This article will consider how to recover deleted files, and best of all will show you how to do it for FREE! It will consider how to use the basic un-delete feature of the powerful testdisk and photorec tool provided opensource from cgsecurity.org.
If you’re looking for professional help to recover deleted files, please click the contact button above to get in touch with a data recovery professional. Even if you’re just looking for some free professional data recovery advice give us a call.So the first thing you’ll notice about testdisk and photorec is….
the rather unimpressive DOS looking command prompt interface. Yes it’s ugly, but don’t rule out what it has to offer under the hood. It’s an amazingly powerful tool that we still occasionally use here in our data recovery company, despite having other software costing thousands.
Upon first opening the photorec.exe you’ll see the prompt shown here where you select the physical drive you’re going to recover data from. The choice should be relatively easy by simply looking at the size and model number listed in the prompt.
Next you’ll be asked to select the partition you want to recover data from. Unless you have a custom configuration, just go with the one that has the biggest “size in sectors listed below and press enter.
You also may want to make note of the filesystem listed along with your partition. In this case it shows as “NTFS” since we are running this on a Windows hard drive.
This becomes important in the next step where you’re asked what filesystem you have. There’s only two options “Ex2/Ex3” or “Other”.
Unless you are running a linux or freeBSD environment, or recovering data from a NAS, you can safely stick to the “other” option which supports both Apple and Windows formats.
Next you select whether you want to scan the whole drive, or just the free space. If you’re looking to recover deleted files, you’ll want to select “free” which will save a lot of time scanning sector areas that are already allocated to other files, and won’t contain any deleted files.
After this you’ll be asked where to save the data to
Listen up, because this next part is important. You really should choose a save point that is on a different hard drive, or at least a separate partition than the one you are recovering from.
Just click the little “..” until you get up to top level and select what folder to save the files to. Usually it’s best to not be recovering data from your running OS drive, but rather you should use a different computer to scan the hard drive and save files there instead.The rest of the process is pretty self explanatory. The software will run for up to several hours finding files and dumping them into folders where you selected to recover the deleted files.The files found in RAW scan will usually have no names associated with them, so after it finishes simply use windows search to find the file type that you’re missing and start looking. E.G. if looking for deleted digital camera pictures you’d probably search for “*.jpg” or something like that.
Have questions or want a pro who really knows how to recover deleted files? Contact us using the above links.
Jared is patient and extremely knowledgable with the advice he gives. instead of trying to sell you the $$$$ service, he investigates and attempts to find the simple solution to data recovery. would definitely recommend.
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16:33 06 Jul 17
Excellent Service, Very sharp and intelligent about the situation. Highly Recommended.
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17:07 20 Mar 17
So far it's been great - Jared took the time and patience to explain everything to me. I've chatted with several companies and he's has been the most helpful.
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14:18 09 Jun 15
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18:43 27 Mar 18
Everyone at data medics was so professional, helpful, and pleasant. Their prices are very good compared to other companies that ask way more money. They were also able to recover ALL of my data in just a few weeks. Highly recommended!
Ale García Bardales
23:43 30 Apr 18
Wonderful help from Jared!
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07:56 23 May 18
Friendly and knowledge staff.
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I couldn't be happier with the service and the counseling, as they talked me off the cliff. Great Job, thanks again!
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17:40 26 Sep 18
Excellent service at a great price!
Mary Raum
22:14 18 May 19
This is a very professional company. They go through all scenarios, exceptional service at offIce.
Falkon Punch
21:07 29 Aug 19
Without them, I wouldn't have been able to retrieve any information from my old laptop, nor would I have my photos of Sally ( my dog who recently passed) back
Falkon Punch
21:07 29 Aug 19
Without them, I wouldn't have been able to retrieve any information from my old laptop, nor would I have my photos of Sally ( my dog who recently passed) back
Alix Cornay
13:16 30 Oct 19
Very EXCELLENT work! Highly recommend ??
Eric Brown
17:17 20 Mar 20
Great service - Was able to get my pictures of my kids back. Thanks again! Hopefully i do not need the service again.
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17:47 20 Jun 20
Jared was kind enough to answer a lot of questions by email without me being a customer. He is an absolute expert who is extremely customer-friendly. I really appreciate that. Really great!
Eric MacIver
17:57 30 Jun 21
Jared worked with me on a RAID0 recovery project. He did so remotely and was fantastic to work with! He was prompt, professional, patient, helpful, courteous and extremely knowledgeable. I fully recommend working with him and Data Medics - I know they'll be my first call if I need any assistance in the future.
Soheil A
16:40 29 Sep 21
Mr. Palmer and Data Medics are quick, communicative, experienced and professional with lots of experience. I am living in Germany and was looking for someone to help me. He was able to identify an issue that many people who I had asked could not identify. He told me the best way to recover the data and his estimation are always correct, work is done quickly. I couldn’t imagine any better expert for this problem and I highly recommend his service worldwide.
Michael Ryan
18:16 23 Dec 19
I have brought 3 drives to this company in last 2 years. They recovered only one of them, the first one. Each time they charged me for parts couple hundred $ per drive. It took them over a month to get back with final result. I have sent the last drive to NJ and they were able to recover 60% of the data. I am very upset. This is not a good business.
