TestDisk

Infobox Software

name = TestDisk
developer = Christophe Grenier
latest_release_version = 6.10
latest_release_date = release_date|2008|07|17
platform = Multiplatform
interface = CLI
genre = Data recovery
license = GNU General Public License
website = [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk]

TestDisk is a free data recovery utility. It was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing a partition table).

ummary

TestDisk queries the BIOS or the operating system in order to find the hard disks and their characteristics (LBA size and CHS geometry). TestDisk does a quick check of your disk's structure and compares it with the partition table for entry errors. If the table has entry errors, TestDisk can repair them.

However, it's up to the user to look over the list of possible partitions found by TestDisk and to select the one(s) which were being used just before the drive failed to boot or the partition(s) were lost. In some cases, especially after initiating a detailed search for lost partitions,TestDisk may show partition data which is simply from the remnants of a partition that had been deleted and overwritten long ago.

TestDisk has features for both novices [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step TestDisk Step by Step] ] and experts Presentation of TestDisk in [http://www.sleuthkit.org/informer/sleuthkit-informer-15.txt The Sleuth Kit Informer] ] :
* Recover deleted partition
* Rebuild partition table
* Rewrite Master boot record (MBR)
* File Allocation Table, FAT [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_FAT_Repair Advanced FAT Repair] ]
** FAT12 and FAT16
*** Find filesystem parameters to rewrite a valid boot sector
*** Use the two copies of the FAT to rewrite a coherent version
*** FAT file undelete [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_6.10_Release TestDisk 6.10 release notes] ]
** FAT32
*** Find filesystem parameters to rewrite a valid boot sector
*** Restore the boot sector using its backup
*** Use the two copies of the FAT to rewrite a coherent version
*** FAT file undelete [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_6.10_Release TestDisk 6.10 release notes] ]
* NTFS [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_NTFS_Boot_and_MFT_Repair NTFS boot sector and MFT repair] ]
** Find filesystem parameters to rewrite a valid boot sector
** Restore the boot sector using its backup
** Restore the Master File Table (MFT) from its backup
** NTFS file undelete [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_6.11_Release TestDisk 6.11 release notes] ]
* Extended file systems, ext2 and ext3
** Find backup superblock location to assist fsck [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_Find_ext2_ext3_Backup_SuperBlock Locate ext2/ext3 backup superblock] ]
** ext2 file undelete [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_6.10_Release TestDisk 6.10 release notes] ]
* HFS+
** Restore the boot sector using its backup

For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a corrupted drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis.

upported operating systems

TestDisk supports these operating systems:
* DOS: real or in a Windows 9x DOS box
* Microsoft Windows: NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista
* Linux
* FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
* SunOS
* Mac OS X

File systems

TestDisk can find lost partitions Ido Perelmutter - Debian Administration, [http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/420 Recovering from file system corruption using TestDisk] ] Ionut Ilascu, Softpedia, [http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/TestDisk-Review-32579.shtml Your HDD Is Missing a Slice? Try TestDisk for a change] ] of these file systems:
*Be File System (BeOS)
*BSD disklabel (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD)
*Cramfs, Compressed File System
*DOS/Windows FAT 12, 16, and 32
*HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
*JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
*Linux ext2 and ext3
*Linux RAID
**RAID 1: mirroring
**RAID 4: striped array with parity device
**RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
**RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information
*Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
*LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
*Mac partition map
*Novell Storage Services (NSS)
*NTFS (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008)
*ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
*Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
*Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
*XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

Popularity

TestDisk and PhotoRec have been downloaded more than 150 000 times in July 2008 from the primary website.In fact these utilities are even more popular as they can be found on various Linux Live CD:
* Recovery Is Possible
* Knoppix STD
* GParted Live CD
* Iloog
* PLD Live CD and PLD RescueCD, based on PLD Linux Distribution.
* Slax-LFI, a SLAX derivated distribution
* SystemRescueCD
* Ubuntu Rescue Remix, an Ubuntu derivated distribution
* [http://www.ultimatebootcd.com Ultimate Boot CD] - Linux/freeDOS-based computer rescue CD (partition, filesystem, and Windows tools).They are also packaged for numerous Linux distribution
* ALT Linux [http://alt.linux.kiev.ua/srpm/testdisk/get TestDisk on ALT Linux] ]
* ArchLinux User-community Repository [http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/testdisk/ TestDisk in ArchLinux] User-community Repository]
* Debian contrib [http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/t/testdisk/ TestDisk on Debian] ]
* Fedora Extras [http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/ TestDisk in Fedora Extras] ]
* RedHat Epel [http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/ TestDisk in RedHat Epel] ]
* FreeBSD ports [http://www.freshports.org/sysutils/testdisk/ TestDisk in FreeBSD ports] ]
* Gentoo [http://packages.gentoo.org/search/?sstring=testdisk TestDisk in Gentoo] ] and Gentoo portage [http://www.gentoo-portage.com/app-admin/testdisk TestDisk in Gentoo Portage] ]
* Mandriva contrib
* PLD Linux Distribution
* Source Mage GNU/Linux [http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/sourcemage/codex/test/disk/testdisk/ TestDisk in Source Mage] ]
* Ubuntu [http://packages.ubuntulinux.org/testdisk TestDisk in Ubuntu] ]
* [http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/index.html RIP Rescue Linux]

References

See also

* PhotoRec

External links

* [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk TestDisk Wiki]
* [http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/In_The_News List of news articles about TestDisk and PhotoRec]
* Falko Timme, [http://www.howtoforge.com/data_recovery_with_testdisk Data Recovery With TestDisk] HowTo
* [http://www.digitalforensics.ch/nikkel05b.pdf Digital Forensics using Linux and Open Source Tools]