TestDisk Data Recovery: Full Review & Step-by-Step Guide (2025)

Theo Lucia

Sep 09, 2025 • Filed to: Windows Computer Solutions • Proven solutions

What is TestDisk Data Recovery? How does it work? Can I recover my lost partition with TestDisk? On this page, you can get all answers to this issue. We will introduce the TestDisk Data Recovery software, and learn how to recover your lost partition data free with TestDisk.

Overview of TestDisk Data Recovery Tool

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software. It is opensource software and you can get the license under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It supports to recovery of lost partitions data, it reboots the non-booting disks. If you accidentally delete a partition table or get a viruses attack, the TestDisk data recovery tool can easily help you out those troubles.

1. Who Is TestDisk For?

• IT Professionals & System Administrators: Who need to fix complex partition and boot sector issues.
• Advanced Computer Users: Who are comfortable with command-line tools and understand disk structures.
• Anyone on a Budget: Who needs a powerful recovery solution without paying for a commercial license.

2. Who Is TestDisk Not For?

• Beginners: The lack of a GUI and the risk of making a mistake can be overwhelming and potentially lead to further data loss.
• Users Needing a Quick, Simple File Recovery: For just undeleting a few photos or documents, other tools are faster and easier.

TestDisk is more than a one-trick pony. Its feature set is focused on fixing the logical structure of a storage device.

3. Key Features of TestDisk

4. What's the Difference between TestDisk and PhotoRec?

TestDisk and PhotoRec are created by the same developer (CGSecurity) and are usually downloaded together, which often causes confusion. They have very different jobs.

5. Pros and Cons of TestDisk

Pros

• ✅ Incredibly Powerful: It can solve complex disk issues that most other free tools can't touch.
• ✅ Completely Free: No licenses, no subscriptions, no file-size limits. It's truly free and open-source.
• ✅ Cross-Platform: Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it a versatile tool for any environment.
• ✅ Lightweight & Portable: The entire program is a small executable that can be run from a USB drive.

Cons

• ❌ Steep Learning Curve: The command-line interface is non-intuitive and unforgiving for new users.
• ❌ No Graphical User Interface (GUI): You can't point and click. All navigation is done with arrow keys and Enter.
• ❌ Potentially Destructive: A wrong choice (like writing to the wrong disk) can cause irreversible data loss.
• ❌ Slower for Simple File Recovery: If you just deleted one file, using PhotoRec or another GUI tool is much faster.

TestDisk is an easy-to-use data recovery program for both novices and experts. Even you do not know little or nothing about data recovery techniques. The technician can analyze the non-booting drive as TestDisk can be used to collect the drive detailed information.

How to Recover Lost Partitions with TestDisk

Even you can get the solution of step by step to recover lost partitions with TestDisk, but it looks more complicated. On the next we will list the specific steps for you, the next partition problem is the hard disk got damaged or deleted. TestDisk will diagnose the symptoms and recover lost partitions by rewriting the corrupted boot sector and recovering deleted partitions.

Step 1 Log Creation

After downloading TestDisk from the official wesbeite: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk, launch the program on your computer. While you launch TestDisk, it will create a new log file. Select the Create option and press Enter to proceed. Now TestDisk will scan the storage devices connected to the computer(It means TestDisk will read the disk location while creating the log file.)

Step 2 Hard Disk Selection

All your hard disk drives should be detected and listed by TestDisk. You can use the keyboard of the up/down arrow to select your hard drive with the lost partitions. Press Enter to go on.

Step 3 Select the Type of Partition Table

You need to select the partition table type, you can select the default value which is usually the correct ad TestDisk detects the partition table type. For example, you can select Intel. Then, press Enter to proceed. Intel here represents a Windows PC. So if it's a Mac computer, this option would change.

Step 4 Search for Lost Partitions

TestDisk data recovery will display the menus, select the "Analyze" to check the current partition structure, and search for lost partitions. And press Enter key.

Now, you can check the partition structure is listed to examine your correct partition structure for missing and errors. Click "Quick Search" to proceed.

Well, as above mentioned 4 steps. Maybe you can easily understand what's going on and how to use TestDisk to start lost partition recovery. But to be honest, the software is complicated and difficult for beginners who just want to get their lost data back in simple steps. However, have any other options? and the best free data recovery and easy to use? Yes! There is many free partition recovery software easily and effectively help you restore lost partition data. On next, we will introduce Recoverit free data recovery software for you, it is the most powerful partition data recovery software. It is the best alternative to TestDisk.

The Best Alternative to TestDisk - Recoverit Data Recovery Free

Recoverit free data recovery software is the most powerful partition recovery program. It is very easy and effective to get your lost partitions back. Check the key features of the Recoverit Partition Recovery program as below and learn how to use Recoverit data recovery to recover deleted or lost partitions data back.

Recoverit Free Partition Data Recovery Software

• Recover deleted or lost partitions data effectively, safely, and completely.
• Recover partitions due to accidental deletion or loss, virus attacked and the system crashed.
• Recover any data and file types with a high success rate and without any quality loss.
• Supported OS: For Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista and Mac OS X 10.10 and later

Free Download | WinFree Download | Mac

Security Verified. 3,591,664 people have downloaded it.

Step by Step to Restore Lost Partitions

Free download and install Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer, on the next tutorial we will perform partition recovery on Windows computer. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery program to proceed.

1. Select the "Hard Drives and Locations" data recovery mode to get started.
2. Select the disk where the partitions get lost or deleted.

   

3. Recoverit data recovery will start scanning the partition to search lost data files. You also can select the "All-Around Recovery" mode to deep scan and search more files from the lost partitions, while it will take more time.

   

4. After scanning the partition, you can preview some recovered photo files. Select the files you want to restore and click the "Recover" button.

   

As you can see, there is no need for any technical skill in using Recoverit data recovery, and it is easier to use than TestDisk. With the friendly interface, you only need 4 steps to get your lost data back. Download and try it for now. Also, you can know another data recovery software by checking the review of iCare Data Recovery.