[Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec (Fremantle) - Recover partitions and files
 

Hi all,
it's just to inform you that I have uploaded on Garage the porting for Maemo 5 of the famous tools TestDisk and PhotoRec

TestDisk is a powerful data recovery tool that helps to recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again.

PhotoRec is file data recovery tool designed to recover lost files including video, documents, archives, audio files, databases and much more from disks and SD/MMC cards. It supports more than 300 file formats.

For further info please refer to the following links:

Package View details : http://maemo.org/packages/view/recovery-tools/
Garage project : http://recovery-tools.garage.maemo.org

Update 28/02/2010 : I have released the version 6.11-5 which fixes some scripts bugs and adds shortcuts to the applications menu to execute both TestDisk and PhotoRec applications under X-Terminal with root priviledges; so now you should be able to run the apps just clicking on the icons without need to use X-Terminal :)

If you are not able to install this package cause the lack of "libncursesw5" you have simply to:
1) run X-Terminal
2) type "sudo gainroot" to get root priviledges
3) type "apt-get install libncursesw5"

then you can proceed normally with the installation of TestDisk & PhotoRec package.

If it doesn't work you can download and install this library from the following link :
http://repository.maemo.org/pool/mae...+0m5_armel.deb

Please, don't hesitate to contact me for any problem!

For a step-by-step introduction on how to use the tools, please refer to the following links:

For TestDisk : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
For PhotoRec: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

I look forward to get your feedbacks.

- Luigi

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

Hahaha you beat my post by 2 minutes.

What modifications did you make for the port? I only found one missing dependency, and that was for NTFS support, so i just left it out. There is definitely room for a bit more specialization for the N900 from the upstream source.

Things i noticed in the original PhotoRec app that need some tweaking: reduce curses menu size so it fits better in the X Terminal, remove some of the prompts for options that are redundant for the N900 or Maemo, default to the MMC for output of recovered files, and nicify it so that it doesn't make the entire device unresponsive while it's running.

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

Hi Flandry,
basically I removed all useless prompts, NTFS support and made some other modification to fit N900 screen size, making it more comfortable to use.

Please note that you must run the tools (with root privileges) from the partition in which you want to store recovered files.
(i.e. if you want to recover some files from the external microSD card you have to run the PhotoRec application from the eMMC and vice versa).

In the next releases I'll try to solve the issue relating the CPU overloading, even if in now it allows to check the entire disks in a shorter time in opposite to the solution that will give back the responsiveness. At this point I think that I will introduce a choice. :D

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

I've installed the app but there is no icon in the menu

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

There are no icons in menu because both the tools have to be used by the X-Terminal (shell), but don't worry because they make use of a sort of simple UI, easily usable through: directional keys, Enter, Q, etc. etc.

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

How tu start it in Xterm? I'm a newbie but testing new things gives much funn co please tell me how to run the app?

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

Start X-Terminal and get root priviledges typing "sudo gainroot" (you must have installed "rootsh" or other package like that) .

Once you get them, type "photorec" or "testdisk" from the shell in order to run the apps.

Thanks for your contribution to testing.

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

I already tried to do it but without sudo gainroot. I'm beginning to test ;)

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

I did it as You wrote and:

error while loading shell libraries: libnrursew.so.5 : cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory

Re: [Announce] TestDisk and PhotoRec for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
 

Am I right in assuming there is no way to mount a real HDD to the N900?

Have to say if we were able to mount the disk in host mode USB Test Disk would be one hell of a nice product on the N900.