PhotoRec
Tested 2026-10-10 on a 4 GB NTFS volume after deletion. PhotoRec works by signature carving: it ignores the file system and reads raw sectors, so it hands back every file it finds under a numbered name, f0028224.pdf, f0029312_data.zip. In our run 16 of 16 recovered files lost their original name, every Arabic one included. That is by design, not a defect. Reach for PhotoRec when the file system itself is gone (quick format, RAW drive, lost partition) and you need the bytes back; do not reach for it when the names are what matter. We publish no recovery-rate figure for it yet.
Test results
| Vendor | CGSecurity |
|---|---|
| Best for | Quick format · Lost partition · Damaged partition table · RAW drive or "needs formatting" prompt |
| Platforms | Windows · macOS · Linux · DOS · Portable, no install |
| Free tier recovers | Not tested yet |
| Pricing model | Free and open source |
| Street price | Free and open source |
| Works offline | Not tested yet |
| Arabic names | No - 0 of 16 recovered files kept an original name |
| Arabic Windows | Not tested yet |
| Tested on | Windows 11, 4 GB NTFS test volume, en-US system locale, PhotoRec 7.2, 2026-10-10. Deletion with the recycle bin emptied; 16 files recovered |
Arabic filenames
PhotoRec never reads the file system, so there is no name record for it to recover: it sweeps raw sectors for file signatures and writes out whatever it finds as f followed by a number and an extension. Every file in our run came back that way and the Arabic names never appeared in the output at all. If the name matters, you need a tool that reads the name records (the MFT on NTFS) or the $I files in $RECYCLE.BIN, and check how the files were deleted first, because once the recycle bin has been emptied the original names may already be overwritten.
When we would not use it
Not for anyone who needs the original names or the folder structure. Also a poor fit if you are not comfortable with a keyboard-only tool: PhotoRec ships a graphical build (QPhotoRec), but it recovers names no better than the console version.
Scope of this result: 16 files recovered, each matched byte-for-byte against our baseline (8 PDF, 5 DOCX/ZIP, 2 TXT, 1 MP4); no JPEG or PNG came back in that run. So we publish no recovery-rate percentage: our first run used test data with no file signatures at all, and in the second run PhotoRec's own parser rejected our JPEG and PNG samples. The filename finding on this page is unaffected and stands on its own.
FAQ
This page tells you what the tool is. The order in which to use tools, and when to stop immediately, is a different question - and that is what the recovery guide covers. Recovery guide: the right order.
Last updated: 2026-10-10