PhotoRec

Did you delete the files you really need? Are there situations where you accidentally formatted a flash drive with unique photos or files that are not available anywhere else? These can be both work documents and family photos. Such a loss can be serious, but not everything is lost. The PhotoRec utility will help you to recover files that have been lost.

The program ignores the file system and searches for the underlying data, so it can recover files even when the file system of the media is severely damaged or has been reformatted. PhotoRec recognizes more than 480 file extensions in about 300 file families. The utility is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, macOS and BSD systems. Also, if your computer has been infected with Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Gpcode.ak, this program can help you. Kaspersky Lab recommended PhotoRec to fight this virus. The virus takes computer files, encrypts them. Then deletes the original files. Because the originals are deleted rather than overwritten, PhotoRec can often recover them from the free space of the disk. Everything that PhotoRec has recovered is written to a destination folder you choose, which must not be on the same partition as the lost files. You can recover files from flash drives, memory cards, hard drives, CD-ROMs, etc. PhotoRec is free, open-source software released under the GNU GPL and is distributed together with TestDisk; QPhotoRec adds a graphical interface.

PhotoRec increases the chance of recovering lost or accidentally deleted files, even from reformatted or damaged media.