Unallocated space option not available Topic is solved

Using TestDisk to undelete files
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Luisa
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Sep 2020, 06:32

Unallocated space option not available

#1 Post by Luisa »

Hi,

I'm having this exact same problem: viewtopic.php?t=7906
I'm trying to recover a specific folder containing several folders that got deleted from my hard drive; however, PhotoRec isn't giving me the option to search for unallocated space only.

Thank you! :)

recuperation
Posts: 2718
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#2 Post by recuperation »

Which file system do you want to search for deleted files?
Did you choose the whole disk in the partition selection menu?

Luisa
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Sep 2020, 06:32

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#3 Post by Luisa »

I've tried both:
rdisk > no partition (whole) > other (FAT/NTFS/…)
rdisk > HPFS - NTFS > other (FAT/NTFS/…)
and on both ways I don't get the free / whole menu that I've found in the PhotoRec step-by-step.

recuperation
Posts: 2718
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#4 Post by recuperation »

RDISK sounds like you are using a Macintosh computer (I don't have one). It seems that you selected a whole disk and not a partition.

Luisa
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Sep 2020, 06:32

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#5 Post by Luisa »

Right, it's a Macintosh computer. :)
I only get the option to choose between No partition and one partition labelled as my hard drive's name (it seems like both are referring to the whole disk).
Once I select either option I get to choose between [ext2/ext3] and [other]. And whichever option I choose, I don't get the unallocated option, it gets me directly to choose the folder to store the recovered files to.

recuperation
Posts: 2718
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#6 Post by recuperation »

PhotoRec can search files from

from the whole partition (useful if the filesystem is corrupted) or
from the unallocated space only (available for ext2/ext3/ext4, FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 and NTFS). With this option only deleted files are recovered.
source: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

You did not answer my question about the file system you were using.

To be able to search the unallocated space (this space only exists within a file system) Photorec needs a file system as listed above.

If there is no file system or a file system where Photorec does not understand its way to organize data within
Photorec cannot distinguish allocated space from unallocated space.

Luisa
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Sep 2020, 06:32

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#7 Post by Luisa »

Oh I'm sorry, I thought the only choice in file system was the two categories (ext2/ext2 and other - FAT/NTFS/HFS/...).
The file system that I've been choosing is the second one (other) because it's a hard drive so the files are NTFS.

Luisa
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Sep 2020, 06:32

Re: Unallocated space option not available

#8 Post by Luisa »

I've recovered my lost files!! :D
It took a while but it was definitely worth it. Given that I hadn't the option to search unallocated space, I searched the whole disk but reduced the search time by specifying the file types I needed to recover (PSD and PDF). Now I'm almost done with sorting out these recovered files.

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