R-Photo is a photo and video recovery program for Windows, available free for non-commercial use. It searches for deleted media and files lost after formatting or partition damage, including raw camera photos. Its recovery scope covers FAT, exFAT, NTFS and ReFS storage, so it can work with camera cards as well as Windows disks.
The program reads storage that Windows can see: internal and external drives, USB flash drives and SD cards. It also supports virtual disks, undamaged RAID volumes and Windows Storage Spaces. R-Photo concentrates on photos and videos rather than recovering every category of file.
How R-Photo scans disks and lost partitions
R-Photo distinguishes between a physical storage device and the disks or partitions on it. An existing disk can be opened with Show Files to run a Quick Scan. When a partition has been deleted, the program can search the device’s unallocated space for it; unrecognized space can also be scanned when a disk is damaged or its file system is unsupported.
Deep Scan examines disk data more extensively, combining file system information with searches for recognizable file signatures. It adds newly found media to the results and can locate a previous partition when a disk has been reformatted with a different file system. The scan can be paused and resumed, and R-Photo retains scan information for use when the device is connected again.
The search method affects what comes back. File system records can supply names and folder relationships. When recovery from an unsupported file system relies entirely on raw signature searching, R-Photo cannot restore the original filenames or directory structure.
Media selection
Found files are separated into photo and video tabs. R-Photo initially shows deleted files, with controls to include existing files or narrow the results to a date range. Results can be sorted by name, path, size or date and shown in list or folder views. The Pictures tab can display tiles for visual identification.
Filename searches accept wildcard masks, allowing a search for an extension or part of a name. Searching applies to the current tab; the All tab extends it across the results. Files can then be marked for recovery, and a mark remains consistent wherever that file appears in the tabs.
R-Photo’s viewer opens both existing and deleted media before recovery. Photos appear inside the main window, where they can be rotated, while videos play in a separate viewer. A recovery-chance column provides an estimate alongside the files, with Deep Scan refining those estimates.
Output folders and recovery log
Selected media can be saved into folders grouped by file type or into its original folder structure when that information is available. The destination belongs on another disk so that saving the results does not overwrite data still being recovered. R-Photo opens the destination folder when the operation finishes and can save a recovery log.
Recovering from a disk image
R-Photo can create an image of a selected disk and open that image as a recovery source. Searches and file recovery then operate on the image as though it were a storage device. This is useful when repeated access to the original drive is undesirable, particularly when hardware faults are appearing.
Drive status is available through S.M.A.R.T. information. Yellow and red exclamation marks on drive icons distinguish signs of potential problems from a critical condition, helping identify when to move the recovery work to an image.
File shredding
R-Photo also includes a separate Shredder for deleted photos and videos that should no longer be recovered. Selected files are moved to its queue, where they can be reviewed or removed before shredding. Executing the operation zeroes their contents; shredded files can no longer be marked for recovery. This selection is separate from the check marks used to choose files for restoration.
