Seeking Guidance on Data Recovery: A Beginner’s Journey with Photorec

As someone who dabbles in technology without a strong technical background, I find myself in a bit of a pickle and could use some advice from those more experienced in the field. Recently, my brother encountered a significant issue on his Windows laptop, which hasn’t been updated in quite some time. He was given a final notice this week to update, but he opted to ignore it. Unfortunately, a forced update eventually took place, and during that process, something went awry. Now, he’s facing a dilemma: he can’t access his files associated with one user account.

In my quest to help, I turned to Ubuntu and tried using TestDisk for file recovery; however, my efforts came up short for that particular user. As a next step, I launched Photorec from Ubuntu to initiate the recovery process. While I’m grateful for the progress that Photorec offers, one downside is that it lacks the ability to maintain original file names and folder structures. As I allow Photorec to run and recover what it can, I’m left with a number of considerations:

1. Organization After Recovery: I’ve generated over 700 folders so far through Photorec. Is there a Software tool available that can assist in organizing these recovered files in a coherent manner?

2. Alternative Solutions: Are there any reliable Data Recovery tools out there that would enable me to recover files while preserving their original names and folder structures? I’m looking for options that are both budget-friendly and dependable.

I greatly appreciate any advice or recommendations from those who have navigated similar challenges. Thank you in advance for your assistance on this Data Recovery journey!