TestDiskInside the TestDisk toolbox
Rewritten chapter list covering geometry edits, bootstrap stitching, Linux superblock hunts, and cautious undeletes—without repeating legacy marketing lines.
Interface strip
Cyan menus cycle automatically—tap a tile to pause on that scene, or open the hero frame fullscreen.
Disk layout rescue
Corrupt GPT headers, vanished Intel slices, and “whole disk is RAW” panic states are TestDisk’s bread and butter. It rebuilds partition descriptors by walking cylinders for ghosts the OS forgot.
Stay linear: pick physical media, confirm firmware flavor (Intel/GPT/Mac/etc.), let Quick Search shout candidates, escalate to Deeper Search when geometry is messy, then commit writes only after eyeballing sizes. Pair with analyze walkthroughs before touching Write.
Bootstrap stitching
FAT (FAT12 / FAT16 / FAT32)
USB sticks love corrupt VBRs—TestDisk can clone healthy boot sectors, pull FAT32 backups forward, and patch allocation bitmap chaos so Explorer stops pretending the volume vanished.
NTFS
When Windows screams RAW despite intact clusters, lean on boot sector ghosts, sector sixteen replicas, and MFT mirror merges to resurrect $MFT pointers without a reinstall drama.
ext superblock scavenger hunt
Linux trusts redundant superblocks for a reason—TestDisk enumerates spare copies across ext2/3/4 so mount stops sulking after power-loss tantrums or rogue mkfs rehearsals.
Metadata-aware undelete lane
Still have inode trails? TestDisk can walk FAT/exFAT/NTFS/ext2 catalogs, resurrect recently nuked nodes, and mirror payloads off partitions you only rediscovered via search—route salvaged bits through Advanced menus into safer disks.
No JPEG sniffing here: once catalogs vaporize, pivot to PhotoRec for signature carving while TestDisk keeps guarding geometry.
Same CLI, many kernels
Ship logs from Windows Server cages, Linux rescue sticks, macOS benches, *BSD stacks, even dusty DOS slices—the menus stay familiar so bench techs aren’t relearning vocabulary nightly.
Download by platform →GPL receipts
Everything ships under GNU GPL v2+: diff tarballs, rebuild, publish forks—no telemetry hiding behind ANSI colors.
Safety & legal →When TestDisk wins
Lean on it when indexes still breathe: partition grief, boot-sector heartburn, partially shredded NTFS trees. Expect keyboard choreography, not glossy wizards—pair menus with CGSecurity docs plus our guides.
Need MIME carving after destructive formats? Queue PhotoRec instead.