PhotoRec

PhotoRec
Developer(s)Christophe Grenier
Initial releaseApril 30, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-04-30)
Stable release
7.2 / February 22, 2024; 6 months ago (2024-02-22)
Repositorygit.cgsecurity.org/cgit/testdisk/
Written inC (nCurses)
Operating systemCross-platform
PlatformCLI
TypeData recovery
LicenseGNU GPL v2+ (free software)
Websitewww.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free and open-source utility software for data recovery with text-based user interface using data carving techniques, designed to recover lost files from various digital camera memory, hard disk and CD-ROM. It can recover the files with more than 480 file extensions (about 300 file families). [1] It is also possible to add custom file signature to detect less known files.[2]

PhotoRec does not attempt to write to the damaged media the user is about to recover from. Recovered files are instead written to the directory from which PhotoRec is run, any other directory may be chosen. It can be used for data recovery or in a digital forensics context.[3][4][5] [6] [7] PhotoRec is shipped with TestDisk.[8]

  1. ^ "File Formats Recovered by PhotoRec". April 2015.
  2. ^ "Add your own extension to PhotoRec". 18 May 2016.
  3. ^ Jack Wiles, Kevin Cardwell, Anthony Reyes (2007). The best damn cybercrime and digital forensics book period, p. 220. Syngress Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-1-59749-228-7.
  4. ^ Cameron H. Malin, Eoghan Casey, James M. Aquilina (2008). Malware Forensics: Investigating and Analyzing Malicious Code, p. xxviii. Syngress Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-1-59749-268-3.
  5. ^ Nathan Clarke (2010), Computer Forensics: A Pocket Guide, p. 67. IT Governance Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84928-039-6.
  6. ^ NIST Test Results for Graphic File Carving Tool: PhotoRec v7.0-WIP[permanent dead link].
  7. ^ NIST Test Results for Video File Carving Tool: PhotoRec v7.0-WIP Archived 2015-04-22 at archive.today.
  8. ^ Scott Mueller, Brian Knittel (2008). Upgrading and Repairing Microsoft Windows, Second Edition, page 685. Pearson Education Inc. ISBN 978-0-7897-3695-6.