Test Disc Instructions: How to restore your hard drive

With Testdisk you can quickly and easily restore defective hard drives. We will show you step-by-step instructions on how to proceed in this practical tip.

Instructions: How to save your defective hard drive with test disk

1. Download the free tool "Test Disk PhotoRec" from our download portal.
2. Unzip the archive and start "testdisk_win.exe".
3. A new window is opening up. The entry "Create" is highlighted here. Confirm with [Enter] so that a new log file is created.
4. In the next window you have to select the defective hard disk using the arrow keys, which you confirm again with [Enter].
5. You can confirm the next two steps with [Enter]. The selected hard disk is then checked for errors.
6. Then you get an overview of the partitions of the hard disk. To search for deleted partitions, press the [Enter] key and confirm this with [Y].
7. Now the program shows you all partitions, including the deleted partition. You can recognize them by the name on the right. Select the partition you want to restore and press [Enter].
8. Then use the arrow keys to select the "Write" entry and press the [Enter] key again. You must confirm this process with [Y] and [Enter].
9. After a short wait, the selected partition was successfully restored. Confirm the last message asking you to restart with [Enter].
10. Then select [Quit] twice to end the program and confirm with [Enter]. Now restart the PC.

These instructions are based on TestDisk 7.0 under Windows 7. We will tell you in the next practical tip how you can restore individual partitions with Testdisk.