Photo Recovery in Linux

Most file recovery applications tend to focus on restoring files from hard drives formatted in NTFS, FAT and EXT formats. But if you need to restore photos lost from a SD card or camera drive, you will need to use a program designed to recover files from standard camera disk formats. The Linux application PhotoRec, which is bundled with many distributions of the Linux operating system including Ubuntu and Fedora, can restore photographs from a wide variety of disk sources and cameras.

Instructions

1. Launch Terminal by selecting "Applications," "Accessories" and then "Terminal."

2. Type "sudo apt-get testdisk recoverjpeg" and press "Enter" to install PhotoRec. You will need to enter your administrative password to continue.

3. Connect your camera to the computer using the appropriate USB cable.

4. Type "sudo photorec" to scan your devices.

5. Select the device that contains your lost photos and then select "Proceed." PhotoRec can recover photos and other files from hard drives, USB drives, cameras and a variety of camera memory. In this step, you'll select only the device and not the specific partition that contains your missing photos.

6. Select the partition table type and then select "Next." PhotoRec will automatically detect the partition table so you can proceed with the default value.

7. Select the partition you wish to scan for recoverable photos, then select "Search." If you are scanning a camera or SD card, there likely will be only one choice, but if you are scanning a partitioned hard drive, you will need to select the specific partition that has missing photos. You can also select options to adjust the functionality of PhotoRec. The program will now search for recoverable photos and restore them to your "Home" folder.

References

• CG Security: PhotoRec Step by Step