It runs on DOS, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

It can recover files from media formatted for FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, and others. PhotoRec specifically ignores the file system on whatever media it is examining, allowing it to still recover files even if the file system is badly damaged or has been reformatted. PhotoRec is a companion app designed specifically for photo and video files. TestDisk is a data recovery tool designed for lost partitions and non-bootable disks caused by bad software, viruses, or human error. That was when I stumbled upon two applications called TestDisk and PhotoRec. It turns out that there are a few options for Windows users, but I work exclusively on Macs, and thus, it seemed like I was stuck with paying. While this price is certainly worth it to some people who need this sort of utility more often, all my cameras have dual card slots, and it was such a random mistake that caused the files to be lost that I highly doubted I would need it more than once, so I set out to find any free software I could. In the case of the one application that found all the missing files, it would be $89.

However, like most memory card software, every application would allow you to recover a small amount of data (normally between 500 MB and 1 GB) and would then charge you the full application price to recover the rest. Three found nothing on the card, one found about 100 images and videos, and one application managed to find all 3,000 images and videos. I found about five different applications and downloaded them all. I told her to turn off the camera and let me have the memory card, then hopped on to Google to find some memory card recovery software for my Mac. Unfortunately, she was shooting with an 80D, so that one card slot meant there was no backup waiting to save the day. Recently, she came home with an almost full 32 GB memory from an industry event, and while she was casually browsing through the photos and videos, I heard her exclaim: 'oh no!' The card had been accidentally formatted and now showed nothing. My girlfriend works as a marketing director, and part of her job involves taking shots of products and events for her company.

Testdisk photo recovery