# cgsecurity/testdisk

TestDisk & PhotoRec

Repository: https://github.com/cgsecurity/testdisk
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/testdisk
Homepage: https://www.cgsecurity.org/
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: photorec, disk, testdisk, datarecovery, filesystem, datacarving
Last push: 2026-08-19T11:14:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4099, "days_push": 14, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2550, forks 290 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:00.374177+00:00)

## What it is
TestDisk and PhotoRec are free, open-source data recovery utilities written in C. TestDisk recovers lost partitions and repairs boot sectors/file systems, while PhotoRec recovers lost files (480+ formats) via signature-based carving from disks, memory cards, and USB drives.

## Use cases
- recover a lost or deleted disk partition
- repair a corrupted boot sector on NTFS or FAT
- recover deleted photos from a camera memory card
- undelete files from an ext4 or exFAT drive
- carve files from a formatted or damaged hard disk
- recover data from a USB drive or disk image

## When to choose
- you lost a partition or your disk's partition table is damaged
- you need to undelete files from FAT, NTFS, exFAT, or ext2-4
- you must recover files by signature from any storage device regardless of filesystem state
- you need a free, offline tool that works across Windows, Linux, macOS, and BSD

## When to avoid
- you need a polished GUI recovery wizard (though QPhotoRec offers a simple GUI)
- you expect recovery of files overwritten by new data
- you need RAID or enterprise-grade recovery with vendor support
- you want a tool that preserves original file names and directory structure when carving with PhotoRec

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: file-system, security, developer-tools
- domain: files, security, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: data-recovery, photorec, partition-recovery, file-carving, filesystem-repair, digital-forensics, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- cgsecurity/testdisk (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.374177+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:23:56.938123+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cgsecurity/testdisk (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.374177+00:00, sha 5b29515b82c7)
  - homepage: https://www.cgsecurity.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:06:34.632645+00:00, sha 2b8907865fcb)
  - site_page: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CGSecurity:About (fetched 2026-08-29T10:06:34.636680+00:00, sha 8da554fc8580)
  - site_page: https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk_doc (fetched 2026-08-29T10:06:34.634808+00:00, sha 1d848685cdbc)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.