SystemRescue
system-rescue.org
SystemRescue - System Rescue Homepage
It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the hard disk partitions. It comes with a lot of Linux system utilities such as GParted, fsarchiver, filesystem tools and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools).
ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.org › title › File_recovery
File recovery - ArchWiki
The ddrescue and dd_rescue utilities, unlike dd, will repeatedly try to recover from errors and will read the drive front to back, then back to front, attempting to salvage data. They keep log files so that recovery can be paused and resumed without losing progress.
Videos
13:30
How to Recover Deleted Files in Linux (Photos, Videos & More) - ...
13:53
Top 10 Linux Data Recovery Tools 2025 – Restore Lost or Deleted ...
07:03
Create & Restore Linux OS System Image Backups for Free with ...
36:33
Linux Rescue Mode | Into the Terminal 57 - YouTube
11:46
One USB to Fix Them All: Windows & Linux Repair with AiO System ...
07:06
How to Recover Data in Linux After Formatting a Hard Disk or USB ...
Is it possible to fully recover deleted files in Linux?
It is possible to recover deleted files in Linux using various data recovery tools and techniques. However, the success of recovering deleted files depends on several factors such as how long ago the files were deleted, whether the storage space has been overwritten, and the type of file system being used. It is recommended to act quickly and avoid writing any new data to the storage device where the files were deleted in order to increase the chances of successful recovery.
hetmanrecovery.com
hetmanrecovery.com › main › blog › linux os › top 10 linux data recovery tools 2026
Top 10 Linux Data Recovery Tools 2026
What are the main causes of data loss in Linux?
Hardware failure: This is one of the most common causes of data loss in Linux systems. Hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices can fail due to physical damage, wear and tear, or manufacturing defects.Human error: Accidental deletion of files or formatting of drives can lead to data loss. This can happen due to mistakes made by users or administrators while managing files or performing system maintenance tasks.Software corruption: Errors in the operating system, file system, or applications can cause data loss. This can happen due to bugs, crashes, or improper shutdowns that
hetmanrecovery.com
hetmanrecovery.com › main › blog › linux os › top 10 linux data recovery tools 2026
Top 10 Linux Data Recovery Tools 2026
Can data be recovered after formatting a disk in Linux?
Yes, data can potentially be recovered after formatting a disk in Linux. When a disk is formatted, the data is not completely erased, but rather the file system structures are recreated. This means that with the right tools and techniques, it is possible to recover the data that was on the disk before it was formatted. However, the success of data recovery after formatting a disk depends on various factors such as the extent of the formatting, the amount of new data that has been written to the disk since formatting, and the effectiveness of the data recovery tools used. It is always recommend
hetmanrecovery.com
hetmanrecovery.com › main › blog › linux os › top 10 linux data recovery tools 2026
Top 10 Linux Data Recovery Tools 2026
DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com › community › tutorials › top-best-linux-data-recovery-tools
Top 10 Best Linux Data Recovery Tools | DigitalOcean
August 3, 2022 - Another really good command-line utility is Mondo Rescue which has a few unique features which are really helpful for people working on multiple different types of file systems. This is the one utility that has been used for decades to backup/restore/recover data from all types of storage devices tape drives too! ... Partition management - Resizing, partitioning, formatting, etc. Backup and restore between Linux ...
R-Studio
r-studio.com › free-linux-recovery
Data Recovery and File Undelete freeware for Linux files
R-Linux is a free file recovery utility for the Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS file system used in the Linux OS and several Unixes. R-Linux uses the same InteligentScan technology as R-Studio, and flexible parameter settings to provide the fastest and most reliable file recovery for the Linux platform.
TechRadar
techradar.com › pro › software & services
Best Linux repair and rescue distro of 2026 | TechRadar
January 14, 2026 - The latest version of SystemRescue now runs the 5.4.71 LTS (long-term support) Linux kernel, It also includes the dislocker utility to allow users to access data on media encrypted with BitLocker. The default boot option boots into a console which lists a command to configure the keyboard and another to start the graphical environment. The distro contains an extensive collection of tools for system and network analyzes, for hard disk partitioning, for file system handling, for data recovery, for reading out hardware information and for secure deletion.
R-Studio
r-studio.com › data_recovery_linux
Linux Data Recovery Software. Hard Drive recovery utility
R-Studio for Linux recovers data from logical disks and partitions as well as disks and partitions that have been re-formatted, damaged or deleted. In addition to disks with common Linux file systems, R-Studio for Linux recovers files from Windows, FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris, and Macintosh ...
SystemRescue
system-rescue.org › System-tools
SystemRescue - System tools
Tools for the most common linux file systems are included and allow you to create new file systems, or administrate these (check consistency, repair, reisize, …).
SourceForge
sourceforge.net › projects › systemrescuecd
SystemRescue download | SourceForge.net
March 28, 2026 - SystemRescue is a Linux system rescue disk available as a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating ...
Hetman Software
hetmanrecovery.com › main › blog › linux os › top 10 linux data recovery tools 2026
Top 10 Linux Data Recovery Tools 2026
When Scalpel finishes its work, it will create the structure of the said directory with subdirectories by file type (for example, jpg/, pdf/, doc/) where all found data will be saved. The fifth and the fourth places have been assigned to classic data recovery tools for Linux - PhotoRec and TestDisk. PhotoRec is a free open-source utility designed to recover deleted files from hard disks, USB drives, memory cards, and disk images.
Published March 26, 2026
UbuntuPIT
ubuntupit.com › home › reviews › 15 best data recovery tools for linux
15 Best Data Recovery Tools for Linux
October 31, 2025 - It is a Linux file recovery program that uses a bootable USB drive or CD-ROM to repair an unbootable or spoiled computer system caused by a system crash. This Linux partition recovery utility provides tools to retrieve data, create and edit partitions, and test Hard-disk. This disk recovery application has many more excellent features, as listed below: ... Its FSArchiver system tool lets you rescue the materials of a file system to a compacted archive file.
Linux Magazine
linux-magazine.com › Online › Features › Data-Rescue
Data Rescue » Linux Magazine
For a 2GB memory card, you should therefore have at least 6GB of free space on the rescue disk. If you need to save an entire hard disk instead of just a partition, you might need to install an additional empty, larger hard drive to recover the data. The duplicate itself is created with a small tool named GNU ddrescue, which reads a medium bit-by-bit and stores the content into a file known as an image.
FOSS Linux
fosslinux.com › home › downloads › the 6 best linux file recovery software
The 6 Best Linux File Recovery Software | FOSS Linux
April 14, 2022 - In this article, we will focus on the six best recovery tools available for Linux, and also show you how to install them on the most common Linux distributions. ... TestDisk is an opensource Data recovery tool mainly used to retrieve damaged partitions. It is also useful in recovering a non-booting disk if an error was caused by harmful software, virus, or even accidental file deletion. It is a powerful command-line utility that is easy to use and fast to understand.
EaseUS
easeus.com › data recovery › 2026 best free linux data recovery software for ext2/ext3
5 Best Free Linux Data Recovery Software in 2026 - EaseUS
February 12, 2026 - These tools can save your data on your Linux hard drives. ... EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro is recommended. It can easily unformat files or perform partition recovery to rescue your data.
Linux Journal
linuxjournal.com › content › linux-rescue-and-repair-distros-2025-your-safety-net-when-things-go-wrong
Linux Rescue and Repair Distros in 2025: Your Safety Net When Things Go Wrong | Linux Journal
You need to copy important files from a non-booting system ... In short: if your OS won’t start, a rescue distro often still will. ... SystemRescue remains the gold standard for Linux recovery.
Linux Journal
linuxjournal.com › content › linux-data-recovery-how-salvage-lost-or-corrupted-files
Linux Data Recovery: How to Salvage Lost or Corrupted Files | Linux Journal
April 29, 2025 - Choose disk > partition > file types. Specify recovery folder. Best for recovering images, documents, and videos from formatted or corrupted disks. Extundelete · A command-line utility for recovering deleted files from ext3 or ext4 partitions.
LinuxLinks
linuxlinks.com › home › 13 best free and open source linux data recovery tools
13 Best Free and Open Source Linux Data Recovery Tools - LinuxLinks
January 20, 2026 - The software featured in this article are high quality standalone Linux tools which help you to recover data in a range of circumstances.
Wondershare Recoverit
recoverit.wondershare.com › wondershare recoverit › hard drive recovery › the 10 best linux data recovery software
Top 10 Linux Data Recovery Tools | Ultimate Guide
It only supports EXT3/4 file system. Mondo is a free and dependable command-line data recovery utility available for the most popular Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, openSuSE, SLES, Mandriva, Mageia, and Gentoo). It has numerous unique features and has been widely used by large and small businesses to recover/back up/restore data for a long time.
Linux Hint
linuxhint.com › top_data_recovery_tools_linux
Top data recovery tools for linux – Linux Hint
Another Linux distribution to run from CD or USB. It contains recovery tools including Gparted, Ddrescue and TestDisk named above among others, this software has the advantage of being operable by blind users. You can get System Rescue CD at: http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/
Centron
centron.de › startseite › top 20 best linux data recovery tools – comprehensive guide
Linux Data Recovery: Top 20 Tools for File Restoration
February 18, 2025 - ... Another really good command-line utility is Mondo Rescue which has a few unique features which are really helpful for people working on multiple different types of file systems.
Top answer 1 of 14
105
The link someone provided in the comments is likely your best chance.
Linux debugfs Hack: Undelete Files
That write-up though looking a little intimidating is actually fairly straight forward to follow. In general the steps are as follows:
Use debugfs to view a filesystems log
$ debugfs -w /dev/mapper/wks01-rootAt the debugfs prompt
debugfs: lsdelSample output
Inode Owner Mode Size Blocks Time deleted 23601299 0 120777 3 1/ 1 Tue Mar 13 16:17:30 2012 7536655 0 120777 3 1/ 1 Tue May 1 06:21:22 2012 2 deleted inodes found.Run the command in debugfs
debugfs: logdump -i <7536655>Determine files inode
... ... .... output truncated Fast_link_dest: bin Blocks: (0+1): 7235938 FS block 7536642 logged at sequence 38402086, journal block 26711 (inode block for inode 7536655): Inode: 7536655 Type: symlink Mode: 0777 Flags: 0x0 Generation: 3532221116 User: 0 Group: 0 Size: 3 File ACL: 0 Directory ACL: 0 Links: 0 Blockcount: 0 Fragment: Address: 0 Number: 0 Size: 0 ctime: 0x4f9fc732 -- Tue May 1 06:21:22 2012 atime: 0x4f9fc730 -- Tue May 1 06:21:20 2012 mtime: 0x4f9fc72f -- Tue May 1 06:21:19 2012 dtime: 0x4f9fc732 -- Tue May 1 06:21:22 2012 Fast_link_dest: bin Blocks: (0+1): 7235938 No magic number at block 28053: end of journal.With the above inode info run the following commands
# dd if=/dev/mapper/wks01-root of=recovered.file.001 bs=4096 count=1 skip=7235938 # file recovered.file.001 file: ASCII text, with very long lines
Files been recovered to recovered.file.001.
Other options
If the above isn't for you I've used tools such as photorec to recover files in the past, but it's geared for image files only. I've written about this method extensively on my blog in this article titled:
How to Recover Corrupt jpeg and mov Files from a Digital Camera's SDD Card on Fedora/CentOS/RHEL.
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82
If you know a very specific pattern in your deleted files, use grep to search in the hard-drive (maybe browse your clipboard to search a pasted line, or vim yank):
grep -a -C 300 -F 'known fixed string in deleted file' /dev/sda > ~/recover
Better change ~/recover for a path to another drive if your HOME is on the same drive you search.
then edit ~/recover to keep only what was your file before by editing. With by example vim editor, that will be a simple task.
Hey, if with Unix philosophy all is files, it's time to take advantage of this, no ?
Explanations
-ais meant to grep even binary data-C<NUM>specifies lines of output context from before and after each match of the string; you can use-B<NUM>to include lines before each match or-A<NUM>to include lines after each match instead-Ffixed string
Another approach, using potential remaining File Descriptor
With a bit of chances, sometimes I can recover deleted files with this :
#!/bin/bash
export LANG=C
if [[ ! $1 || $1 == -h || $1 == --help ]]; then
echo -e "Usage:\n\n\t$0 '[path/]<file name>'"
exit 1
fi
files=(
$(file 2>/dev/null /proc/*/fd/* |
grep "(deleted)'$" |
sed -r 's@(:.*broken\s+symbolic\s+link\s+to\s+.|\(deleted\).$)@ @g' |
grep "$1" |
cut -d' ' -f1
)
)
if [[ ${files[@]} ]]; then
for f in ${files[@]}; do
echo "fd $f match... Try to copy this fd to another place quickly!"
done
else
echo >&2 "No matching fd found..."
exit 2
fi