TestDiskFrequently Asked Questions
Honest, specific answers about TestDisk: what it does, how it works, and what to expect.
TestDisk is used to recover lost partitions, repair corrupted partition tables, fix boot sectors (FAT and NTFS), and restore access to drives that no longer boot or show up correctly. It can also undelete files and copy files from deleted or damaged partitions when the file system metadata is still present. It is best suited to partition-level and file-system repair rather than signature-based file carving after severe file-system loss.
Yes. TestDisk is free software. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL v2+). There are no fees, trials, or feature limits. You can use it for personal or commercial recovery without paying.
Yes. TestDisk is open-source. The source code is available for review, modification, and distribution under the GPL. The project is hosted at CGSecurity (e.g. git.cgsecurity.org). This transparency allows anyone to verify that the software does not contain malware or hidden behavior.
When downloaded from the official CGSecurity site or a trusted repository, TestDisk is widely considered safe and legitimate. It is open-source, so the code can be audited. Recovery tools can write to disks (e.g. when repairing partition tables), so use it only on disks you own or are authorized to work on, and follow safe practices: do not write to the wrong disk, and do not save recovered files to the same drive you are recovering from. See our Trust & Security page for more.
No. TestDisk is not malware. It is legitimate open-source software from CGSecurity. Because it accesses low-level disk structures, some antivirus products may flag it heuristically; such flags are often false positives when the file is from the official source and the checksum matches. Always download from the official project or trusted sources and verify the file integrity when possible.
No. TestDisk does not have a graphical user interface. It is a command-line (text-based) application. You navigate with the keyboard (arrow keys, Enter). This can be less intuitive than a GUI, but the workflow is documented and many users learn it quickly. For a more visual or automated experience, other recovery tools exist; TestDisk focuses on partition and file-system repair with a terminal interface.
Yes, in certain cases. TestDisk can undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2 file systems when the file system metadata is still present (e.g. recently deleted files). It can also copy files from deleted or damaged partitions after you have located them via partition search. It does not perform signature-based file carving—it cannot find files by type (e.g. JPEGs) when the file system is gone. For that, use PhotoRec.
Yes. Recovering lost partitions is one of TestDisk’s primary purposes. It analyzes the disk, searches for partition boundaries (Quick Search and Deeper Search), and can write a corrected partition table so that previously missing partitions become visible again. Success depends on the disk not having been overwritten and on correct identification of the partitions.
Yes, in many cases. When the cause is a damaged partition table or boot sector (e.g. MBR, boot sector corruption), TestDisk can repair these structures and make the disk bootable again. You typically run TestDisk from another environment (e.g. live USB or another OS) and target the non-booting disk. Fixing the partition table or recovering the boot sector from backup can restore bootability. Success depends on the extent of damage.
TestDisk runs on Windows (including Windows Server), Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS, and DOS (real or in a Windows 9x DOS box). The same core capabilities are available on all supported platforms.
TestDisk can find and recover partitions and repair structures for many file systems, including FAT12/FAT16/FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, ext2/ext3/ext4, and others (e.g. HFS+, APFS in some contexts). It can undelete or copy files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2. File-system support is documented on the official CGSecurity wiki.
Yes. We strongly recommend downloading TestDisk from the official CGSecurity project (TestDisk Download) or from trusted repositories (e.g. your Linux distribution’s package manager). Official and trusted sources reduce the risk of tampered or malicious builds. Verify checksums when the project provides them.
TestDisk focuses on partition recovery and file-system repair: fixing partition tables, boot sectors, and MFT so that existing data becomes accessible. It can also undelete and copy files when file system metadata exists. PhotoRec is a companion tool from the same project (CGSecurity) that performs signature-based file recovery—it finds files by their internal format (e.g. JPEG, PDF) when the file system is missing or badly damaged, such as after formatting. Use TestDisk for partition and file-system repair; use PhotoRec when you need to recover files by type from formatted or severely damaged media.
TestDisk can be used by beginners who are willing to follow step-by-step instructions and read the menus. It is command-line based and has no GUI, so there is a learning curve. With the official documentation and our Guides, many users successfully recover partitions or files. The key is to go slowly, create a log, verify disk selection, and not write changes until you are confident. When in doubt, seek help from the official wiki or forum.
TestDisk is not designed for signature-based recovery after a full format. When the file system has been recreated, partition-level and file-system repair may still help if the partition table was affected; but recovering individual files by type (e.g. photos, documents) after formatting is better done with PhotoRec, which scans for file signatures. TestDisk excels at partition recovery and repairing boot/file-system structures, not at carving files by signature from formatted drives.