As with TestDisk, a recovery location must be selected for the files to be saved to. Here, the various compatible filetypes can be selected, covering everything from Skyrim save games to FLAC audio. After identifying attached disks, and selecting the correct device, PhotoRec presented a File Opt submenu. Images stored on the USB thumb drive were sought out for recovery using the PhotoRec tool.

Various additional settings can be found using the Options menu before commencing recovery. These may or may not be correct but they do give the best results if you don't know what you're doing. Throughout the recovery process, TeskDisk selects the default options that are typically most suitable for the recovery media. Finally we hit C to choose the recovery destination directory and waited as the partition was recovered as a disk image. We selected 'Image Creation' to search for a location to save the file, using the arrow keys and then hit Enter to navigate. After opting to Create a new log file and selecting the correct disk, the Proceed option was selected followed by the partition table type. Recovery with the command line TestDisk was attempted first. In our original tests with TestDisk and PhotoRec 7.2 in September 2022, we used an unmountable 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB thumb drive with files of various types was connected to a standard USB 2.0 port on a Dell G5 5505 SE laptop running Windows 10. Recovered partition images can be checked in TestDisk using the terminal.

This works in largely the same way as the CLI tool, with the options displayed in a single window rather than a step-by-step series of commands. Over 440 file types have been recorded, meaning that if the data is intact, it can in theory be recovered with PhotoRec. Meanwhile, PhotoRec can find a vast selection of file formats, such as common image files (JPG, PNG, etc.), Microsoft Office files, OpenOffice file formats, PDFs, and TXT files. PhotoRec also has a graphical user interface (GUI) available to make photo recovery easier (Image credit: CGSecurity)

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