How to recover lost files using Photorec.
With Photorec you can retrieve files that have been deleted - I have got files back from a drive after it was formatted.
The program detects and retrieves all kinds of files, not just photo formats.
Download the
TestDisk & Photorec zip file.
Unzip the file to a drive/partition with enough free space for the files you expect to recover - preferably more.
Do
NOT place the TestDisk folder on the drive/partition you want to retrieve files from.
Open
X:\testdisk-6.9\win (X is the drive where you placed the TestDisk folder) and click the
photorec_win icon.
The program runs in a command window and doesn't have to be installed.
Each of the steps (A, B, C etc) below corresponds to a new PhotoRec window.
Use the keyboard's arrow keys to navigate.
A. At the first window you choose the drive you want to scan for lost files.
Then select "
Proceed" and press the <
Enter> key.
B. Choose
Intel if it's a PC, press <
Enter>.
C. If you want to scan a single partition - highlight it.
To scan all partitions - highlight
[Whole Disk].
(You can choose to exclude certain file types from the scan by selecting "File Opt" >> to exclude a file type: highlight it, then press "-". When finished - press <
Enter> to return to the previous window.)
Select "
Search", then press <
Enter> to confirm.
D. For a Windows computer - choose "
Other".
If the drive/partition was formatted in Linux - choose EXT2/EXT3.
Press <
Enter> to confirm.
E. You can choose to scan the whole drive/partition or free space only.
A free space scan might be enough if you deleted files by mistake and haven't used the drive/partition since.
Press <
Enter> to confirm.
F. To save the recovered files in the
X:\testdisk-6.9\win folder - press "
Y".
If you press "N" PhotoRec will jump back to screen C.
G. The program will start recovering files.
The progress is shown in the program window.
When the "Estimated time for achievement" = 0h00m00, press <
Enter> and quit PhotoRec.
All the retrieved files will (unfortunately) be renamed and saved in
X:\testdisk-6.9\win\recup_dir.1 (2, 3 etc).
An easy way to sort them is to use Windows search function.
Using the search function you can find, for example, all jpeg files with a size less than 100 KB on drive I:
Click Start >> Search >> For files or folders... >> New window - choose "All files and folders" >> Another window:
