How to Recover Lost Data with Testdisk ?

How to Recover Lost Data using TestDisk

TestDisk is a free data recovery software. You can download the software on the operating systems such as DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and MacOS X. TestDisk must be executed with Administrator credentials. You should use the arrow, page up and page down keys to navigate in the TestDisk. After the selection, press the Enter key to confirm to know How to Recover Lost Data with TestDisk. If you want to return to the previous display or quit, use the q(quit) Key. TestDisk will recover the lost files for various file systems including FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2, etc. If you have deleted the file name, then the file will be marked as deleted and the data area as free. Even after the deletion, you can read the deleted directory and find the file. Go to the folder in which your old files were saved. Now the deleted files and directories will be displayed in red. Select a partition and choose Undelete. To recover Lost NTFS files, choose the file that you want to recover and press the ‘C’ key along with the Ctrl key to copy the file. You should select the location for the recovered files to be written. Now the NTFS file recovery is complete. If the lost file is still missing, you can try the other file recovery methods.

How to Recover Lost Data

How to Recover Lost Data from Hard Disk using TestDisk

  • Download and install TestDisk.
  • TestDisk is compatible with several operating systems. Ensure that your operating system supports the software.
  • An interface will enable you to create a log file. Select your HDD drive from which you have deleted.
  • Select Intel for IBM-compatible computers and Mac for Mac OS.
  • The memory status will be displayed in percentage.
  • After the search process is complete, the list of found partitions will be displayed. Select the partition you want and press the P button on the keyboard to know How to Recover Lost Data with TestDisk.
  • You can recover the lost data and corrupted files from FAT, NTFS, and ext2.
  • Select the file which you want to recover. For recovering the entire partition, then press the C button.
  • Select the file location in which you want to save the recovered file.
  • When the files are recovered, press Q to close the utility.

Data Recovery on a Formatted Drive with TestDisk

  • Download the Testdisk software and then install it. Type sudo apt-get install testdisk in the prompted window.
  • Start testdisk on the drive image that you have created. Type sudo testdisk/[location]/image.dd.
  • Use this command sudo testdisk/dev/sda if it is not an image file.
  • After this process, testdisk will ask if you want to make a log file.
  • TestDisk will automatically detect the partition table type. You can also select the next file you want to work on for How to Recover Lost Data with TestDisk.
  • Select [Intel] from the list, and now a message will be prompted. You can see the tools menu. Select [Analyse] and wait for a few minutes so that TestDisk searches for your partitions and deleted files.
  • The lost data is now recovered using TestDisk.

How to Recover Lost Data on My Laptop with TestDisk

  • Download TestDisk and install it to know How to Recover Lost Data.
  • If you are DOS, run TestDisk.exe. For Windows and Mac, start TestDisk. If you are using Linux/Unix/BSD OS, you should root the run TestDisk.
  • To recover a partition from the media image testdisk image.dd and testdisk image.E01 to recover files from Encase EWF image.
  • If Test Disk does not list your file system, then run the test disk device.
  • You should select the drives from the Disk selection tab. Use the arrow keys in keyboard to select your hard drive in the lost partition.
  • Press Enter to find the lost file on your laptop.
  • The Test Disk will display the partition table types. Select the partition table type and press Enter to begin the process.
  • Start the undelete process and then select where the files should be written after the recovery process.

Data Recovery using TestDisk failing

Test Disk will fail when issues occur during the process for How to Recover Lost Data. The common fails caused in TestDisk are mentioned below.

  • Can’t start TestDisk: displays cygwinl.dll not found.
  • The wrong capacity for the hard disk: The correct capacity should be reported. If the size is incorrect, then connect the hard disk directly to SATA instead of using a USB cable.
  • Can’t move, delete, rename the recovered files: Change the ownership of the files. Use [sudo chown -R username recup_dir.*].