Data Recovery with TestDisk

[@aGGreSSiv]

Thank you so much. At first I was taking an image of the whole disk. It hadn't occurred to me that the list option was for recovering necessary files. Finally, I asked myself why the folder has a lock mark. All questions answered in the video.

[@bongoultrainstinct6401]

You're a life saver!! My SD card for my android was corrupt, and my fathers (who passed away) pictures i have them back! God bless you sir!

[@PrivateLZG]

Actually, I found TestDisk first, then this Video, but since then, multiple of these Videos have helped me so much so I just wanted to say thanks ;)

[@greenmewtwo6267]

So far the only tutorial I've seen that takes it slow and doesn't require prior experience to soft design.

[@bencunningham563]

Thank you, my local computer shop was quoting upwards of €1700 and luckily I have a constant distro of ubuntu running. Genuinely thank you.

[@ClimaxCinemaOfficial]

TNice tutorials is one of the best tutorials of ANYTNice tutorialNG that I've ever watched in my life! Thank you so much!

[@kobityrkel5078]

Thank you! Awesome video, very clear and helpful... helped me recover years of memories from a corrupted backup external disk.

[@oswyguy9317]

Thanks, Kobi!

[@kraftykactus1028]

THANK YOU! I was resizing my windows partition to make room for linux when(I guess) I managed to corrupt my entire hard drive and make it inaccessible. Thankfully, I found this video and I've successfully recovered my data!

[@keithstarkey5584]

If nothing else, that you are a Perry the Platypus is...outstanding! I'm 58-years-old, and I've got hours upon hours of Phineas and Ferb under my belt. Perry just rocks!

[@oswyguy9317]

To steal a quote from Mark Twain, Between Perry and me, we cover all knowledge. Perry knows all that can be known and I know the rest.

[@keithstarkey5584]

@@oswyguy9317 Aaaa-Geeent Peeeee!

[@microguard]

Thanks for the video!! Since I have used Msdos back in the days, I can relate to terminal window in someway..

[@dcercado100]

Thanks for making a very clear tutorial video.

[@naveenrajaelangovan4641]

That hide is just to hide those deleted files from the view in testdisk application. its shown in read because its still recoverable.

[@oswyguy9317]

Thanks Naveen. Appreciate the clarification.

[@roberthermoso3436]

Your videos have helped reach over $200,000 in stocks by age 23! Thanks In The setup. Keep the videos coming.

[@amaniabdelhadiramat4677]

Thanks.I recover all my pictures really thanks

[@anayancigarzagaytan7997]

BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[@Vanzyxl]

Don’t be afraid, just embrace it.

[@abuelella2529]

The introduction was very helpful, thanks!

[@gsf3707]

Thank you so much ❣️ was able to recover my drive....

[@BitsOfTruth]

Hi. I was able to select the whole Pictures folder and copy it my HDD from a non booting (because of OS files not working) USB connected HDD. Meaning I didn't choose individual files, but highlighted the folder (or here called directory) and pressed c and it showed up in my target folder and two parent folders above it. It was inside the parent folders when it arrived. Pretty neat.

[@oswyguy9317]

Thanks for the good report! Glad testdisk helped you recover data!

[@angiecastano2032]

Thank you for explaining this thoroughly!

[@arifsatria400]

thanks, it actually let me through so i could download it.

[@navidhendrix]

Thank you so very much!! This has saved my music and other files.

[@jasoncatlyn7331]

Thanks again. It was helpful indeed.

[@ignaciosebastianpavezmunoz9347]

This worked perfectly for me! Thank you SO much!

[@caixianchen5777]

ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE

[@oswyguy9317]

You're welcome!!

[@milagrosjimenez7043]

It works! Thanks a lot.

[@shishir757678]

Thanks a lot Sir for the tutorial

[@crist8776]

it worked! thank you so much!!

[@cbproductionmultimedia4134]

i thank you sir, i was able to recover the files i needed.

[@oswyguy9317]

Glad to hear that!

[@josegaldino1311]

after becoming familiar through the demo!

[@sandracarolinagautomartine3047]

thank you straight to the point

[@kuldipnayak5759]

Thank you very much !!!

[@pr.washingtonluismascarenh1325]

sotis when the sample finishes playing it will play over itself and you get tNice tutorials echo effect.

[@cooolguymani]

merci beaucoup a toi :))

[@pawar2946]

Thank you for uploading tNice tutorials video , so much information!

[@sidethphin015]

Thanks, really helped

[@ashleyhuffman6213]

something you may want to elaborate on is how you chose your restore directory. where your restore directory is located, is your restore, and source directory on the same drive? how about if i want to restore onto an external hard drive? test disk does not seem to give too many options for that

[@zyuxqiihubyt4732]

dude explained sNice tutorialt like it was soone who knew everytNice tutorialng already but just needed to make sotNice tutorialng

[@Geezy_]

I used TestDisk but seemed to only recover music files....my pictures and videos seemed to all disappear

[@Nightsbringer1]

Very old video so a response is doubtful but anyway. If you were tasked with saving everything on a users system using this process, could you enter the home directory (or for the case of a Windows user, the user directory) highlight the user you want (in this case Lou) and then press C and specify a location? Would that copy his entire user directory as asked? Thank you!

[@pjmclenon]

hello i have a usb drive attahced and i finally foind out that its in dev/sdc or dev/sdc1 but i copied and there are no erros but tnothing copies why? i am using windows machines and brand new usb key--Lisa

[@mijalic1]

Didnt work out for me. After reboot I still have empty Home directory. After I activate Show hidden i can see 3 icons with .bash_logout .bashrc .profile. Same as before doing all proces you described.

[@pjmclenon]

i am using test disk and i am able to seelct files but how do i copy themn to my usb drive connected becuz i dont want to copy to the ssm ehost disk its corrupt and wont boot Lisa

[@pantherdiveacademy2598]

Very helpful

[@Transcendental9]

Thank you very much for detailing and going through this step by step, very helpful! I'm in the process of recovering an old drive, its working and copyting without errors so far but its going slow, it looks like its having hard time reading the drive. opying, please wait... 427 ok, 0 failedntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error Failed to read of MFT, mft=1300 count=1 br=-1: Input/output erro

[@oswyguy9317]

Hopefully your patience will reward you with recovery of most of your data. It sounds like the hard drive is pretty unhealthy, so good luck.

[@Transcendental9]

@@oswyguy9317 It took about 20 hours to recover my documents folder which is about 10 GB, but recovered everything with 0 errors, I will continue recovering. Thank you for sharing your knowledge I appreciate it :)

[@pjmclenon]

hello its ccopying the files in the dev cuz when i press enter in the sdc it doesn enter it why? this toll is not great Lisa

[@yassersalah3961]

GOD!!!My broo

[@fivixred7367]

Helped, thanks

[@ampecsu]

thanks again. I have been able to recover most of my files. BUT any recommendations on a way or other software that can recover files that are in folders that show up empty on testdisk but are able to be see in "lost files" folder when I explore the drive on Mini Tool programs? Funny b/c thats the stuff i cant really replace.... :(

[@oswyguy9317]

I'm sorry I don't have a suggestion for your "lost files" problem. I am hoping someone else will read your response and be able to offer a solution. With over 17,000 viewers, Hopefully someone will respond!

[@josefsustek7669]

Zdravím z Czech Republic. Děkuji za návod, pomohl jste mi obnovit oddíl omylem zformátovaného hardisku.

[@oswyguy9317]

Glad I could help.

[@Salchy7811]

it work on my pc thx bro vеry much

[@Sametaktas653]

I literally can’t concentrate on what you are saying you’ve got stunning look jesus

[@soundsandambientvideos380]

do you need to have the subject hdd unmounted to do this?

[@sagarsinghb4145]

For once, the software is actually really useful

[@LemCastle]

Thanks Brother

[@Dvrko]

Thank you sir I’m following your guide, my 1tb hd was split in 2 partitions one of them is showing all the stuff and everything but the other one which was the most important one doesn’t show all my file when I list them with test disk , does it means I can’t recover all my stuff

[@oswyguy9317]

If testdisk doesn't display a particular file , then I would assume that testdisk can't recover that file. I apologize that I don't have an alternate software program to suggest.

[@thangluong2365]

"inconvenient' would describe your previous comnt better then

[@sauldj8177]

It's just awesome

[@JohnnySins-vc1et]

I'm trying to open it up as I type tNice tutorials. I'm lost right now and my opening screen looks notNice tutorialng like Nice tutorials. Can anyone help?

[@RaizenEx1]

What if i want to recover the whole drive..........

[@joellopez9458]

project a lot because I've been working on other stuff (and being lazy lol). Also, I had been facing a recurring problem of content dropouts in

[@pjmclenon]

hello after i slect a then C it copies without giving me an option to selct the destation why? and whree ar emy fiols gong to ? i have usb connected and i can tseem to be able to copy there my current files are on the corrupt disk how did you gain access to your 2nd drive you are not clear a that point sporry Lisa

[@pjmclenon]

ok when i did shift c i get to the menu where it says slect a destination but i dont see my usb drive

[@Khadijakinana7]

understanding how everytNice tutorialng works. TNice tutorials is like my 10th ti watcNice tutorialng tNice tutorials lol I’m so basic!

[@judysims]

I was forced to recover my entire windows 7 and lost all my important documents and pictures.Is there a way to use this program through kali linux to get the same job done?

[@oswyguy9317]

Hi Judy. Yes you should be able to use Kali Linux to run testdisk. I just downloaded and ran the live 64bit Kali Linux and verified that testdisk is already installed and available in the terminal.

[@mdd1963]

you might try Recuva....

[@killermachine3731]

Bold Move

[@AmjadEraj]

I feel you

[@matthewlathum9312]

using TestDisk I recovered some files but the remaining time is so far 1250 h and 54 minutes! TestDisk seems to me very, very fast!

[@rendertillexplode]

shadow fight how do you open the channel rack?

[@shujahahmed5167]

I've placed my folders in the documents and I'm following the same steps as of yours for restoring the locked folders but I'm not able to restore any of the locked folders . What should I do?

[@oswyguy9317]

Did you open a terminal to change ownership (chown command) of that restored folder? Until you do that, you won't be able to access the folder.

[@mayankkumartiwari1171]

Which platform do you use for making this video, where video goes side by side and tutorial on another side.

[@oswyguy9317]

In this case, I'm using Ubuntu with Gnome for desktop environment. I use Google slides for the tutorial slides and GUVCView for the webcam. My latest video is done with Pop-OS 20.04 with the new window tiling manager, which makes this effect even easier.

[@mayankkumartiwari1171]

@@oswyguy9317 thanks man.

[@Freakgirl246]

Where did you download this 7.0 version of testdisk? Mine doesnt even show the option to list the files. It only shows [type] [image creation] and [quit] in the advanced section. It would be nice, if you could share a link. Thanks :)

[@oswyguy9317]

I downloaded my testdisk from the Ubuntu repository (sudo apt install testdisk is the command). Here is the link for all operating systems: www.cgsecurity.org/ ... The version I am seeing now is 7.1. If you are at a Linux terminal prompt, make sure to type the command "sudo testdisk" instead of just "testdisk" so that you have admin rights.

[@BitsOfTruth]

Is the h hide command for hiding the deleted files leaving the ones not deleted but locked by the operating system? Just a thought. Sorry I think spell check got me.

[@oswyguy9317]

"Licked"? Don't understand the comment. Perhaps a typo?

[@BitsOfTruth]

Either typo or victim of spell check. I try this on my Laptop verses phone with my glasses on. Ha. I was checking a jump drive for fun and experience on which all the files were deleted. I noticed when I hit H hide command all the files disappeared. So I thought perhaps this was made (the hide command) to separate the files that were previously deleted verses the ones that still exist but are not viewable by normal means because operating system is not up and running and being forced viewed through TestDisk. If this is so, I would like the hide command much. This would give me a chance to recover only the existing files after a computer quits verses dealing with the deleted ones as well in which in some cases I would not want back anyway. Yesterday I just removed a Hard Disk Drive to install a faster one, and should have tried this first before making comment. Sorry, and Good Day.

[@oswyguy9317]

@@BitsOfTruth I think you are right about the hide command. I will try this the next time I am running testdisk on a faulty drive. I was always a bit puzzled about the reason for the "hide" option. Good observation!

[@MrBond-rq3om]

so sNice tutorialt like that

[@bingbang9643]

I had an external hard drive formatted as MAC, and i accidentally reformated the drive into NTFS using disk utility . Do you think this software can find the mac partition and restore it? Thanks a lot

[@oswyguy9317]

I'm not sure teskdisk can help, but you may as well try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[@BitsOfTruth]

Hi. I installed a Msata to TF card reader in WWAN slot. Fits good, pops up and down good like ram does. I can't get Bios or Windows 10 to find it. I even done I new install of Windows 10. Any advice? Thanks. Btw I had a TF card formatted with files on it in reader all the time. Dell E6540.

[@oswyguy9317]

I had to look at some youtube videos on this msata to TF card reader placed in WWAN slot. Seems interesting. But I have no experience with this so I can't offer any advice. Sorry.

[@BitsOfTruth]

@@oswyguy9317 Thanks. I could not find any info either. I just wanted a simple drive for DOSBox files and to keep my SD Slot open for other stuff. I went back to using SD Slot and put it in my imaginary box of failed projects after I installed my first SSD which is super fast. Thanks for your previous time Sir. It is strange though because someone is using them. I got mine from eBay China, but even Walmart has them on thier site. If you find time please visit my channel and see my video on 3 n 1 batch file menu, and see what this old fellow really enjoys doing. It one of my latest.

[@69metersbelow25]

when trying to copy the file that is in red i get no file found.file system may be damaged but this is the only folder/files i want but i swear it was recoverable using another program but now i cant veiw or see it it anymore with another memory programs but this one.please tell me how can i get it back the one in red

[@oswyguy9317]

I am not sure I can help on this one. I never found a clear answer on why some files are listed in red, but I successfully restored a "red" file using the methods in the video. Make sure to note when to type a lower case "c" and an upper case "C". Maybe you can find out more info at the website where testdisk is available: cgsecurity.org

[@wh1te552]

I don’t even have any old types of soft soft

[@mfeijoo2993]

hi there i running debian 10 want to recover from mini dvd disk .after i when to step you choose advance ,it says no directory,what should i do thanks

[@oswyguy9317]

I'm not sure if testdisk is designed to recognize a DVD file system. Sorry, I just have no experience to draw upon for recovering data from a DVD.

[@mfeijoo2993]

@@oswyguy9317 thank you

[@computerlight30]

sir i have formatted my disk partition and also overwritten that partition. can i recover the partition, sir please reply me and suggest me something through which i could recover it.

[@oswyguy9317]

I'm sorry I don't have any experience or knowledge on recovering data from a formatted and overwritten partition. I wish you luck in finding an answer.

[@ampecsu]

Is my hard drive bad or is windows or the partition bad??? The last two times that I was able to log into windows it would be very, very slow and freeze when while was trying to paste files on the desktop into another folder. After that it would just would just stop at HP logo and start diagnosing and attempting repairs but would freeze then just go to black screen(sometimes with visible frozen mouse arrow). I took out the hard drive and plug it in externally and programs like mini partition tool wizard can "explore the files" and I was able to add drive letters to the WINRE(had recovery folder w/ bootmenu folder in it an shows 136MB free of 399MB ) and RECOVERY(empty but shows 2.5GB free of 22.9) partitions. But my 900+GB of data (1Tb hdd) cant add a letter. Thanks anybody for reading this. What are my options?

[@oswyguy9317]

Hi ampecsu. It sounds like the data partition of your hard drive has crashed. I don't know about trying to repair the drive, but testdisk might be the best tool to use to copy the data to a healthy hard drive. Good luck!

[@ampecsu]

@@oswyguy9317 thank you for the response. One more question if I may. Should I try to clone, make an image, or just install Windows on a new a new harddrive and then try to to copy my files over with testdisk? If the last option do I make an image of just the old c drive data?

[@oswyguy9317]

@@ampecsu I have never felt comfortable about cloning an unhealthy drive. I think it is better to do a clean install of Windows and then copy your recovered data to your new user account.

[@ampecsu]

@@oswyguy9317 ok thanks!

[@alfredojaquez6519]

I accidentally reformatted one of my external HD with Fedora Media Writer. Will this work to recover my files that were on it? I am on Mac by the way. Thanks!

[@oswyguy9317]

I have no experience recovering data from a freshly formatted drive. It would be awesome if testdisk has the capability to recover data from a newly formatted drive, but I cannot tell you if that is possible. Maybe someone seeing this set of comments could give some enlightening info?

[@alfredojaquez6519]

@@oswyguy9317 Thank you for the response ! I'll keep doing research

[@archieholliday1960]

Will testdisk work on a tivo DVR HDD so I can watch my saved movies?

[@oswyguy9317]

I don't know. I suppose it would be worth a try.

[@ritu7035]

Hello sir I got the blue screen error in my laptop on window 10. I got it fixed from a dealer. He reinstalled the window but into an another drive and lost the whole data of that drive. Is there any way to recover that lost data . It's urgent please suggest some way.

[@oswyguy9317]

When I install Windows 10, I do a clean install (I delete any pre-existing partitions, allow Windows to create new partitions, and then format the main partition and then proceed with the install). If your dealer performed a clean install on "another" drive that had pre-existing data on it, I think that data is lost and not recoverable, I'm sorry to say.

[@shaishirom5421]

Hello Sir I have a mobile wd ultra hdd(my passport) i tried to resized it with easeus partiton manager, hit apply and it run and the hdd went to raw i tried many softwares to recover the data but still no luck ,i can see the data on the drive that i try to recover from one software i just see the folders but no files with testdisk all data copied to destination but i can't see nothing no folders nor files can you help me with that problem Thanks

[@oswyguy9317]

I'm sorry I can't offer any testdisk solution. Perhaps you can contact Easeus to see if they can offer a solution.

[@hiksiol6306]

But how to navigate and to save recovered file to usb stick memory?

[@oswyguy9317]

If you want to have a USB flash drive available for storing the recovered data, it will probably only be available if you plug in the flash drive before you start your testdisk session. Otherwise, you might restore the data to your home directory as I demonstrated and then copy the data to a USB disk using your file manager. Hope this helps.

[@hiksiol6306]

@@oswyguy9317 Thank you very much. You are the boss

[@akshaymehrotra9653]

sir in my case when i select the advanced option, it says that i have no partitions available, was trying to run fsck to repair the sectors but was unable to do so as it said that the following drive was in use i.e. /dev/sdb is in use. please guide me on this as i require data from my external HDD as soon as possible.

[@oswyguy9317]

Hi Akshay. If you attempted to run fsck, your operating system may have attempted to connect (mount) to the bad drive, which would make it inaccessible to testdisk. Try rebooting your computer and connect the bad drive as an external USB drive after you have logged in. Open the "Disks" utility to verify that the bad hard drive is listed with a file system "unknown". Do not attempt to mount the drive. Just open a terminal and type "sudo testdisk". Hopefully this will work for you.

[@dausk7452]

@@oswyguy9317 Hello, I have the same issue here, I also did as you instructed, but it still shows up as "No partition available". The Drive is an SSD which has a lot of my old pictures. I would really want to restore them. Do you have any other suggestions. Thanks a lot

[@oswyguy9317]

@@dausk7452 I have to wonder if testdisk needs an update from its developers to support SSD drives. I wish I could offer advice, but I have only run testdisk on the older technology non-SSD hard drives.

[@dausk7452]

@@oswyguy9317 thanks for you reply :) I'll have to keep looking out for a solution. In the mean time i will try not to play around too much with the disk, i may mess it up further

[@davidnocca5990]

Can you do this but instead of moving it to the desktop like you did, straight to another hard drive. I have a lot of data and if I try to move it on my mac it cancels because there isnt enough space, so i would have to create a directory straight to another hard drive. Is this possible?

[@oswyguy9317]

You should be able to move your data to an external drive. Just make sure to have the external drive plugged in before you start your testdisk session. Then choose a folder on the external drive for your restore instead of a folder on your desktop.

[@davidnocca5990]

@@oswyguy9317 the only thing is that when I'm selecting the directory and find the external disk to move the info on, it doesn't seem to open it and allow me to select it as a chosen directory

[@oswyguy9317]

@@davidnocca5990 Hmm... maybe you can just restore directly to the root of the external drive? Sorry I'm only guessing since I don't have experience restoring to ext drive.

[@AmitPal-qf5ts]

At the time of installation of Ubuntu, I selected erase data and install ubuntu over window. I was not familiar with ubuntu. I thought that it would be installed into C Drive. But after installation of Ubuntu, all drives were deleted and Ubuntu created a single drive. My data in various drives of windows has been deleted. Please tell my any way to recover that data (now i am using ubuntu) or is there any way to recover that data?

[@oswyguy9317]

Oh man! The default installation of most Linux distros (like Ubuntu) will delete any pre-existing NTFS partitions (Windows) and will create one or two partitions using the Linux native EXT file system. Before I install any operating system, I back up all data to an external hard drive, so I have no experience with using testdisk to recover data on a freshly formatted drive. It might be possible, but I've never attempted to do this. Sorry.

[@minadawood8603]

Did you found a solution for that problem ?? Tell me please

[@oswyguy9317]

@@minadawood8603 I haven't found a solution for this. Sorry.

[@nihalali6547]

Make a video for Android recovery

[@sjbob5465]

away with what setups can generate.

[@Bininandra]

hi, thanks for the video. Can using TestDisk damage a drive? I heard some recovery can cause issues. I have a locked SD card with info that need recovering. Thank you

[@oswyguy9317]

I don't know if TestDisk can damage a drive. I do know that I ran TestDisk four or five times on the same drive so that I could get a satisfactory screencast for this video. But I'm sure over time that drive would continue to deteriorate with each access. I would definitely not ever try to use TestDisk to try to "repair" a drive. All I want is the possibility for data recovery.

[@carlosb1]

i opened my external drive because I thought the head was stuck. Everything was fine lol. Anyway, i used TestDisk got all my data back. 99%. I don't think Testdisk can cause damage, damage if any is already done.

[@dee-oi4us]

Wow

[@nagi3237]

Can't believe tNice tutorials is free

[@Probouche348]

let know

[@pjohnson21211]

thanks

[@ApolloSol]

Will this work if its MST issues I'm having with the drive?

[@oswyguy9317]

I am not familiar with MST. Sorry.

[@ApolloSol]

@@oswyguy9317 actually I think i meant MTS

[@ApolloSol]

@@oswyguy9317 oops again. Its MFT. lol

[@oswyguy9317]

​@@ApolloSol I have never tried to recover a Master File Table. I've only recovered data files.

[@DansOgar]

Is it the same on Mac?

[@oswyguy9317]

If you are asking if testdisk can recover files from a Mac hard drive, the answer would be yes. If you are asking if you can install testdisk on a Mac, I don't know. Haven't tried it. Looks like there is at least one video posted by a Mac user (Mr. Random Generator posted a video "How To Recover Files Using TestDisk on MacOS").

[@hiphd1467]

I dоwnloaded everything is okay

[@hmm9823]

I lost my data whole installing ubuntu on windows Ive removed my hard disk Ive lost every pic and videos i had Can i recover tht data ?

[@oswyguy9317]

If you are saying that you installed Ubuntu on the hard drive where windows and your data were located, likely you have lost your data because a default installation of Ubuntu would format the drive with the EXT4 file system and wipe out the existing Windows NTFS partitions. I am not a TestDisk expert, but I don't think TestDisk can help in this situation. If you installed Ubuntu to dual boot with Windows, then your data might still be intact.

[@hmm9823]

Hi , i hadnt installed it for dual boot , i gave the hard disk for data recovery and i got back the data tysm fr taking time to answer to my question

[@rahuladke6240]

Can you suggest me the solution for the same to recover the data. Thanks!

[@oswyguy9317]

I don't know if TestDisk has the ability to recover data from a formatted hard drive. There are some other TestDisk youtube videos that seem to suggest the possibility. Sorry I can't help more than that.

[@parranoic]

No, it's not lost! I had formatted a hard drive 3 times with ubuntu, windows and the placed it in my ps3. You definitely lose some of the data but not everything, the program he showed you has another function, photorec, you use it to scan your hdd and it will find most of your stuff

[@user-id1xh6rp2b]

Here