What TestDisk fixes, what it refuses to pretend, and where PhotoRec picks up the slack.
TestDisk rebuilds partition tables, repairs FAT and NTFS boot sectors, hunts ext backup superblocks, and undeletes files when filesystem metadata still exists. It cares about geometry and structure—not MIME carving after catastrophic formats; switch to PhotoRec when catalogs vanish.
Yes—GPL v2+ keeps TestDisk free for personal and commercial recoveries alike, with no paid tiers or artificial caps.
Source lives at CGSecurity (for example git.cgsecurity.org)—audit commits, rebuild tarballs, redistribute under GPL terms without NDAs.
Official mirrors plus checksum discipline yield trustworthy binaries. Low-level write powers still demand authorized disks, slow menu reads, and destinations that are not the sick platter—see Safety & legal.
CGSecurity ships legitimate GPL builds. AV suites panic over raw sector APIs—confirm hashes, escalate noisy detections, avoid sketchy mirrors.
Menus stay terminal-first—arrow keys and discipline beat mouse nostalgia. PhotoRec’s QPhotoRec layer adds GUI sugar for carving, not for classic TestDisk prompts.
When FAT, exFAT, NTFS, or ext2 metadata survives, TestDisk can resurrect entries or copy payloads from partitions you rediscovered via search—no JPEG sniffing though; PhotoRec owns carving duty.
Quick Search and Deeper Search map ghosts before you optionally commit partition-table writes—success still requires intact sectors and cautious verification.
Logical failures—trashed MBRs, duplicated boot sectors—often heal after booting from external media and aiming TestDisk at the sick disk. Grinding noises still mean labs, not menus.
Windows, Linux, macOS, the BSD family, SunOS, even DOS builds reuse the same cyan playbook.
FAT12/16/32, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2/3/4 headline coverage; Apple stacks carry wiki-specific fine print—confirm nuances before promising miracles.
Always—bookmark CGSecurity downloads or signed distro repos so hashes stay predictable.
TestDisk stitches containers and metadata trails; PhotoRec (same CGSecurity suite) linearly scans signatures once formats erase catalogs.
Patient readers survive—logs, screenshots, and our guides beat adrenaline writes. Expect friction, not glossy hand-holding.
Quick formats usually push you toward PhotoRec carving; TestDisk still saves the day when partition metadata—not individual Office docs—is what vanished.
TestDisk