Linux Data Recovery — How To

Disk Drill recovers virtually any file type, including those specific to Linux eco-system — Firefox bookmarks and session files, Gnome Office documents, GIMP creative graphic projects, photos, videos, PeaZip, Xarchiver and File Roller compressed files, music files and so on. Disk Drill easily recovers deleted files on Linux hard drives if they haven't been overwritten by other chunks of data.
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Get Ready And Start the Recovery

Linux is a great OS for professionals, but Linux computers are also prone to accidental data loss like all others. Once in need of a Linux file recovery software, Disk Drill effectively handles Linux hard drive recovery.

Disk Drill is available for Macs and Windows computers, meaning it will run on Mac OS X (or macOS) or Windows, starting with Windows XP. There's no Disk Drill compiled to be running on Linux yet, but we are considering this an option in the future. Meanwhile, to recover deleted Linux data, all you have to do is connect the hard drive or any other data storage device, where the Linux data was lost, to another computer with Disk Drill installed (either Mac or Windows). Once done, make sure the disk is recognized by the system. Run Disk Drill, and get ready to see your deleted data recovered.
  • 1Connect the device with lost data
  • 2Run Disk Drill
  • 3Scan and recover

Know Where to Store the Recovered Data

Best of all, Disk Drill Basic Edition for Linux file recovery is free. You can find deleted data and preview your files to ensure they can be restored, within minutes.

A simple recovery case of a 1TB hard drive may take from 5 to 20 minutes, rarely longer. Scanning may locate from 50% to 100% of deleted Linux data, with the recovery chances around 95%, based on multiple factors. Disk Drill ensures the highest recovery rates thanks to its in-depth data recovery methods, including Lost Partition Search and Deep Scan. However, there's only one way to verify your data recoverability – live file preview. You can read more about this on our website and in the knowledge base.
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Once the scanning is over, you are ready for your Linux file recovery. Make sure you are not recovering your deleted Linux data to the same drive you were scanning, this may not only result in poor recovery quality, but may also invalidate the remaining data, as it will be overwritten. It is generally super-important to stop using your hard drive the very moment you realize there was data erased that needs to be retrieved back.

Run a Unified Recovery

Disk Drill's user interface is all about simplicity and clarity. Once you see your source disk in the list, go ahead and click the "Recover" button. This is the unified option that will run all data recovery algorithms available for your disk one-by-one. In most cases, it's exactly what you would want to ensure the highest recovery rate. We also recommend scanning the whole drive, not just the partition you lost your data at, if you haven't lost the whole Linux partition before recovery, of course. Run a Unified Recovery

Or Choose a Specific Recovery Method

There's also an alternative Linux hard drive recovery approach. Disk Drill is also a great tool for expert-level computer specialists, and even offers an Enterprise edition for premium-level users. That said, if you are aware of the different approaches of our recovery methods, you may get deeper into more granular controls of the recovery process. Go ahead and click the "gear" icon - ⚙️ - by the unified "Recover" button (this one will look like an arrow if you are using Disk Drill for Windows). This will show you the menu in which you can now pinpoint the exact recovery method you would like to run: Quick or Deep Scan, Partition Search and others. Since Disk Drill 3.0, Quick Scan will also be able to recover recently lost Linux files from EXT4 partitions.

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Note: Allocate Existing Data is only available from this menu, and is not included in the unified scan. This method will involve Disk Drill's internal algorithms to attempt reading of existing data bypassing system's disk access features and works pretty well on occasionally damaged partitions. Now you can proceed with the chosen method. Choose a Specific Recovery Method

Consider Disk Drill's Data Protection

Disk Drill's Recover Vault and Guaranteed Recovery technologies are not yet available for Linux hard drives. However, if you are installing Disk Drill on a Mac or Windows PC, we recommend enabling its data protection features and S.M.A.R.T. disk health monitoring. These features help minimize the risks of accidental data loss and have great chances of really improving your drive's longevity.

Preview Found Data and Recover

Any data recovery starts with a scan. Should you do Linux RAID recovery or a regular file recovery, the first step is to see if your data is still there and can be recovered without taking your device to a lab. Once you can see your data after running Disk Drill's unified recovery or choosing a specific undelete algorithm, you will usually verify that the data is still recoverable by running a preview of the files listed by Disk Drill. If you already own Disk Drill PRO, you will have a simpler option to directly mount all scanning results as a separate disk. This will give you a bit more freedom of running your verifications in a familiar Finder window, and managing your recoverable items as if they were just regular files on your hard drive. Once you select the files you need to be recovered, hit the final Recover button, confirm the destination, and give it a few minutes to complete the recovery and reconstruction of your Linux data. Preview Found Data and Recover

Deep Scan to Reconstruct from Pieces

Even though there's no Disk Drill for Linux now, the existing recovery options are more than enough for the successful outcome. When Deep Scan is analyzing a Linux drive, it's treated as a single binary entity, and unless it's encrypted, it doesn't matter for Disk Drill which file system is it partitioned in. When Disk Drill identifies a file signature from its database, various file formats are recovered fast and easy: photos, documents, archives, movies and more.
View the full list of supported file types
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