Show HN: Reflota – Open-source data recovery for NTFS/FAT disks with phased copy
github.comHow does it compare to existing recovery software like Testdisk?
It's nice to have free software for things, but personally this is not something I would trust free software to do. I paid for getdataback once, it's not a subscription and I have gotten my moneys worth from it over time.
Hi HN, I’m Christian. I built Reflota because I wanted a free tool to recover data, without paying for commercial software.
It recovers files from NTFS and FAT (including FAT16/12) volumes, and can carve files by signature when the filesystem is damaged (RAW, PSD, RAR). It also rebuilds fragmented/damaged JPEGs, lets you search by filename, and copies in phases so it reads the healthy areas first and doesn’t stress a failing disk.
I’ve tested it on a real hard drive that Windows couldn’t read, and it was able to recover files from it. That’s still limited testing, so this is a 0.1.0 beta: I’d recommend working from a disk image and not relying on it as your only recovery attempt.
Built with Python, runs on Windows, MIT license. I’d really appreciate feedback from anyone who tries it on real cases, and I’m happy to answer questions about how it works.