Just in case you don't know this: TestDisk

I read here someone had problems recovering some lost data, and needed to purchase a data recovery software?
Let me please mention Testdisk:

TestDisk along with Photorec is one of the best recovery tools I ever met.
I work with dozens of SD cards in my camcorders, and once it allowed me to recover files from an accidentally formatted SD card. So did it save my ass too :laughing:
Countless time recovered valuable data from friends pendrives, and also from damaged HDD’s corrupted filesystems.
So, if you ever get in trouble because lost data via accidental format, repartition, etc, think of TestDisk/Photorec.
Just my 2 cents for today…

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Precisely. Having that always on my mind. Genius software. It also was the same software that put me out of my misery when the incident happened, that I mentioned here:

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Good call.
I use it often. Mostly when someone comes along with an accidently formated SD card, or a partly corrupted USB stick. I also used it on regular harddrives some time.

By the way, a great way to get people stunned, when I recover pictures from years ago.
Or (god prevent) from unknown folks, that used the card before…
A good starter for the “data stays on mediums, if you don’t erase them properly” talk…

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Helped me once. I accidentally lost my partition definitions and I could recover it back. No format in that case though. Just lost the structure.

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Hi there.
An excellent tool for recovering deleted files or formatted drives is Gparted. You can use it within a live distro.
In the “Device” menu you’ll find “Attempt Data Rescue…”
You may have to install “gpart” if it shows you that it’s missing.

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Thanks, good to know about it, I never looked it closer…
But! Photorec can recover data even from a completely destroyed file system, because it searches for the content directly. Of course filenames are lost this way, but hey, the data is still there!
This is unbeatable :slight_smile:

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A brilliant piece of software. I have rescued accidentally formatted SD cards, corrupted USB drives and, for others, a few hard drives.

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