recover-pdfs is a tool for revovering all the deleted PDFs from a disk

Name: recover-pdfs is a tool for revovering all the deleted PDFs from a disk
Availability: InStock
Author: seanhly

by seanhly·Apr 17, 2026·3 points·0 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemBig Brain

PDF-only pattern matching means max disk read speed, unlike PhotoRec's multi-format approach.

Strengths

•Single-format focus eliminates complex signature detection overhead
•Filesystem-agnostic works on any block device or image file
•Simple C codebase means easy audit and modification

Weaknesses

•No built-in de-duplication requires external tools like duff
•100MB default size limit requires recompilation to change

Post Description

I built this tool a while back when I accidentally deleted thousands of my PDFs. I found the existing ext4magick and similar solutions to be cumbersome and complicated to use, and wanted something similar that just did PDFs.

As a bonus, because it only handles PDF documents, the pattern recognision is super simple, allowing this program to scan through a disk at high speed, like the maximum read speed for your disk.

Hope people find it useful.

Mirror: https://github.com/seanhly/recover-pdfs