PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost pictures or lost files from digital camera memory (CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SecureDigital, SmartMedia, Microdrive, MMC, USB Memory Drives...) or even Hard Disks.

PhotoRec is under GNU Public License. It has been integrated into TestDisk distributions since version 5.4.

It searchs for JPEG/JPG, AVI, MOV and some other headers like Canon Raw (CRW). Because there is no data fragmentation (usually), it can recover whole files that are missing.

Since version 5.7, Photorec has been extended to search for non audio/video headers. Here is the full list of recognised headers:

It has been successfully tested with
  • Canon EOS300D
  • HP PhotoSmart 620, 850, 935
  • Nikon CoolPix 775, 5700
  • Olympus C350N, C860L, Mju 400 Digital
  • Pentax Optio S50
  • Sony DSC-P9
  • Praktica DCZ-3.4

PhotoRec is safe to use, it will never attempt to write to the drive or memory support you are about to recover from. Recovered files are instead written/stored in the directory from where you are running the PhotoRec (TestDisk) program.

Working with CD-R/CR-RW/DVD...