which is very convenient. TestDisk also convenient to use for analysis.

Let's look at an example of restoring individual files in the operating system Xubuntu.

Installing the program TestDisk V Xubuntu:

$ sudo apt install testdisk

Launch the program TestDisk:

$sudo testdisk

A program welcome window will open. Choose Create a new log file(create a new log file). Click Enter:

In the next window you need to select carrier(disk) on which the data to be recovered is located, and Proceed. Click Enter:

A list of operation selections will appear in the next window. Choose . Click Enter:

Mark the required section and command . Click Enter:

You can see all the content on the selected media:

Up, down and Enter find the desired directory. Deleted files that can be recovered will be red:

Mark the folder or file and press the key c and in the window that opens, select the directory to save our file. And press the key again c. If you need to return to the previous window, press the key q:

The recovery process has begun:

After the recovery and copying process is completed, the program will return you to the directory with the restored files, where you can select other documents, images, folders.

To be fair, it should be noted that not all recovered files can be used. Some are damaged and cannot be opened. But in this example, the last folder, deleted a week ago, was completely restored with 100% safety of both documents and images. Whereas the previous one had broken files, although it was deleted 6 days later.

What else can TestDisk do?

  • Correct the partition table, restore deleted partitions;
  • FAT32 from a backup copy;
  • FAT12/FAT16/FAT32;
  • correct the table FAT;
  • rebuild (reconstruct) the boot sector NTFS;
  • repair boot sector NTFS from a backup copy;
  • restore MFT using MFT mirror;
  • determine backup SuperBlock ext2/ext3/ext4;
  • recover deleted files on file systems FAT, NTFS and ext2;
  • copy files from remote FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3/ext4 sections.

TestDisk supports operating systems:

  • DOS (real or in Windows 9x, DOS-box);
  • Windows (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista);
  • Linux;
  • FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD;
  • SunOS;
  • MacOS.

TestDisk works with file systems:

  • BeFS (BeOS);
  • BSD disklabel (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD);
  • CramFS, Compressed File System(compressed file system);
  • DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 And FAT32;
  • Windows exFAT;
  • HFS, HFS+ And HFSX, Hierarchical File System(hierarchical file system);
  • JFS, IBM's Journaled File System(journaled file system IBM);
  • Linux ext2, ext3 And ext4;
  • Linux LUKS encrypted partition(encrypted section Linux);
  • Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2;
    • RAID 1: mirroring(mirror raid);
    • RAID 4: striped array with parity device;
    • RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information;
    • RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information;
  • Linux Swap(versions 1 and 2);
  • LVM And LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager;
  • Mac partition map;
  • Novell Storage Services NSS;
  • NTFS (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008);
  • ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 And 4 ;
  • Sun Solaris i386 disklabel;
  • Unix File System UFS And UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...);
  • XFS, SGI's Journaled File System.