PhotoRec
| PhotoRec
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 PhotoRec on Linux |
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| Basic data
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| developer | Christophe Grenier |
| Current version |
7.1 ( July 7, 2019 ) |
| operating system | platform independent |
| programming language | C. |
| category | Data recovery |
| License | GPL ( free software ) |
| German speaking | Yes |
| www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec | |
PhotoRec is free data recovery software for recovering files that have been deleted and not yet overwritten or that are stored on a damaged file system.
description
It is written by Christophe Grenier in the C programming language and published as free software under the terms of Version 2 or higher of the GNU General Public License (GPL). PhotoRec can run on all popular operating systems. Various Unix-like operating systems (GNU / Linux , macOS , xBSD ...), as well as DOS and Windows are supported. With all the more popular Linux distributions , it can be installed directly from the standard package sources using the package manager ; even if not always in the latest version. It comes bundled with the TestDisk software . PhotoRec is a command line tool ; a Qt -based graphical user interface is in the works (QPhotoRec).
PhotoRec was originally developed specifically for digital cameras, hence its name (PhotoRec is the abbreviation for "photo recovery"). PhotoRec 1.0 was released at the end of April 2002 and was initially only able to capture JPEG and MOV files. Since then, the number of supported file formats and file systems has steadily increased and the range of functions has grown, so that the program is now a universal data recovery tool. It has been included with the TestDisk repair software since 2004 (since TestDisk 5.4), and each new version is released together.
Functionality
PhotoRec works on a wide variety of storage media (including internal memories from different cameras) or image files with a large number of different file systems (over 20). An assistant function guides you step by step through the recovery process. The source file system is only accessed for reading. Found data is stored on other partitions or devices. PhotoRec completely ignores any existing file system remnants and therefore works regardless of the damage status of the file system. It uses the so-called “ carving ” method, that is, it reads the raw data stream and searches for signatures of known file formats (usually their header data structure ). It also has recognition patterns for over 180 file formats, including most of the major image formats as well as audio, office documents, archive and other formats.