GoKawiilRecovering files from beyond the grave using PhotoRec
24 Apr, 2026
You know the drill. That passwords.txt is no longer needed. Right click -> Delete. Empty Trash. That's it.
Well, not quite.
When I was younger, I used to hear stories about people recovering deleted files. Not from opening the Recycle Bin and restoring files one by one. No. There were rumors that deleted files weren't actually sent to the abyss. That, one could recover lost items even after clearing them from whatever OS bin they were last seen in.
Recently, I was able to do just that, using TestDisk and PhotoRec. These programs bundled together play a key role in Digital Forensics, allowing researches to walk back a system to a prior state and analyze all manner of files.
Using my collection of decades old hardware, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to explore TestDisk, well PhotoRec specifically, and see just what it could recover from my old systems.
To quote their wiki:
TestDisk can Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
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