How to Recover Deleted Photos and Other Files with PhotoRec

After accidentally pressing delete, you realize you've deleted the wrong file. So now what? If you've deleted data files, photos, videos or music files from your hard drive, a CD, DVD, USB drive or media card, PhotoRec may be just the program to recover your deleted files. PhotoRec can even recover some data from corrupt or formatted drives.

Even after you delete an item it's not truly gone until the data is overwritten with new data. The sooner you realize your data is missing, the more likely you are to recover it. Let's be realistic for just a moment. PhotoRec recovers most files. However, if your drive or device is severely damaged or is not recognized by your computer at all, PhotoRec will not be able to recover your files. For most users, PhotoRec works perfectly for restoring accidentally deleted items or those lost to formatting a media card or USB drive.

The first step to recovery is to immediately stop using the drive or media your files are stored on. If it's your main hard drive, close all open programs except for your Internet browser window and do not save any more data to your hard drive until you've had a chance to download and run PhotoRec. Insert the media you want to recover files from, if it's not your main hard drive. This will allow PhotoRec to recognize the drive after installation.

Next, visit PhotoRec's website to download the latest version of the software. PhotoRec is part of the TestDisk application which recovers lost partitions. The programs are downloaded as a set.

Unzip the downloaded file. If you have Windows XP or later, right click the file, select "Extract All" and follow the prompts to extract the compressed file.

Open the extracted folder of files. Open the "win" folder. If you have a different operating system, this folder will be the abbreviation of your operating system. Double click the "PhotoRec" icon. This will open a DOS prompt window. Please note that you cannot use your mouse to navigate through PhotoRec, only your keyboard.

Select the drive you want to recover your files from using your up and down arrow keys. Press "Enter" once the drive you want to recover is highlighted. The next screen is a little confusing for many users. On the next screen, you are asked to select the partition table type. The types available include Intel, EFI/GPT, Mac, None, Sun and Xbox. If you are using a Windows based computer, select Intel. If you are using a Mac, select Mac. If you are trying to recover files from a media card, USB drive or CD/DVD, select either Intel, Mac or None. Unless you've partitioned the device, select "None."

Press "Enter" to confirm your selection. Choose the partition you wish to scan on the next screen. You can scan either a single partition or all available space. To scan all available space, select the partition that states "No Partition" or "Whole Disk."

Before pressing "Enter" to begin the scan, you can select which types of files to scan for. This is especially useful if you're searching for one type of file, such as an image or video. If you're trying to recover all available files, press "Enter." If you want to select search options, highlight "Options" or "File Opt" at the bottom of the screen.

You still have a few more screens to go through at this point. The next screen asks which type of file system the files were stored on. For most types of drives, choose "Other." For Linux based systems, choose "ext2/ext3."

The final screen asks you where you want to store the recovered files. If the files you're trying to recover are on your main hard drive, choose an external storage location, such as an attached USB drive. If you're trying to recover files from an external drive, choose your hard drive as the storage location. Never store the files on the same drive you're trying to recover them from since this may overwrite many of the files you're trying to recover.

Use your arrow keys to select your desired directory. By default, the files are stored within a newly created folder inside the "win" directory from the folder you extracted earlier in the process. The first created folder is named "recup_dir.1." This folder is created wherever you choose to store the recovered files.

Press "Enter" to select the storage location and start the scan. The larger the drive, the longer the scan may take. Do not close PhotoRec until the process is complete. A message will appear in the PhotoRec window stating the process is finished.

Files will not have their original file names after recovery. If you are searching for a specific type of file or a date, sort the results by file type or date. After recovery, you can return files to their original locations and rename the files.

When you first start using PhotoRec, it may take several attempts before you completely understand which directories and file systems to use. For more information on using PhotoRec including screenshots and more details about available search options, visit CG Security's website.